Sebastian was quiet for a moment. Then: “She said if I ever make you cry in a way that isn’t worth crying about she will make my life extremely difficult in ways that are entirely legal and considerably worse than illegal ones would be.”
“That sounds right.”
“She also said —” He paused. Something shifting in his voice. “She said you used to make lists as a teenager of everything you wanted your life to look like. That you were very specific. That you crossed nearly everything off by twenty eight.” He glanced at me. “And that the one thing you never put on any list was the thing most obvious to everyone watching.”
Something moved in my chest. Slow and complicated.
“What thing?” I asked. Though I already knew.
“That you wanted someone who would show up without being asked.”
The road cu
