Amelia needed warning. “Leo seems decent, but can really be a prick. He’s trying to play nice with me because he knows he messed up. I don’t know what thoughts will be going on in his stupid fucking head, but that’s your warning. The inside might not match the outside.”

“Understood.”

I opened the door.

“What do we need to talk about?” I asked, stepping away from the door and giving him my back. He could follow me in and close the door behind him, because I wasn’t going to play hostess to him. He was lucky that I was even letting him in here.

“It looks nice,” he commented, glancing around. “Do you like it?”

I turned and narrowed my eyes at him. “This is not what you came here to talk about. And I have a guest.”

Leo’s gaze darted around until he found Amelia, who grinned at him like she knew a secret. She probably already did.

“Hi,” she greeted with a wave, not moving from her seat. “I’m Amelia, Callie’s friend. You are?”

“Leo. I live next door. Callie and I have been friends for years. I don’t think Callie’s mentioned you before.”

An attempted jab, one that had Amelia smiling wider.

“Oh, no, you wouldn’t have.” She didn’t elaborate, and I choked on a laugh. I watched Leo’s face pinch in confusion for just a second.

“This will be quick,” I told Amelia, walking to my library. “Feel free to make yourself at home.”

I held out an arm towards the library, eyes on Leo. After a beat, he moved towards the door, not bothering to take off his shoes.

Purposefully, I left the door open behind me and sat across from Leo, giving my back to Amelia. Leo glanced over my shoulder, and I turned to see Amelia give him a little wave from the kitchen. All the was over there, she wouldn’t be able to hear what was said. But she’d hopefully be able to decipher his thoughts.

“So, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I deadpanned, examining my nails. It was a little cliché, sure, yet I didn’t care.

“Can you close the door?”

“Worried about my friend?” I knew he was. “If we close it, how can you be sure she won’t eavesdrop at the door? This way you can keep eyes on her. I figured that’s what you’d want?”

Leo pursed his lips but relented. “Fine.”

“So. Talk.”

“This is a nice room in here. I thought you’d like it. The green in here is one of your favorite shades, right?”

Only my eyes moved as I looked at him, assessing. “Talk.”

“We got all your results back from the testing. We’re ready to get your personal chef started.”

“You couldn’t text me that because…?” I raised my brows at him.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and pressing his fingertips together. I leaned back, crossing one leg over the other to maintain the distance between us. It didn’t go unnoticed.

Leo chose not to mention it. Wise of him. “Well, we want to put a bigger emphasis on protein, and I wasn’t sure what your preferences would be. We don’t think the health differences between white and red meat will really impact you. Either way, that’s a decision for you to make.”

“I don’t care.”

He took my indifference in stride. “Okay. In terms of foods you won’t eat—”

“I’ll send you a list.” I just wanted him out of my space. If Amelia wasn’t in the other room, I never would have let him in. “Anything else?”

“I wanted to check on you. Make sure you were doing okay. We put you through a lot this last week, and I haven’t seen or heard from you.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Yeah, that’s on purpose.”

Hurt flashed across his face for the tiniest moment before he reigned in his expression.

“Callie, I know that things are still a bit rocky, but—”

“A ‘bit rocky’?” I scoffed. “Leo, you betrayed my trust and now I have to work with you. This is not exactly the situation I was hoping for, but I’m making it work to a degree and you need to accept that you and I will never be friends again.”

His head dropped to his hands, and he rubbed his face. He was silent for a long while, and I sat there waiting. I wouldn’t kick him out because I wanted to not only give him a chance to come clean about everything, but also to prove to myself that I could handle being semi-alone with him.

“Would me explaining everything make a difference? No holding back, answer any questions you have…?”

I crossed my arms, considering. I wasn’t naive enough to think that I had the whole picture, and getting new information might change my view on the entire situation. At the same time, I wasn’t sure if knowing the motivations behind it would make it better or maybe even worse.

Finally, I answered, “I’d consider it. But I make no promises it will change my mind.”

