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“I don’t care,” she cut in. “I just needed to know you’re alive.”
“I’m fine,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. “Thriving, even. Got suspended. Had incredible sex. Played with a venomous snake. All in all, ten out of ten.”
“Vivi,” she said sharply, the edge in her voice slicing through my sarcasm like a scalpel. “That bridge stunt could’ve gotten us both killed.”
I swallowed. “I had it under control.”
“You didn’t even tell me what we were doing until we were halfway up.”
“Would you have come if I had?”
“That’s not the point,” she snapped. Then quieter, almost pleading, “You scared me, Vivi. Not just for you—for me, too. And that’s not normal.”
A beat of silence stretched between us.
“I’m not exactly normal.”
“No,” she said, and something about her voice changed—got softer, sadder. “You’re not. Which is why we need to talk. Face to face. Tonight.”
I hesitated. “I don’t have work anymore, so … whenever.”
“After my shift. I’ll text you the place.”
“You’re being weird,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she said too quickly. “I just want to talk. Please?”
That word again.
I rubbed my temple. “Fine. Text me.”
“Okay.” A beat. “Vivi?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
My chest pinched. “I know.”
We hung up, and I stared at the phone for a long moment before setting it face-down on the nightstand.
Elias watched me, unreadable. “She knows something.”
“She thinks she knows something,” I muttered. “I’ll go. See what it is.”
He nodded once. “You want backup?”
A smile tugged at my lips. “You volunteering to sit there while my friend freaks out on me?”
“Depends,” he said. “Will there be a snake test?”
That got a laugh out of me—short, sharp, necessary. “God, I hope not.”
He reached over, brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “You ever tell her the truth?”
“About what?”
“About why you’re always chasing cliffs?”