The Proviso

19: Clinical, Intellectual, Cynical

Giselle sat on a picnic table by Brush Creek just off campus, feeding bread to the ducks and geese, trying to meditate. Going back to the gallery and sitting in front of the bodhisattva wasn't an option now after what had happened there. Bryce Kenard had seeped into every cell of her brain, every minute of her life, every corner of her spaces.

She couldn't take it anymore.

Sebastian was mad at her and accused her of "moping around the house like a love-struck sixteen-year-old girl for the last seven months."

Knox was furious because she had successfully avoided him for weeks, not returning his texts, emails, phone calls, or answering his knocks on her bedroom door (which she kept locked so he couldn't barge in). Fortunately, he didn't have any classes to teach, he had a heavy case load, and he wouldn't dare show up at her work.

She hadn't returned her mother's phone calls or emails in two weeks and Lilly had resorted to hounding both Sebastian and Knox as to Giselle's state of mind, which made them both even madder.

She hadn't shown up at any of her extended family's frequent functions because she couldn't take Fen on any level after he'd called her to yell at her for going to his party armed.

All she wanted was to be left alone with no one jabbering in her ears, questioning her mood, making demands, lecturing her on propriety, threatening her life and livelihood and grades, shaming her for running a con, or sneering at her.

She knew Kenard's office address: downtown, in a prestigious skyscraper convenient to the Jackson County Courthouse. She still had no idea what to do with it.

"Boy, you just don't know a good thing when it steps right in front of you, do you?"

"Go away," she muttered, irritated because Knox had to have put a cop on her tail so he could catch her. "Don't you have fathers and wives to avenge, women to marry, and children to sire?"

"You're a hot mess. Move over."

She did and he climbed up onto the table beside her.

He leaned in to kiss her and she leaned away from him. "No more. I'm done with this."

"Done with what?"

"Done with you."

Knox said nothing and she dared not look at him. He could tease her out of her funk now, but it would come back the next day anyway. She was worn out and overwhelmed and very unhappy.

"Done with the Shakespearean tragedy that is your life. Done with OKH. I want- No, I need a resolution."

He handed her a bottle of cold water, which she took. "I'm sorry," he said.

"I know," she replied with a sigh. "Me too."

He surprised her by kissing her anyway. She closed her eyes and found herself comparing him unfavorably to Bryce Kenard, so that was yet another thing that had been taken from her.

"Cut it out," she grumbled, shoving him away from her. "What if somebody saw us?"

"Oh, it'd just give your reputation another layer of mystique."

"Pffftt. Dr. Hilliard is pissing me off."

"Dr. Cox yanks my chain plenty, too."

She sighed. "You know when to leave me alone, so I'm guessing Sebastian told you to do something."

"Nope. Your mom dropped by last night to interrogate me. She thinks I know all your little hiding places."

"Well, you don't."