Leo sighed and stood. “I’ll have to accept that. I’ll, um, head out. Let me know when you’re ready to talk. Have fun with your friend.”

I stood and showed him out. As soon as the door closed behind him, I took a bracing breath and leaned my head against the door and closed my eyes.

“That was certainly something,” Amelia chimed, still perched in the kitchen.

“You get a read on both of us?” My bio-screen hadn’t gone off, meaning we must have been far enough away, or Amelia used such a small amount it hadn’t registered.

“Yeah. What I want to know is why would you agree to work with them after he pulled that shit on you.”

I straightened and ran my hands through my loose hair, my fingers getting caught in tangles. I freed my hands and started pacing instead.

“I want to help people. And I have this idea for an app. They agreed to help build it, since I have no idea how to do that. They have more data with the bio-screens, know about the abilities, and want to look into it more. So, their purpose is similar to Hubert Industries, but they’re a step ahead because of the tech. I do think they can do more because of that,” I admitted with a shrug. “But really, it was their agreement to help with the app.”

Amelia nodded once, slowly. “What’s the app idea?”

Briefly, I explained it to her, focusing on the goals of helping keep track of loved ones and contacting emergency services when needed. I left out all the technicalities that didn’t matter right now, like what that process would look like, the customizable features people could change, and later adding forums to help connect people with others like them.

“I’ve been told that if we actually tell people about their potential to develop an ability, and they force it, it could kill them. Which is the opposite effect we want.”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Amelia agreed.

“This app is a band-aid solution. It’s not ideal. What would work is gamma radiation therapy, but they shot that down quick.”

“Gamma?” she asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah, when we use our abilities, it gives off small amounts of gamma radiation. Not enough to cause any major issues or harm other people, but it happens. I, uhm…” That’s what I’d done to her, to try to save her life. “I’ve found that exposing other people with LaShoul’s to gamma can help trigger their ability without them forcing it and increasing that risk of, you know, death.”

I huffed a breath, stopping my pacing. “But that’s a much bigger endeavor. To get it approved, show evidence, would be risking exposing the details, which could in turn create the situation we want to avoid. It would have to be kept secret, somehow.” I’d spent some time considering other ways to get gamma radiation to work, and had realized these issues could pose the same problem in a different way.

“Not to mention we don’t know why this is happening.” Amelia paused, then added, “Do we?”

“Nope. That’s another mystery.”

We were silent, thinking, until Amelia said, “He still really cares for you, you know. I couldn’t tell exactly what went down between the two of you, but it’s eating him up from the inside. Not to say he deserves your sympathy or forgiveness, based on what I caught from you, but…He does love you.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Those were not the words I wanted to hear. “We were friends for a while, the only person we both really had who understood. He had other friends, acquaintances, but he never told them about the LaShoul’s. He didn’t want to lose them. I didn’t really bother trying to make many friends. We supported each other.”

“And you both developed feelings for each other.”

My eyes flew open. I hadn’t thought that way about Leo in weeks, and didn’t like the reminder that I had once hoped to end up with him.

She shrugged. “If you hadn’t, neither of you would be feeling so strongly about this.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you, a therapist?” I joked halfheartedly.

She laughed. “I’m just calling it like I see it, whether it’s true or not. He’s definitely not over you. That was very clear to me. I assumed the part about you having had feelings for him, and you proved me right.”

Damn, that was clever of her. I fell into the chair next to her and put my head down on my arms and groaned.

“Do you want a detailed list of everything he paid attention to when he was looking at you?”

“No! Why would you even offer to tell me?” Now my curiosity was going to eat at me. Great.

“Okay, then I won’t. That’s mostly where his thoughts were. I didn’t pick up on much of anything else.”

“Figures.”

“But you’re going to meet with him, hear those explanations, right?”

“Probably,” I mumbled into my arms.

“I could be there, incognito, see if I pick up anything? I could also be your emergency exit strategy if it gets to be too much.”

I turned my head so I was looking at her. “That sounds like the perfect plan.”