The Elevator at the Brink of Infinity by Michael James

Author:Michael James [James, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19: Trick takes a walk in the park.

Trick had always paid attention to details. Even before the Hotel, he’d noticed everything. It was a skill he’d had to nurture in order to survive for all those years, surrounded by Wyatts and a single, mostly crazy Arthur. If he didn’t notice the little things, he’d get wiped out. The way a Wyatt’s lip would twitch before they were about to punch someone. How Arthur would crack his knuckles before suggesting he do something horrible. And even though he’d been safe with Vain for a year now, he couldn’t break his old habits.

For instance, he’d noticed that Vain hadn’t eaten, even though it was almost two o’clock. Lots of days she’d get so distracted she’d forget. He tried to balance helping her out with letting her figure it out for herself. But today was an important day, and he didn’t want her to be out of sorts.

She was currently pulling him along the busy street on their way to the meeting she’d arranged at the park. They passed the bagel place she liked, and she paused. “Shoot. I’m hungry, but I don’t want to be late. Shoot.”

“I grabbed you a snack before we left.” He pulled out a tiny bag filled with crackers and bites of cheese, delighted she’d at least noticed she needed to eat. But he knew she’d be in a rush, so he’d tried to prepare for that. “I’ve got more snacks if you’re still hungry.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a tight smile and squeezed his hand, blushing while doing so. Even after all this time, any open physical contact made her embarrassed. “Can we hurry?”

“We’ll be there in time. I promise.”

“Okay.” Even though she agreed, she half-jogged down the street while stuffing crackers into her mouth.

She’d been playing with this idea for a while. He’d learned that Vain was dangerous without a goal to focus on, and he’d done pretty good so far keeping her engaged with interesting projects that wouldn’t land them in too much trouble. There was project “find them an affordable place to live” which turned out pretty well; she located an apartment with a view she liked and even though she’d insisted on two bedrooms, the second one went mostly unused. Then there was project “teach Vain to drive” which was honestly more terrifying than the Hotel. Vain seemed to view braking as a failure of planning. He thought that project “start an Indie Press that only published books about time traveling space hamsters” would have fizzled, but sometimes Vain’s impulsiveness could blind him to how brilliant she actually was. She was apparently interviewing an editor.

All of these side quests kept her distracted from this one singular project she’d forever return to. Project “Get Other Vain and Other Roman Together”.

No matter how many times he explained to her the millions of unique and multi-faceted nuances that go into making a personality, and that her relationship with him couldn’t be replicated, she wouldn’t let it go.

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