Now You See Me

Forty-Four: Packed In

The meeting just seemed to be breaking up when I left the cellar two hours later. Chris and I had spent the time talking about very little that was meaningful, and I barely remembered most of it. The majority was probably silence, absorbed in our own thoughts, and I hadn't minded that. It was a lot more comfortable to be in each other's presence when we weren't constantly saying and doing things that hurt each other – and that was all we seemed capable of at the moment.

It was depressing, to say the least.

"You were in there a long time, Smith," Leia said as she took the keys off me. "I presume nothing happened?"

"Nothing happened," I echoed. I felt a little foggy-minded from all the time spent thinking in silence. It had been a fruitless attempt at trying to verify what was true that I remembered, and what wasn't, using flawed logic and an embarrassing amount of unfounded hope. Chris had opened up a whole vault of things I hadn't been willing to think about for fear of disappointment, and now it was open I couldn't seem to close it.

"You seem upset about something," the sorceress persisted. I'd expected her to see the vampires out the door – the three from before had just emerged from the dining room – but they saw themselves out without any ceremony and Leia's attention remained focused on me.

"When am I not upset about something?" I said, trying to inject some humour into my tone, which half-worked.

"That is beside the point, Mr Smith."

"Honestly, it's nothing," I insisted. Leia didn't need to get involved with Chris and I's relationship issues. I'd caused her enough grief as it was.

"Okay...." She gave over reluctantly. "Well, Feila's just put lunch out if you're hungry. You like you could do with something in your stomach."

"Thanks."

She chuckled, and shrugged. "Just being honest."

She walked away and ascended the stairs, throwing a glance back down at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. I rolled my eyes and, assuming that I'd probably get caught if I tried to skip, I went into the vacated dining room where Feila was gathering up the empty bottles from where the vampires had been sat. She smiled as I came in.

"Good afternoon," she greeted. I nodded an acknowledgement with a small smile as she went past me, and then turned to stare at the food. My stomach flopped. I really didn't have much of an appetite.

I took a seat and put a plate in front of me, but I didn't really have any intention of putting anything on it. My thoughts drifted back to Chris; had I overreacted about the keys? Things hadn't been the same since I'd showed my distrust, and I couldn't work out whether I'd done the best thing. He'd mentioned that he was bored. Perhaps that was all it was, that he'd wanted to get out and do something; all he'd talked about was us, which didn't seem like something Vashde would make him do. She wasn't prone to telling me the truth.

But then again, had he been lying?

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. I hated these thoughts.

"You look troubled," Thea said as she came in, leaning over me to grab a sandwich off a plate. "Care to share?"

"It's complicated."

"Relationship trouble?"

I glanced at her as she took a seat. "How'd you know?"

"By being on social media," she replied, giggling. "'It's complicated' is usually code for 'I need relationship counselling'."

"I would probably make any councillor quit their job out of frustration with this case," I said, smirking.

"That could very well be true." She took a large bite of her sandwich, and I was relieved to see that she didn't want to grill me on it further. Reluctantly, I reached for a sandwich myself, opened it up to see what was in it, and then began to nibble around the edges. The crumbs seemed to land with loud echoes in my empty stomach.