The Monster In Us

26- bluEbird iN mY heart

"Please tell me that you're not busy tonight," I say to Dante after work the next day. Feeling better after talking to Coleman, I'm dying to spend some time with Dante tonight. We haven't seen each other very much today because I spent my lunch working on the security system to rebuild their security against Pantera so that only I and Coleman have access instead of all of Pantera.

He looks up from his computer at me and offers me a slight smile before saying, "I'm not busy tonight."

I walk into his office farther and shut the door behind me. I then walk behind Dante and put my hands on his shoulders and I start lightly massaging his taught muscles through his business shirt. "I know that I was kind of dismissive yesterday but I'm hoping that I can make it up to you tonight," I tell him before I lean down and start to gently kiss his neck.

"Did you resolve whatever was happening yesterday?" He asks me curiously.

I stand back up and let him get back to work without me being distracting so that he can finish his work faster. "Yeah," I confirm and then I start making up a quick lie that'll make sense with my fake backstory. "My dad's just giving me a hard time but I'm taking care of it. Can we stay in tonight? Maybe order takeout or something?"

"We can do that," He confirms with a nod. I lean against the edge of his desk and watch him work. "I should be done here in maybe thirty minutes if you want to stick around."

"I do," I tell him with a nod. I glance down at the desk drawer that I had found his writing in when I had first snooped in here, the snooping that had forced me to ask him on the date that started this whole thing. I remember the little quote that he had scribbled down on one of his pages about being invisible and how painfully well I related to that quote. I want to know what else he has written; I want to know what else he has to say that he is afraid to tell other people.

As he's working, I look at the shelves of books he has behind his desk where, back at my office in Pantera, I have computer screens. Some very famous books by famous authors including Shakespeare, Dickens, and Jane Austen, but most of them are authors that I've never heard of.

"Do you ever have time to read all of those books?" I ask Dante curiously. "You seem like you're always busy."

"Sometimes," He doesn't look away from his computer, hopefully to get done with his work as quickly as possible.

"Have you read all of those books?"

"Nope."

He's obviously trying to work fast so that we can get out of here fast so I don't bother him again and just silently analyze the books on the shelf from where I'm leaning against the desk. When he does finish his work, we head out of his office toward the parking lot.

"My apartment is a mess," I tell him when I remember that I had left out all of my investigative stuff that I'm studying to try and get to the bottom of this whole mess I've found myself in. It really is a mess too, I haven't done my dishes in a while or my laundry, I've been so busy. "Can we go to your place instead?"

"My place?" Dante wonders back, sounding surprised that I'd ask that.

"Yeah," I confirm. "There has to be some seriously impressive mansion that you've been dying to show off, right?"

He seems to have to think about that which is kind of shocking because I didn't think that it would be such a big deal for him to take me to his house. Thinking back to my own house on the other side of the city, we don't have our secrets out in the open. No guns, drugs, or anything that could incriminate my father or anybody else. If you walked into the house not knowing anything, you would think that it's just a run of the mill mansion in the desert. I guess the Berardis are different in that aspect.