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“I can,” I assure them both, trying to fight off a smile.

Theo runs a hand over his face and sighs loudly. “Fine. She can be out, but what’s the cover story?”

“Hmmm,” Ben muses, coming to stand between us at the counter and unwrapping a burrito. Every muscle in my body strains to reach out and touch him, to hook one of my shadows into the top of the towel and yank it off. “Well, you said she met your friend on thestreet the day you two kidnapped me, and the cover story was that she’s an exchange student, right?”

“Yeah, but I said that my parents are the ones hosting her.”

“Does this friend know your parents at all?”

“No, actually…she doesn’t. It would definitely be easier to just have one story to keep straight, wouldn’t it?”

“Definitely,” Ben says, then he takes a bite from the burrito and chews for a minute. “So we can just say that she’s a friend of mine from Europe, coming to check out the university for grad school. No need to make it complicated. What was the fake name you used before, Annie?”

“Annika. I heard it on the television.”

“What show?” Theo asks.

“Something about stars…likeStar Wars, but–”

“Star Trek,” he laughs. “Must have beenVoyager. Yeah, I know that character. It’s a perfect name for you, actually.”

“My God, you really are a nerd, aren’t you?” Ben teases, then he whips out his phone and types something in. “Annika is a Swedish, German, or Dutch name. Alright, I can work with that. Don’t worry, Annie, just pretend your English isn’t that good yet and you’re moving here to work on it, yeah?”

“Very well,” I say with a smile.

“Ok, and what’syourcover story,” Theo asks him. “I can’t tell my very Catholic parents…well, the truth.”

“Thou shalt not tell lies, Saint Theo,” says Ben in a playful tone.

“Oh, is that what we’re doing now? Quoting scripture? ‘Cause if so, I have a few notes for you.”

“You can give me a performance review on the way to the car,osito,” Ben says, heading down the hall toward the office. “I’ll come up with something. Cover stories are my specialty.”

“Please don’t make me look up that word,” Theo calls after him.

“Teddy bear!” Ben laughs before closing the door. I watchTheo’s face morph into a broad smile and his cheeks redden slightly. He does seem lighter now, even after our confrontation this morning. Perhaps seeing Ros was beneficial.

Before Ben fell asleep the night before, he told me what he said to Theo, about caring for him and wanting to be around him. He was uncertain if Theo felt the same way, but I have been able to see the truth since the day we brought Ben back to the apartment. Theo’s face when he saw Ben and I on the couch this morning was not angry, it was hurt. I may not be able to fully experience human emotions, but I can certainly read them. Theo feels something for Ben, although I am not sure if he even knows what it is. In this, Theo and I are the same. I had imagined I might wake up and be disgusted with myself for allowing a human so close, but all I felt this morning was a desperate desire for Theo to trust me, and a desperate desire to stay close to both of them.

When Ben emerges from the office, he is wearing jeans and a dark red button-up shirt under his leather jacket. Theo looks him up and down and swallows.

“Keeping the earring in?” he asks as we leave the apartment together and he pauses to lock the door.

“Oh, don’t worry so much,” Ben replies. “My poll numbers with white Catholic housewives are extremely high.”

“Hey, Bethany Keating is not, and has never been, a housewife,” Theo retorts.

Ben just laughs. “You should probably tell us a bit about your family, actually, so I know which of my many charming and delightful personalities to use.”

“Alright, yeah,” Theo sighs, walking behind Ben and me down the stairs. “My dad, John, he’s the strong, silent type–worked for the State Department doing super classified stuff for a long time. He’s a good guy, but he’s old school, very Catholic. My grandparents brought him over here from Belfast in the 70s when he was little, after a carbomb went off on their street.”

“Yikes,” says Ben, but I do not have time to ask what Theo is referring to before he continues.

“My mom grew up in San Francisco. Her parents were kind of…reformed hippies who owned a laundromat right near Haight-Ashbury. Mom and Dad won’t give me any details, but they met in their 20s when my mom was involved with a lot of social activism. She converted so they could get married, but…she’s still kinda hippie-dippy and would definitely body slam a cop, especially to protect her students. She teaches math at the same middle school I went to.”

Ben nods slowly. “Bit more interesting than I gave you credit for,osito,” he says, linking his arm through mine as we start down the sidewalk outside. “What about your sister?”

“Molly. She’s a single mom, five kids. Tabby’s the oldest, almost twelve. Mol works for the state health department or something and teaches martial arts on the side. She’s utterly terrifying, and she’s also my best friend.”