Julian dropped to his knees on the carpet.
He extended both hands, stopping them about four inches from my knees.
His fingers curled inward, knuckles whitening.
"Babe... I'm late."
No one in the room moved.
The two security guards outside the door both lowered their heads.
The tray in the hands of the server standing at the end of the hallway tilted, the water in the glass rippling.
Julian knelt there, back straight.
He didn't look down. He tilted his face up to look at me.
His eyes traced from the bloodstain at the corner of my mouth to the red mark on my left cheek, then down to the purple bruise on my knee where the metal edge hit. Every wound he saw made his pupils contract.
His right hand lifted, fingers hovering just above my knee, the tips barely a centimeter from the brui
