Love Lines

19: Thin Skinned & Gut Feelings

Chapter Nineteen

Andrzej disappeared mysteriously when my break came around. One second he was there, the next he was gone. The one time I thought he would start harping me about learning things, he didn't. Then again, the coffee shop was pretty much empty when my break came around and there was no one around to marvel at his tricks. Maybe he needed to stretch his legs.

At least that's what I was telling myself when I came back from clocking out and he was gone. I didn't have much time to think about it as Cecil walked in with more confidence than I'd ever seen him exhibit off the golf course. Thankfully my co-worker was in the storage room getting cups and I was able to greet him without any hesitation or the feeling of running away.

"Where are we going?" he asked as I led the way out the back.

"This way." I pointed up the fire escape. "Not afraid of heights, are you?" He shook his head with a bemused expression and I couldn't help but smirk back. Cecil, afraid of heights? Yeah, never. "I come up here occasionally on my breaks. No one else really does. They're afraid the rickety old iron work is going to collapse." I paused on the first step and turned back to look at him. "You did actually bring..." He held up a bag with a cocked eyebrow. "And here I thought you were dumb."

"Abernathy, you wound me."

When we got settled on the roof top, both of us with our backs resting against the brick ledge of the building, Cecil fished in the brown take-out bag and handed me my wax paper wrapped sandwich.

"I guessed," he said sheepishly. "I didn't know if your tastes have changed or not so..."

I unwrapped the sandwich and looked over the deli made deliciousness. Italian Combo on Ciabatta bread, hold the lettuce and onion. Perfection. We sat in silence while we ate, just enough space between us so it looked like two friends sharing a meal and nothing more. The white shells on his bracelet caught the dim light from the street below and it made me smile. Without them, neither of us would be sitting here and the fact that we were filled me with a happy feeling.

"Have you figured it out yet?" I broke the silence when I finished, crumpling up the paper and tossing it back in the bag.

"Figured out what?"

"How you're here."

He crumpled up his paper with a frown on his face and tossed it in the bag. "No."

"Apollo told me it was a mystery only we could solve." I tucked my hands between my legs. "But I'm not so sure it's worth it or that I even want to."

"Why not?" He mimicked my move, his hands disappearing from sight.

"Probably the same reason I don't want to know why my mother didn't want me or my father to know she was Elite." I gazed out across the roof, taking note of how the treetops looked as they peeked overtop the ledge. "I'm starting to think some mysteries aren't meant to be solved."

He shuffled closer to me, pulling my right hand out from where I'd placed it and held it tightly in his. I could feel the lines shifting quickly over the left side of my face to the very tips of my toes, making me wiggle uncomfortably.

"Maybe I'm not dead because it's a delicate balance, one that would be upset if I wasn't—alive."

"That doesn't make much sense."

"Nothing really does." He squeezed my hand. "That's what makes this world different. Anything is possible and those possibilities are endless. Everything you once thought couldn't be real, is. It's almost like we're on The Black Pearl during the third movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean when the boat flips over the horizon. That's how I think it is with the only difference being when you look in the water you see the other world that used to be, the one you used to be a part of but aren't anymore."