Robin des Bois ✓

thirty-six. & Beginnings

It was the only time since that morning we'd spent together, that I'd actually gotten to hear his voice. We'd spoken on the phone and he'd explained everything to me.

"Hey, why was Dominic so sure you were still in Miami when he had me locked up in that apartment?"

"I'd spoken to a few people who were at the same club as you –I know a couple of bouncers that work there. They told me a guy that matched Dominic's description perfectly had to drag you out of there, you were so intoxicated, and I figured out it had to be him. I knew he would probably try to keep track of what I was doing –we know a lot of the same people thanks to our family connection." He said "family with a sarcastic note in his voice. "So I didn't tell anyone that I was leaving Miami. I wanted to surprise him."

I mulled it all over quietly even as I chewed another potato chip. I was sitting cross legged on the bed we'd just hauled over from our old apartment into Tina's room, a bag of BBQ chips in my lap. T&T had helped me put it back together and I realized that I'd missed the familiarity of it, the slight dip in the middle of my mattress – "your ass imprint," as Tina had elegantly put it.

"When can I see you again?" I asked, changing the subject abruptly. "It's been forever, Gabe."

A beat of silence.

"I don't know, Isis. I'm pretty busy, we're planning the opening night of Rêverie."

Rêverie was the name of the nightclub he was launching. It seemed to occupy him every waking moment nowadays –it was always his excuse for being unavailable.

"Can I come, then?"

Another silent moment passed.

"Yeah, of course. I'll send you a VIP pass on your cellphone," he said. Did I dream it, or was there reluctance in his voice?

With a pang in my chest, I realized that the feeling I'd had as I'd watched him leave on that fateful day two weeks ago was actually a premonition.

He had been saying goodbye.

And now he was trying to ditch me, gently, by dodging every single one of my attempts at seeing him.

He always answered my texts within a reasonable time frame, but his answers were always polite and brief. Sterile.

He sounded as though we were only acquaintances, nothing more. He never told me he missed me, even though I let him know that I did, regularly. He never asked to see me, never texted me first.

It was as if now that he was sure I was safe, he was washing his hands of me. I was no longer his responsibility and thus he no longer needed to pay me any mind.

"Gabe, I'd really like to see you," I said softly. "I miss you." I whispered the last part, barely audible.

I could hear a different voice coming from his end –it sounded like Johnny, and Gabe's tone became distracted.

"I'm really sorry, Isis, but I really barely have the time to sleep right now. We'll be in touch, alright? Bye."

He didn't even wait for me to answer before he hung up.

Hurt, I stared at the black screen of my phone for several seconds after the line went dead.

I rolled the bag of chips closed and hopped into my worn pair of Converse. In the kitchen, I put the chips back in the pantry, before I went into Tina's room to arrange my hair into a semblance of order. After staring at my reflection in her mirror for a second, I opted to add some mascara and lip gloss to top it off. Once I was kind of presentable, I changed from the old shirt and shorts I was wearing into a floral print dress, that fell loosely to about mid-thigh.