Page 24 of Crystal Iris #1

Hoyt explains everything to her.

“You are impossible!” she yells at me.

“I thought I?—”

“What?” she demands.

“Improved. ”

“You can’t do this again.” This time, it’s Hoyt who gives me the order.

“Fine.”

Both of them just stand there, staring at me.

“I said fine!”

“Next time you want to spy, just call me. I can put you on speaker,” he says before leaving.

“Thank you for everything,” I say as he walks away.

“See you soon.”

“Is this really necessary?” I ask Hoyt as he opens my apartment door.

“You shouldn’t move your arm.”

“I’m right-handed.”

“Still.”

I look around, noticing the change. “Did you... clean my apartment?”

“I just moved things around. There’s food in the fridge.”

“What?” I open the refrigerator and find it stocked.

“I didn’t have time to make you anything, so I ordered a bunch of stuff.”

“Hoyt, this is…”

“It’s nothing. All your meds are on the bedside table. You need to take them with food.”

“Thank you.” I want to hug him, smell his hair... I walk away to my bed and sit down. He follows me.

“I wish I could stay,” he says, closing the curtains.

“I’ll be fine.”

“I know you enough now not to take ‘fine’ very seriously.”

“I promise. Akira said she’ll come by later.”

He takes a seat on the other side. “Will you keep me updated? On how you’re feeling? ”

“Sure. You never told me what happened after the meeting. Did you get your money back?”

“Nothing happened. The lawyers are working on it.”

“Okay. Well, will you keep me updated on that?”

“I will. You should rest.”

It’s dark when I wake up to an empty apartment. I make my way to the kitchen and open the fridge. There’s more food than I could possibly eat in a week. I open the first container and find orange chicken. It smells amazing. I find the rice to go with it.

I finish eating and go to grab more water when the doorbell rings. Could it be Hoyt again? He has to be midair by now.

“Hi,” Aaron says from the hallway.

“Aaron, what are you doing here? I told you I don’t want to see you.”

“I heard you were at the hospital. Are you okay?”

“How did you know? Are you still... following me?” I’m furious at the thought.

“What? No. It was my mother who did that.”

“So, how did you know?”

“I’m your emergency contact.”

“Oh.”

“What happened?” He’s still standing in the hallway.

“I fell, hit my head.”

His eyes go straight to my arm. “Iris, if you’re covering for him... Did he…?”

“What? No. He would never.” I can see in his eyes that he still loves me. “Aaron, you should go.”

“Not until I know you’re safe.” He walks into my apartment, looking for who knows what.

“Aaron, I’m fine. There’s no one here.”

“Iris, you know you can tell me... if anything happened. I can protect you.”

“I fell, Aaron. That’s it.”

He looks around; there are still boxes everywhere. “Iris, everything that happened, we can still fix it. Us.”

“There is no us, Aaron.” I move to open the door.

He walks out. “If I find out that asshole laid one finger on you, I swear to God Iris, I will kill him.”

“Aaron, please. I told you, Hoyt would never hurt me.” I want to make sure he understands, but he’s already in the elevator.

I take another couple of days off work—the students had submitted reports; I figured it was easier than asking someone to cover my absence. I’m busy reading the papers when Akira shows up.

“You weren’t kidding,” she says, opening the fridge.

“I told you, there’s plenty of food.”

She picks a lasagna tray and puts it in the oven.

“How’s your... theory going?” I ask, taking a seat.

“Let’s talk about anything but that.” She’d mentioned before that she’s having trouble with it.

“Hoyt invited me to a gala,” I tell her.

“Seriously?”

“And I’m pretty sure Aaron will be there too.”

“What? Why would he do that? You’re not going, right?”

“He said his lawyers advised him to be seen in public with me. It would help make their case... that Aaron could act... in bad faith.”

“Interesting. What did you say?”

“I said I’ll go. Anything to help him get his money back and be done with this drama.”

“Right. There’s been enough of that. ”

“Will you help me get something to wear? All my formal dresses stayed at Aaron’s. I still have so much stuff over there.”

“Do you want to go to the store we went to last year?”

“I was hoping to wear something... different. I need a change. I almost chopped my hair off yesterday.”

“I know a place.”

“Are you free tomorrow afternoon? The party is on Friday.”

“Yeah, I’ll text you the address.”

I go to pass her the phone when I glance at one of her texts.

“Is that from Broc?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know you guys kept in touch.”

She’s typing.

“What are you saying?”

“A dirty joke.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, why? Don’t look at me like that. It’s harmless.”

“Is it?”

The oven beeps.

“We’re covering Velazquez next week. Please familiarize yourselves with his work,” I say at the end of the lecture.

It’s tricky to teach with only one arm, but a couple of students are kind enough to help.

I leave in a hurry to meet Akira, hoping I can still grab lunch before I have to be back on campus for my next lecture.

“For someone who hates parties, you seem to go quite frequently,” Akira says, walking around the store.

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“How about this one?” She lifts up a leopard print dress. I simply look at her. “Kidding.”

The store she picked is a world away from what I’m used to. But so am I. I’m looking at myself in the mirror… I feel much different from just a year ago.

“You look hot!” she tells me when I come out of the dressing room.

“It’s not too... much?”

“Aaron will definitely make a scene.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for.”

“Remind me to always stay on your good side.”

I laugh. “Welcome to my dark one.”