Patience

Chapter 9 - I have one word for you; HOT!

I've known this person most of my life, I know when she's about to cry, when she's angry and frustrated, I know that she is a terrible driver and that she love's her parents more than anything else. I know that even though she swears through and through that she eats healthy, she almost always sneaks something from McDonalds after a late lecture. So that's why in this moment, right after I've spilled my guts, I know she's about to squeal. "No freaking way! I can't believe you let him in your house, not once, not twice but three times!" Mia screeches from her spot on my bed, legs crossed in front of her. I love this girl but sometimes she is so over dramatic, I guess the bachelors degree in Arts would make sense... "Who are you?" An unashamed smile on her face as she throws a pillow in my direction.

"It's not that big a deal, Mia. Don't make it one or I'll start to think I really am crazy and really, turns out he's not as bad as I thought he was." I pick up the pillow, make my way back to the bed and chucking myself face down in front of her.

"Of course, he's not. Have you looked at him? Those eyes, ugh! I didn't say this before, when we were on team 'I hate him , he sucks' but I have one word for you; HOT! And for some insane reason, despite all your eyerolling and attitude, he seems to like you." As if on que, I roll my eyes at her. I mean I agree about the whole good looking aspect of her statement but there's no way in hell I'll give her the satisfaction of telling her that. "How much did you tell him?"

Rolling over to face her, I start. "First of all, he doesn't like me. That's ridiculous. Second of all, he isn't thaaat hot and I didn't tell him anything really, definitely didn't tell him about the whole illegal business thing." I say, glancing up at her as she sweeps her hair into a messy bun on top of her head.

The last few weeks have been pretty full on, but we've had no further hiccups business wise. Manny sent the guy that jumped him packing back to Adam, bruised up and with a message, since then it doesn't seem like either of us have been followed and our runners haven't reported anything unusual on their routes.

Hunter is a different story though; it's been two weeks since our late-night movie marathon and things have been different since. He's been around the house a few times, once for dinner and the second time to finalise our case questions, which also turned into dinner thanks to Tom. He is obsessed with him and is always asking when they can hang out again, I think that's part of the reason I've not let anyone get close to us. Thomas is just a kid, a very impressionable kid, a kid that always believes the best and I'm afraid that if we get let down, he'll be crushed. I've not let anyone in for some time now and if the worst were to happen I would be crushed too.

"Obviously." The sound of Mia's voice cuts through my thoughts and pulls me back to the present. She's tapping different spots on her face over and over again to see if the face mask has dried, I have missed this. "How are you doing anyway?"

"Honestly? I'm struggling a bit, I don't know how to act around him. This is all kind of new to me, at what point do I stop pretending?"

"You don't need to pretend Sage, just be you. If you haven't scared me away yet then I'm sure others will like the real you too. Have you ever thought about giving up the business? Giving it to someone else? Surely you have enough to keep you going for the rest of this year, until you finish your degree. You could just walk away." She says, the hope clear in her voice.

"I've been thinking about it actually, handing it off to Manuel and wiping my hands clean. With Adam out and clearly not happy as Larry I'm just putting Tom at risk by staying, putting my life on hold for it." I know Mia is right, I need to look at closing all this up and moving on, I picked it up and worked hard at it to keep us going, to feed us and put a roof over our heads and it's done that. I guess this is what happens, once people start, they don't know when to stop. It just becomes a part of your routine and before you know it you've been caught; I can't afford for that to happen.