EverWorld (Book 3 of the Down World Series)

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up just once in the night, certain it all been a dream. I rolled over, a gasp in my throat, and Adam's thick, hot forearm whacked me on the side of the head. His shallow breathing, slightly sour breath—we had both forgotten to brush our teeth—and feet that were dangling off the end of my too-short bed were all real.

He was mine again. I could finally sleep.

I put his arm around me for a blanket, causing him to snuggle in closer, and dreamed of wires in my brain, reconfiguring themselves like electrical circuits, but this time zipping with a newfound energy, making the machine complete.

*

"And this is Mahmud," Adam said, propped up in bed with me the next morning while I cradled a mug of hot coffee and rested my head on his shoulder. He was showing me pictures on his phone, hundreds of them, apparently, of his time abroad. "He's crazy. You'd love him."

I smiled, seeing the joy on his face as he relived his worldly travels.

"The guy used to crack me up, seriously." He flipped to the next picture. "Um, this is Jason. He's Australian. He was pretty cool too. Oh, this is a temple in Laos. They do offerings here on this plate, and monks serve you tea. It's so beautiful there. I'll show you someday."

I was only half looking at the pictures, to be honest, and half looking at him. He had a youthful energy about him again, one that he had lost when I first met him. There were flecks of gold in his hair and a small tattoo of a bird behind his left shoulder that hadn't been there before.

"What?" he said playfully when he noticed me staring.

"Your hair is long."

He smiled, rubbing his head. "I just haven't cut it yet."

"Leave it. I like it."

"And this is where the Vietcong used to torture deserters," he continued, flipping through the next couple photos very quickly.

"Are you really gonna take me there?"

"Of course."

Most of the pictures were of him and the two guy friends he had mentioned. Lots of shots of them in exotic eateries, always with one of them about to plop something that looked like it might still be alive into his mouth, while the others laughed. But they weren't the only ones in the photos.

"And who's that?" I asked, my finger landing on the one recurring person that he hadn't identified.

He chuckled silently, shaking his head as though I had posed an impossible question.

"What?"

"I knew you would zero in on the one pretty girl in the pictures."

I swallowed, trying to keep any impending jealousy at bay. "Well?"

He sighed. "Her name's May. We went out for a few weeks. It wasn't serious. It's over now. That's all you need to know."

I nodded, trying to pass my face off as cool. "Okay."

He smiled at me, knowing my tone too well to believe me. He dropped the phone on his lap and reached over me for his cup of overly sweetened coffee. Then he gave me a look that challenged me to keep talking, the glint in his eye telling me he knew I wasn't done.

"Okay, it's fine," I insisted. "Listen, I didn't think you were living in a monastery. It's fine. Was she nice?"

"She was okay."

"Cool."

I realized that I actually was fine with the fact that he had dated other people, and even with the fact that he had inevitably slept with those people. Well, maybe not "fine," per se, but I had come to terms with it long ago. Adam wasn't the celibate type. There was one detail eating away at me, though.