Page 13 of Lumi

“4. The cuffs shall remain on at all times, except in case of an emergency. For practical reasons, you may remove the handcuffs when you change clothing, use the toilet, or shower. You’ll need to document the reason for taking off the cuffs and keep track of the time apart. You must limit the minutes apart as much as possible! The minutes will be added to the last day of the experiment so that in the end, you will have spent seven full days linked together.”

Lumi and I exchanged another long glance before turning to Jolene, who sat upright with her blonde shoulder-length hair in a ponytail, and her hands folded on the table. She reminded me of a schoolteacher.

“What about when we sleep? I asked.

“The handcuffs stay on at night.” Atlas’ eyes dropped to the paper in Lumi’s hand, encouraging her to read on.

“5: Since you’re both right-handed, you’ll change hands each day to make it fair.”

“Is that it?” I asked when they all sat in silence.

Atlas smiled. “Yes. That’s it. If you follow the five rules, you’ll have seven thousand dollars each in a week, and hopefully, Lumi will have found a way to work through her issues.”

Lumi tucked her hands under her thighs as if she refused to sign the contract. From the way her foot was tapping under the table, I could tell this was difficult for her.

She would need me to go first, so I signed the two copies of the papers in silence and placed them in front of her.

Lumi didn’t move her hands. She just stared at the papers.

“Come on, princess. It’ll be fine,” I said to convince her.

Her hands were shaking when she finally picked up the pen and put her legal name, Lumiere Robertson, on the contract.

“Great!” Jolene stood up and leaned over the table to retrieve one of the contracts. “We’ll leave a copy for you if you need to go over the rules later on. Atlas, will you please place your sister and Damian in the handcuffs?”

“I would be honored.” Atlas smiled and bent down to retrieve a pair of handcuffs from Jolene’s bag.

I jerked my head back. “What the fock is that? Ye call those cuffs?”

Jolene hurried to explain. “We realize that they’re different from the ones you use at work, Damian, but Atlas and I talked about it, and we agreed that a full week of wearing regular steel handcuffs would hurt your wrist too much. These have soft leather with fur inside that will feel comfortable to your skin.”

Lumi wrinkled her nose in the direction of the black leather handcuffs. “Couldn’t you have found some without rivets? Where did you get them? A sex-shop?”

Atlas gave an affirmative nod. “Who wants to go first?”

I turned to Lumi. “Do ye want to start with yer right or left hand? I broke my right when I was a teenager, so I’m not too bad with my left. I don’t mind going first.”

She glanced at me. “Thank you.”

Getting up from my chair, I held out my right arm and let Atlas put the handcuffs on me.

“Your turn, sis,” Atlas said and held out the other part to her.

Lumi didn’t look at me when she got up from her chair and walked to stand on my right side. She lifted her left arm to Atlas, but from the way she was biting her lips and had her eyes closed with an expression of pain, I waited for Lumi to shout “no” at any second.

The “no” never came, and a few seconds later, Atlas stepped back with the key in his hand. “It’s done.”

“Good.” Jolene had a satisfied smile on her lips as she pulled out a small stack of paper from her bag.

“Here are seven papers with daily questions we want you to discuss. Some of them are random, while others are personal. Remember that you signed a contract in which you promised to be honest with each other.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I gave a bad imitation of an American accent to loosen up the tense atmosphere a little, and as soon as Atlas and Jolene had left, I touched Lumi’s arm. “It’s goin’ to be fine. Ye’ve known me for ten years. We’re friends.”

“Eleven years,” she corrected me. “Eleven years, nine months, and twenty-two days. The first day we met was November fifth. Today is August twenty-seventh.”

“I know, lass.” I used my left hand to stroke her upper arm. Lumi’s throwing out numbers was a sure sign that she was insecure. “Sometimes, it feels like yesterday, but then I see how ye’re no longer the teenager I carried out of the house that night.”

Lumi lowered her brow. “I haven’t been that girl for over a decade.”