The Weight of Love

Chapter 20

Lila woke on Thursday morning to birdsong and sunlight pressing through her bedroom window, and to her phone ringing on the nightstand.

Groggy, she lifted her head and reached blindly for her phone, her fingers eventually closing around it.

It was Cameron.

She dropped the phone down to her side with a deflated huff of breath and stared up at the ceiling. It continued to ring, vibrating in her hand. She weighed her options. Pick up. Not pick up. Pick up and tell him it wasn't a good time. Not pick up and text him immediately afterward.

She rolled onto her side, letting out a frustrated groan, and accepted the call.

"Lila?" she heard him say when she put the phone up to her ear. "Are you there?"

"I'm here," she mumbled.

"Oh, good. Listen -- " He broke off. His tone was cagey. "I'm sorry about last night. I just got angry, I guess. I didn't know you were supposed to be home by seven thirty, and I wouldn't have chosen to do what I did to you if I'd known you would be leaving so soon afterward. How do you feel?"

She stretched, winced, yawned.

"A little sore. Tired." She swallowed. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have run out on you like that. I was going to be late anyway, so I could have stayed another fifteen minutes."

"No, it's fine. It's not like you ran out on me, anyway. I walked you down."

"I'm sorry about your car, too," she said anxiously. "Is it going to be all right?"

"Yes, the police took my report. They're going through the surveillance footage from both incidents. It's likely that Mr. Callahan will end up behind bars for this, or else pay a very hefty fine," Cameron said. "He'll have his day in court, and I'll leave it up to the judge."

"You did the right thing," Lila said softly.

"Yes," came the reply. "I was very decent. I gave him two chances. He decided to test me."

"Where are you?" Lila asked. She thought she could hear noise in the background.

"Just leaving the gym."

She took the phone away from her ear and squinted down at the time for a moment. It was just past seven.

"At this time? When did you get up?"

"Five, the same time I always get up." He laughed. "Old habits die hard, princess. Anyway, I thought I would call you before I head in to the office. Any trouble with your mother or Robert last night?"

Lila winced. Her arm was sore where Robert had grabbed her. She turned her head to look at it. Bruised, too.

"No," she lied. "They just told me to text next time if I thought I'd be later than planned."

"Good." He sounded satisfied. In person, she was sure he would have been able to see straight through her facade. She was an open book, as he'd put it once. They had that in common. "Well, Lila, I'm afraid I have a busy day ahead of me. Two busy days. But I'll pick you up tomorrow afternoon at the library. Four thirty sharp."

"Four thirty sharp," she repeated.

"Goodbye, princess."

"Goodbye," she said, as the line went dead in her hand. She let her phone drop down onto the bedspread and sat up and stretched, finding herself well-rested.

Heading into the bathroom to brush her teeth, she found a long email sitting in her inbox -- from Tori. The subject line read "Midnight Reflections," and it was addressed only to her. Sitting down on the edge of the bathtub, she began to read.