Page 14 of Here in My Heart (Here Together #2)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ade pulled the cool morning air into her lungs and wiped the dew from the painted windowsill with a cloth.

She opened the dormer window to welcome in the blue sky.

It was Halloween. Back home, the town’s porches and lawns would’ve come to life with tricks and treats, and she’d spend the night avoiding the jump scares.

Halloween brought strange noises and a change in routine, neither of which she relished.

Here, the city’s nightlife played up the occasion.

She’d seen more posters of orange and green cocktails in the last week than she had in her lifetime.

Leaning against the makeshift window seat that she’d fashioned from a spare cushion, she contemplated the day ahead.

She’d made it to Thursday with minimal drama.

The classes had been fairly calm. Her lab time had been golden.

Greg had come and gone for his shift, requiring the briefest of small talk, which suited her.

She’d bumped into Sylvie in the faculty staff room, and they’d met for coffee.

Ade glanced over at the wall where she’d stuck the postcard Sylvie had given her. It brightened up the blank space.

She cringed, going over the awkward way she’d reacted to the gift. She’d botched her thanks and came off as aloof. Maybe even rude. She hadn’t meant to, but she’d been spooked by the gesture and couldn’t think fast enough.

Sylvie graciously smoothed the whole thing over, of course.

But it wasn’t enough for Ade not to rethink it over and over.

Re-rehearsing what she would have said, given a second chance, she jumped at the noise at the door.

She froze, hoping she’d imagined it, but feared with every fiber of her body that someone was behind that door .

Holding her breath, she strained to hear any movement.

The lock. The lock began to turn. Someone was turning it from the outside.

Ade swallowed. All moisture had evaporated from her mouth, and she almost gagged from the dry air.

Focus. She closed her eyes to drown out the extraneous information in her head, allowing her to zero in on what she could do next, and she calculated all the possibilities in a fraction of a second.

Her brain wasn’t slow; it was overflowing.

She grabbed a metal ladle from the work surface and smashed it against the door. “Get out!” She sucked in a breath. “I’m in here and if you try to get in, I’ll call the police.”

The footsteps retreated. They got quieter until she heard the slam of a door at the bottom of the staircase.

Shaking, she sank to the floor. Someone had tried to get into her apartment.

If she hadn’t been here, they would have.

All at once, the tabs in her brain reopened, flooding her with every thought she’d had that week.

Top of the pile was the imminent danger she’d just faced and the overwhelming fear it had prompted.

She needed to call someone. Steph was too far away, and she’d only worry.

Her dads were still asleep and ditto. What could they possibly do from California except drive themselves insane with “what ifs.” She thought of Marcella downstairs.

She’d been so wonderful last week when that fraudster had turned up.

Was it that same guy? A circuit in her mind fired up, and she flicked through a picture book of the fraudster who’d been in her apartment.

She zoomed into the detail of his uniform, the ruffled collar, the texture of his hair.

Then panned back out to the apartment door, imagining him behind it.

Her hands trembling, Ade touched the door lock. Had he really gone? She hesitated. Maybe she should just stay safe in here for the next few hours. But then it would get dark, and she’d be stuck.

She pulled out her phone. There was only one person who might come, only one person she wanted .

An hour later, the intercom buzzed, ringing in the silence and Ade jumped out of her skin once more. She put her ear to the entrance, listening for the familiar footsteps, and once she was sure, she opened the door. “Thanks for coming,” she said.

“It’s nothing. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Sylvie strode in with two coffees. “Those stairs are a killer. Next time, find a lower apartment, second floor at most. Worse views but no heart attack.”

Ade laughed, her heart rate dropping for a moment.

“Now.” Sylvie looked her square in the face. “Tell me.”

Ade relayed the morning’s events and also filled her in on the air filter scam from the week before.

“We need to go to the police. You’ve obviously been watched by them.”

“What?” Ade paced the floor of her tiny studio, relieved to have Sylvie as company but wanting to crawl out of her skin with worry.

“I wouldn’t joke about such a thing.” Sylvie pursed her lips and rolled up her sleeves. “They prey on foreigners. They assume you have an apartment full of gadgets, cash, and booze. He probably thought you’d left for the day.”

“I usually would have, but I had a free period.”

“Exactly.” Sylvie stroked Ade’s arm. “That’s why we need to go and report it.”

Ade couldn’t move. The rhythm of the touch soothed and overstimulated her all at once. But she couldn’t move out of Sylvie’s reach.

“Ade?”

Sylvie’s soft words pulled her from the trance. “Sure,” Ade said, finally accepting that she couldn’t stay frozen in her apartment forever.

By the time they’d walked across town, the fresh air and motion had helped to stabilize her nerves.

Ade wore her earbuds to block out the crowds, and they took the quieter streets, away from the crowded, noisy squares.

Outside the station, Ade looked to Sylvie for desperate reassurance. She had no idea what to do .

“I’ve got you.” Sylvie smiled and handled the whole painful interaction.

Ade couldn’t make out much of the spoken communication, but there was a lot of shrugging and blowing out of cheeks from the police officer at the front desk.

She kept her focus on the lines between the floor tiles, looking for anomalies in the grout.

They were everywhere. Thin lines and thicker lines in no particular order.

It calmed her down, and she zoned out, grateful to have Sylvie by her side.

“Ade?” Sylvie gently nudged her arm.

“Huh?” As requested, she contributed a few details and a signature on a triplicate form before they were dismissed.

“They said there’s a gang going around pulling similar stunts with other students,” said Sylvie. “They look for the apartments which have been let to internationals and play their silly games.”

Ade nodded.

“You have classes this afternoon?” Sylvie asked.

“Yeah. I’ve already missed two counselling sessions.”

