LOOK UP AT THE STARS

CHAPTER 14 - MONEY

Camila

He was outside again. He had told me he was meditating but I could see he was just sitting there. Something had happened. The closeness we had felt the night before seemed to have been swept away. He was closed up, quiet, and I couldn't get him to talk about it. He would give me a smile and tell me he was fine and I didn't believe a word of it. He had been outside this morning when I woke up, meditating he said, and now again this evening, after an almost silent dinner.

Eventually, he came inside. He seemed to have purpose in his stride.

"Can we talk?" he asked and I didn't know whether to be scared or relieved. I had been worried this might go on for some time, but now I was going to find out what was going on with him I wasn't sure I wanted to. I followed him inside and he sat on the couch and put his arm out along the back of it, motioning for me to sit in the circle of his arms. That was a good sign. I did so, and he pulled me close and kissed my hair.

"I know you've been worried, I'm sorry," he began softly.

I nodded, unable to speak.

"I needed to think about something before I talked about it," he said, turning me around so that I faced him. "I remembered something from that night. I remember the men following me."

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. I looked at him in shock.

"Did you speak to them?"

"No," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "They were too far behind me, and they were having an argument with a third man who must have been Tyler. I couldn't see him clearly. It was too far away."

"But you could see them? How is that possible if they were so far away?"

He hung his head. "I remember them," he said, raising his eyes to mine. "They were outside the hotel. I was standing at the elevator and I saw them staring at me from outside. I recognised them by the clothes they wore as the same guys. I was just too drunk to put two and two together, and in the morning, when the police came, I had forgotten all about them."

"But you remember them now?"

"It just came to me last night, I don't know why."

"So what are you going to do about it?" I was scared, because I knew what this meant. The men were after Shawn, not Tyler.

"I'm not going back to New York, not yet anyway. I'll ring Cassandra in a minute and tell her what I remember. I've been trying to remember anything I can, but that's all that I've got."

"That's what the meditation was about?"

He nodded.

"Do you want me to go away, so you can talk to her privately?"

"No, of course not, anything I say you can hear. I need you to stay and hold my hand." He gave me a little lopsided smile and I gave a small laugh and kissed his cheek.

"My pleasure."

We called Cassandra on FaceTime and set her up on the computer.

"Hi you two, happy to be home I bet." She was at home herself, her hair was down and she had a glass of wine beside her. She looked different in her casual attire.

"Hi," Shawn said. "I hope this isn't a bad time?"

She did look a little uncomfortable, but I put it down to the outside-hours call.

"No of course not, I'm assuming this is important for you to be calling me now."

Shawn exchanged a look with me and I nodded, encouraging him to go ahead.