Chapter 42: She Had Not Asked for a Speech

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: She Had Not Asked for a Speech

Anika asked Senn to stop, and Dante felt relief until she requested the whole file for her adviser. She hadn’t found the hidden meaning he needed. Nobody revealed another enemy, and the ordinary room gave him nowhere to hide behind a grand explanation.

"I heard him," she said, keeping her eyes on the phone. "You don’t need to play Dante asking me again."

Ms. Lane noted their next interview and asked about corrections. Dante repeated his actual warning. He’d rehearsed improved versions all afternoon, each making him sound more perceptive. None changed what Martin had heard before the wind hit him.

Outside the office, Anika stopped beneath a vending machine that advertised a drink guaranteed to improve difficult conversations. Someone had taped a refund complaint over the smiling bottle, which seemed like unusually honest advertising.

"You don’t have to stay beside me because you spoke first," she told him. "I made the decision."

"I’m staying because I want to," Dante said. His grander voice wanted to promise they had been right about everything. He kept that promise to himself. Staying beside Anika couldn’t depend on pretending the recording said something kinder.

Anika took his sleeve, avoiding his bruised hand. She did not thank him or promise everything would be fine, but she walked with him when he called Rhea and asked where to find Posey.

Student health occupied the ground floor across the plaza. Rhea met them at the entrance with her dark ponytail coming loose and her red tail carrying the jacket she had run out of hands for.

"She’s awake, and they’re keeping her for another reading," she said. "Please start with hello instead of telling her you’ve uncovered a conspiracy."

"There goes my bedside manner," Dante said, following her past reception. "I had a whole speech about defeating the darkness, but apparently that doesn’t come with extra pillows."

Posey sat against two pillows with her blue ribbon on the bedside table. Jett occupied a chair beneath a sign forbidding enchanted gifts, while Lucan handed a nurse the bags he had carried over from the social.

Her smile appeared before she tried to hide how tired she looked. "You came back, and I kept your sandwich. I wasn’t sure whether you would still want it."

Dante sat close enough that Posey didn’t have to raise her voice, moving her water within reach as she worried she’d ruined the evening.

"The man who grabbed Anika did more damage, and he didn’t even bring sandwiches," he told her, earning a laugh before the nurse checked her again. The reading hadn’t dropped further, but its earlier fall remained unexplained.

She allowed Posey to return to residence with company, no tennis or casting, and another check the next day. Dante asked whether his exercise notes might help, since they had started keeping records after the same emergencies.

The nurse asked for his exercise times. Posey had saved his sandwich, worried he’d be hungry. Dante had imagined women offering loyalty to his incredible power; this one had wrapped up lunch. He asked which notes she needed, wanting to return something real instead of a speech.

Her feet still felt cold, so the nurse brought a blanket and noted the symptom. With Posey’s permission, Dante tucked it around her shoes. He could carry her notes without casting. That seemed small beside the powers he wanted, but she could feel the blanket now.

Jett caught him by the vending machines while Rhea helped Posey gather her things. His shaggy red hair had flattened against the chair, and his good hand held two packets of crackers like an accusation.

"Tomorrow, you and me are doing something stupid that doesn’t require an incident report," he said. "I’ve been rescued enough times to qualify for a loyalty card."

Dante accepted Jett’s less crushed packet. They planned an afternoon with food, a view, and no equipment attached. A reasonable man might find that easy. Dante intended to prove he could, partly because Jett had asked and partly because accepting the challenge sounded better than admitting he needed it too.

Lucan left at the residence entrance, and upstairs Posey asked whether Friday’s movie still stood. Dante assured her he was emotionally committed to the sofa, earning a touch on his sleeve before Rhea walked her to her room.

Anika asked for quiet at his door. Dante invited her in, then kicked yesterday’s socks out of sight and cleared a chair. The mysterious man’s private chamber contained laundry, a water bottle, and a woman he very much wanted to impress. He poured water before attempting anything harder.

"You missed a sock," Anika said, closing the door, then caught his sleeve before he could rescue it. "Leave it, Dante, because I came to see you."

He stopped tidying. She had come to see him, despite already knowing several excellent reasons to reconsider. Dante wanted to ask whether she meant it, then remembered she had just said it plainly. "Brave choice, considering the evidence," he admitted, earning a tired smile.

She set the water on his desk and came close enough to touch his sleeve, looking at his mouth before he found the courage to ask. Dante remembered the cafe, her hand at his neck and how much he had wanted another afternoon like that, then asked whether she wanted him to kiss her now.

Anika said yes and met him halfway, her hand warm against his shoulder while he rested a careful forearm at her waist. He let the kiss end slowly instead of chasing the next one, and she stayed close afterward, making it harder to believe she had come only because neither of them wanted to be alone.

"I wanted to do that before you started tidying," she said. Dante admitted nearly sacrificing a useful sock, and her laugh warmed his neck as she rested against him. His thoughts offered several grand descriptions of the moment. He ignored them and held her, because this felt better than rehearsing how he’d remember it. Her hand stayed on his shoulder, warm through his shirt, and he let himself enjoy being wanted without checking whether he’d earned enough of it yet.

They sat on the bed afterward, shoulders touching while she stole the more comfortable pillow and he accused her of exploiting the injured. Her laugh had just begun to sound like the one from their date when her phone lit up with Ms. Lane’s message, and she opened the forwarded booking instructions between them.

Mara was still listed for transfer, and the replacement booking required Dante to attend in person. Below his name, someone had already checked the box confirming that he had inspected the woman and accepted responsibility for what happened to her next.