Fire on Fire

15. Say it out loud

"It's no act." Alexander defended. "She's ... you wouldn't understand."

Nancy let out a loud laugh. "What wouldn't I understand?" She scoffed. "Wake up, Alexander. No one's unlucky, we all make our fortunes and our misfortunes." She took a step closer to him. "So she lost her father, so what? Mine died when I was 8. Many people lose their parents, it's not an excuse."

"You know it's different. She didn't have your family."

"Is that enough to do what she did?" Nancy sneered. "Do you even know what she did?"

"She told me a few things."

"But not everything, I bet."

Alexander took a step back, getting on the defensive. "I know what you're doing," he said, "you're trying to get in my head, thinking that if I find out about her past, it'll change how I look at her." He clenched his fists at his side. "You can save your breaths, nothing will change how I feel."

"Wow," Nancy scoffed, "you're that much involved, huh?"

He shrugged. "I guess I'm really in love with her." He would have preferred to say it to Emma first, but it was out in the open now.

What he didn't see, was how Nancy's jaw twitched the slightest as she clenched her left hand in a tight fist. Alexander had no way of knowing what he'd just unleashed, admitting his feelings so candidly. "Well, then, good luck." Nancy said, offering him one of her deceitful smiles.

Taken aback, he frowned. "You mean it?"

"Of course. We've had our fun times," she winked, "contract or not. I do care."

"Uh ... thanks, I guess?" He had not seen it coming, therefore still had a hard time processing it. "So, um ... about our deal, should we consider it null, then?"

"Of course ... not." Nancy laughed wryly. "You forget the clauses."

"You wrote it, you can amend it ... we already did, after all."

She walked over to him, and caressed his cheek, a snide smile on her lips. She innocently tilted her head to the side, and claimed, in her mellifluous voice: "You try to break the contract before it expires, I send you back to the shithole I pulled you out of. Your choice, Honeybunch."

✧✧ ✧ ✧ ✧  

"I don't understand ... why are you leaving?"

Emma pressed her lips in a thin line as she gathered her clothes. There was no way she'd tell the whole truth. Delilah didn't even know about the peculiar arrangement between her and her brother. "I've just never been too good at the whole ... staying thing. I'm not one to settle."

Delilah poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue, pensive. "That's one lame excuse." She rolled her eyes. "Also, my brother's not gonna like this one bit."

"You said the same about our friendship."

The young doctor scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, annoyed that she'd been forced to lie to her brother. "Yeah, well, I still don't understand that either. Why is it so bad if Alexander knows we're friends? He's not gonna be jealous ... I mean, he knows you're bi, right?"

Emma smiled the slightest. "What makes you think I'm bi?"

"Uh ... the fact that you checked me out? Shamelessly, might I add." Delilah teased. "You think I didn't notice? When we first met?"

The other let out a short laugh. "I was staring because some stranger had just grabbed my foot out of the blue, almost making me lose balance!" They laughed together, reminiscing that odd encounter and how Emma had run away so swiftly.