So Much More

Chapter 22: Wren

Grace calls later that afternoon when she's done with inspections and we agree for me to meet her over at Jake's. She offers to come to mine, but I need to escape the walls of my apartment. My wrist is starting to hurt again and I decide it's best not to drive with a pain pill in my system, so I take the tram over instead. Jake's apartment building is right in the middle of the city in one of the more popular areas. It's a relatively new apartment building, surrounded by restaurants and shops, and the interior still has a faint smell of fresh paint. When I get upstairs and walk out of the elevator, Grace is already standing at the open door waiting for me. She greets me by pulling me in for a hug, squeezing me tight.

"I'm sorry," I say, my face pressed into her hair.

"Me too."

She releases me from the hug and gives me a smile. It's her usual Grace smile; kind and inviting, and all the sadness that I felt from today starts to ease a little. It's at that moment that she notices my wrist and her eyes go wide with shock. She pulls my arm towards her and I wince a little as she does, the pain shooting through my arm.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" she cries, loosening her grip. "What happened?"

She walks me inside and the two of us sit down at the kitchen counter, perched on a pair of metal, black stools. Even though technically the apartment isn't hers, the inside feels like Grace. It's warm and homey, not exactly what you'd expect from the apartment of two twenty something year old boys, and I know it looks this way because she decorated it.

"I fell over at work."

"You poor thing! What happened?"

"There was an incident, with Gabe."

"Incident?" She repeats. "Wait, Gabe, he's one of your co-workers right?"

I tell Grace about work and what happened with Gabe, but I carefully omit the part about Luka. I want to tell her but I don't know how. Jake comes out as I'm nearing the end of the story, interrupting us with questions so I repeat the entire thing again as the two of them listen, marching shocked expressions on their faces.

"What an asshole," Jake hisses when I'm finished. "I hope that you went straight to the cops." I don't say anything, biting my lip and Grace lets out an audible gasp.

"Wren! How could you not report that? What he did was assault."

"Not really. It was messed up, but it would be my word against his, and I don't want to drag Nate and the business into all of that. Besides, after everything that's happened with Charlie it hardly seemed worth it."

"What did Nate say about it?" Grace asks me.

"I haven't told him yet. I wanted some time to figure out what to say."

"Well, I'm sure that after you do he will fire his ass," she says. Jake starts to rub her back and she looks up at him affectionately. Seeing the two of them together makes me think back to what I said to her last week, and that horrible feeling fills my stomach again. The two of them don't deserve that, and I tell myself I will be nothing but supportive from now on. "Have you spoken to Kya?"

"Not since last week."

"God, she's even more stubborn than you!"

"I've sent her a few messages but she hasn't responded. I know she'll talk to me when she's ready. She was just protecting you, and besides, it's not like I didn't deserve it." She tilts her head at me, giving me a look. "Please, that's enough about me. Tell me how the apartment hunting went?"

Jake walks over to the fridge, pulling out three beers and hands us each one. "Here."

"Is this a sad drink or a happy drink?"