“Let’s get to campus.” Sylvie drew alongside as they walked to the tram stop, her shoulder nudging against Ade’s. “Don’t feel too awful. This sort of thing happens, especially in the city.”

Ade couldn’t shake the fear hardening inside her chest when she worried that someone might intrude on her space.

It dawned on her that she’d never lived alone.

Steph and her dads had always been around.

The last few weeks had been a novelty, and she’d enjoyed the quiet freedom to do her own thing without really processing it.

The rest of the day passed with the minor troubles of her students. Madison was in tears over a lost credit card, and Scott was grumpier than usual due to a failed assignment. Ade tried her best to help them navigate their challenges, while pushing her own worries to the very back of her mind.

By around six, the skies had grayed, and exhaustion weighed on her body, while the fear of walking home alone took up residence in her thoughts. She looked up from her notes over the rows of empty desks after the last of her students had left for the day.

“Knock, knock.” Sylvie leaned against the open door frame. “I imagined you might be hanging around.”

“Why?”

She tilted her head and stepped into the room. “You don’t want to rush home, do you?”

Ade dropped her gaze, drumming her fingers on the underside of the desk. “It’s ridiculous to say this, but no. I feel kinda weird about it.”

“It would be weird if you didn’t.” Sylvie pulled up a chair and sat next to her. “You stopped someone from coming inside your apartment earlier. That’s a big deal.”

“That’s not helping,” said Ade.

Sylvie smiled, and everything lightened for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Would you like me to come home with you and check everything’s okay?”

“Yes. Definitely.” Ade stood to collect her things, relief washing over her. She might have stayed at her desk all night if Sylvie hadn’t come back for her.

They strolled from the campus building and took the next tram back into the city. By the time they reached the old town, night had fallen, and they walked the familiar streets by lamp light until they reached Ade’s building.

“Halloween revelers are in full swing.” Sylvie nodded toward the open window, through which the screeches of passersby on their way home from the bars floated up.

“I’m glad we’re safe in here. Students and their cocktails can be a terrible combination.

” She frowned in Ade’s direction. “You do feel safe up here now, don’t you? ”

Ade pondered the question. “I do. But you’re here with me.”

“You’d be fine without me.”

“I’m not so sure I would be. I’ve never really been left to my own devices much.

” A sense of shame washed over her. Was that really something to be worried about admitting?

She was only twenty-four, and she was well on her way to getting a doctorate.

Just because she hadn’t left home at eighteen for the bright lights and hedonism of San Francisco didn’t mean she was any less of an adult.

But she didn’t want Sylvie to think she was different.

She didn’t want to scare her off. “Sometimes, I think I’m a little out of the ordinary. ”

“You are.” Sylvie looked her dead in the eye. “What do you want me to say?”

Ade stiffened. “No one’s ever agreed with me before.

” She gripped the arm of the sofa bed, steadying herself.

It’s happening. Every time she met a new friend, they drifted away with a throwaway comment like this.

Eventually, they’d discover that she wasn’t like everyone else.

She orbited social circles, but she wasn’t part of them. She was never going to be anyone’s sun.

“You are out of the ordinary. You see the world differently to most people.” Sylvie touched her sleeve. “That doesn’t make you inferior to anyone else.”

“You think I’m different, in a good way?”

“Absolutely.” Sylvie said. “You’re you.”

“I feel inadequate. Especially today,” Ade said. “You had to escort me to the police station and come home with me because I couldn’t put my lights on by myself.”

“Nonsense.” Sylvie huffed. “I wanted to help translate the whole baffling situation. You’d still be at the station with your phrase book if I hadn’t been there.”

“And tonight?” Ade wasn’t sure what she wanted from the question.

“Tonight, I’m simply enjoying a glass of wine with a colleague—a colleague whose company I have grown to appreciate.” She nodded with a finality which drew a line under the subject. “Another glass?”

“No, not for me. Alcohol isn’t my friend.” Ade ran through all the times she’d choked back a shot of liquor just to get through the next conversation. “It gets me through parties, and nights out, and awkward moments. But I feel worse afterward, without fail.”

“I get it. Alcohol is a wonderful lubricant for social situations.”

“I find I don’t need it so much…with you.” Ade froze. Had she said too much?

Sylvie glanced at her watch. “I should be heading home.”

Ade held her breath. Her palms grew clammy, and every nerve stood on end.

Sylvie hesitated. “I could stay for a little longer, if you’d like?”

She’d seen. The panic that Ade struggled to keep inside was clearly visible to Sylvie. And rather than flee the scene, she rested her hand on Ade’s shoulder.

“Will you stay the night?” Ade asked. The words were out before she had the chance to reflect on the question. What must Sylvie think of her?

“I’ll stay for a while longer, and then we’ll see how you feel. How about that?”

It was all she could ask for. They barely knew each other, but she’d embroiled Sylvie in a whole day and night of drama. Don’t leave now. She looked so right in Ade’s space. No one had ever looked so at home.

Ade struggled to peel away from Sylvie’s hand.

How could she withdraw from such warmth?

Such tenderness? Her fingertips hadn’t tingled like that for a long time.

She couldn’t remember an attraction so magnetic that she actually wanted to stay in someone’s company rather than withdraw from it, in need of a break from the conversation or the intensity of the contact.

Was it the fear of being alone that rooted her to the spot?

Or was it the comforting tone of Sylvie’s voice?

Her authority? Or the fact that she was so in control of her speech and movement, as well as the actions of everyone else around her?

She was a force to be reckoned with. But in her presence, everything seemed a little easier on Ade’s soul.

It was peace that Ade realized she’d been craving, giving her the chance to turn off her mind and relax inside her own body. She rested further into Sylvie’s space, and when she wasn’t rejected, her heart stuttered. Was this real friendship? Was this why people had best friends?