lacuna

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eli's pov

I pushed open the door to Fine Feathers and the familiar smell washed over me. I could say that the smell of old parchment had become a part I normally looked forward to in my life recently. And of course, her. Except for the old fucker. The store was empty. There was no sign of the Oscar guy and his table was messy with papers and what seems to be cheques.

"Uh...hello?" I called out.

Silence.

Letting out a frustrated breath, I made my way deeper into the store, looking into the aisles but they were empty. He was probably in the back room.

"Hello?" I said, raising my voice.

No reply.

There was no way he couldn't have heard me. A smile tugged at my lips.

"Oh, fuck" I yelled out as if I was in pain.

"No cursing in my store, you ungrateful brat" his raspy voice echoed from the back room.

Bin-fucking-go.

"Well, hello to you" I yelled again.

"I'll be out. Just be patient, will you, boy?" he said. I rolled my eyes and started walking towards the front of the store again. I was about to take a seat on one of the sofas there when my eyes landed on something on the dude's table.

There were x-ray sheets scattered across and a huge-ass white file laid on top of them. The top of the file was written to "Oswald Junior Booker". I looked back at the aisles to see if he was coming back but he wasn't. I knew he got Fal fucking worried sick a few weeks ago and never told her what the fuck was wrong with him to faint out of the blue like that. And the possibility of this file being related to that was pretty much accurate. I picked it up and slid out a smooth, heavy paper. A report. His report. I glanced back again and after making sure he was still in the back room, my eyes scanned the medical report. He'd been run through multiple tests and the results were stated despite me not being able to understand shit about it.

But I understood what the last part said and I felt the rage building up inside of me.

"What are you doing?"

I turned to find the old guy standing behind me, slightly hunched, peering at me over his fucking condescending glasses. His eyes switched to the report in my hand. He tried to reach for it but I held it away from his reach.

"You have stage four fucking lung cancer?" I blurted.

"You shouldn't go through other people's business without permission" was all he said, ignoring my question.

I pointedly looked back at the report, "For how long?". This time, he was able to grab it from my hand but I had seen what there was to see.

"Does Fallon know?" I asked, my anger still brimming on the surface though I already knew the answer. How the fuck could he keep something so serious from her? Did he have any fucking idea how much she loves him? No shit he was coughing and clutching his chest from time to time.

"Of course not and it will stay that way"

"What the fuck-"

He cut me off, pushing past me and arranging his table, "You do not get to decide on this. I won't have her worrying about me with all that's going on in her life".

He gathered the X-ray sheets and stacked them into a thin pile, sliding them into the same file as the report as he said, "And next time keep your filthy hands off my things".