24
I looked at Emma asleep at the opposite end of the couch and my mind overflowed with questions. Who was she? Why did she leave home a year ago without telling anyone? Why was she so secretive? Who or what had hurt her so much? Frankly, it was driving me nuts.Nick sat on the floor with his back against the couch in between Emma and me. He’d been playing video games and finally gave up with a yawn, “I’m getting way too tired to focus on this damn game…” He turned around to face me and leaned against the coffee table that was covered in food wrappers from our earlier dinner. “So tell me something…”
“What?”
“Were you trying to keep her a secret on purpose?”
“Who, Emma?”
“Yeah…”
“I wasn’t keeping her a secret.”
“Bullshit… you were too. You practically disappeared when you weren’t on stage or working. You spend all of your free time with her, and I totally get it now. She’s cool, man. She’s funny, interesting, sexy…”
I shrugged, “Yeah, but I wasn’t keeping her secret. She’s a private sort of person, I wasn’t about to scare her off by asking her to hang out with your crazy ass.”
Nick laughed and looked at Emma sleeping, “She’s gorgeous…”
I nodded, “Yeah…”
“Strange how she left home though. I wonder what’s up with that?”
“I’ve no idea. Tonight was the first I’d heard of that. I knew she’d been on the road when she met Skinner, but I didn’t realize how long she’d been moving around. I doubt it that Skinner even knows.”
“Skinner doesn’t know shit about her. I asked him about her once and he was useless…”
I nodded again, “That’s how she works. She likes to keep things private. I think that with her, most people just get the bare minimum of information. Just enough to carry on a conversation, but not really know who she is.”
Nick nodded, “I can see that about her. Although she told us quite a bit tonight… I guess she trusts us huh?”
“I guess so…” I looked at Emma again, all of the questions ran through my head all over again.
“I like her…” Nick finally said after a moment of us both watching her sleep. “No more hogging Tee Shirt Girl to yourself.”
