028: Stay

Lara

I’m the first to break the kiss.

We stare into each other’s eyes for a long while. To me it feels long, but perhaps only a handful of seconds have passed.

Dexter lowers his eyes and looks the other way before stepping away from me altogether. He appears embarrassed. This display of—I’m not even sure what that was—dampens my feelings of anger for a moment. Maybe it’s because I’m just too stunned to react.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles before reaching for the door and leaving.

Once the door is closed, I wipe my mouth with my hand repeatedly but even that doesn’t make me feel clean enough. Ambrose walks into the room almost immediately. “What happened? Did he attack you?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Let me see,” he says as he angrily strides toward me. I show him my neck and he seethes. “I should have done something to prevent this. I should never have let him come in here!”

I touch my neck gingerly. I space out for a short while and think back to the kiss while Ambrose goes on about aborting the