The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley

Author:Aliya Whiteley [Whiteley, Aliya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907389610
Publisher: Unsung Stories
Published: 2018-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

› • ‹

‘I thought you were this hard woman,’ says Max. ‘A killer.’

‘I pushed paper for a while.’

‘Did Phineas Spice know? That you were an administrator?’

‘It never came up in conversation.’

Max laughs.

I can’t help but wonder how he could have known me, held me, and thought me a killer? Didn’t the truth of me shine through?

‘What is it about me that you love?’ I ask him.

How odd it is to be having this conversation. I should scream and cry, and he should say scary things about what he’ll do to me if I don’t at least try to love him back. That’s how captors and captives speak.

‘You want a list?’ he says.

Those wide, playful eyes take me back to the tone we used to stretch between us, like a net in a game.

‘Yeah, I want an actual list. To make up for the list you stole from my bag.’

‘Right then.’

‘Come on then. Don’t tell me you have to think about it.’

‘You’re unique. I’ve told you that before.’

‘You’re wrong. But okay.’

‘You make me feel cared for,’ he says.

I don’t correct him, although he has to know he should say it in the past tense.

‘You’re so beautiful.’

I lie still, sewn up, knowing I am anything but. There’s no need to reply to this one either.

‘You give it meaning,’ he tells me.

‘What?’

He wets his lips, then says, ‘My life. You give my life meaning.’

‘How do I do that?’

‘I don’t know. It’s just one of your many mysterious talents, which now, apparently, include running away from doctors and hospitals, and being an administrator.’

‘So you like my mysteries?’

‘Oh yeah,’ he says, smoothing my hair back from my face.

‘Then why are you trying to solve me?’

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