Waffles and Betrayals - ENG

Chapter 4

Use of profane language and description of sensitive topics such as sexuality, harassment, violence, psychological stress and phobias. If you are sensitive to these topics, I advise you not to proceed further.

Simon tossed the keys in the air again, watching them spin and gleam under the streetlight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lenora still sitting on the sidewalk; she looked tired, drained, like someone who had been drained of all energy.

He had just fed her a huge lie. The way she had swallowed his bullshit so easily gave him a cruel sense of relief.

Lying was part of his daily routine, yet the relief he felt was not enough to soothe the bittersweet sensation rising in his throat.

Graves' words buzzed incessantly in his head. He couldn't stand that the son of a bitch was able to see right through him, discovering, even before he realized it himself, what he was up to.

It was amusing how, at the beginning of it all, he had tried to act like a champion. He had advised Graves to mind his own business and stay away from Lenora if he wanted to keep his head attached to his neck. And yet, at that moment, who was the one alone with her in the parking lot? None other than him, Simon.

Johnny had asked him to keep an eye on his most precious asset, to keep Lenora away from the wrong hands. He remembered well how reluctant he had been even at the thought, and he would never have imagined that the wrong hands would turn out to be his own.

He couldn't understand when he had missed the mark. Was it the moment he first saw Lenora, so different from her photos, in a posed manner? Or when he noticed how bored and indifferent she was during the long sequence of introductions? No, it wasn't those things.

He mentally retraced the events. He recalled how the mask of the aloof, proper girl had crumbled when she started crying. He saw how suddenly her face became expressionless, how her eyes turned empty and cold when she set aside her pain.

He found himself feeling sorry for seeing her vulnerability, knowing that this pain was caused by someone she seemed to love so much. And he noticed how her gaze softened when MacTavish jumped off the table. For a second, he had to admit that this vision made him wonder what it felt like to have someone look at him like that. Something he probably would never experience, given that even his mother had never been able to give him a loving look. Not once.

Perhaps what set off the spark was the way Lenora instantly masked any emotion. That was what truly struck him: it was a masterful move.

For the first time, she appeared so human to him. It was like the first small explosion that caused the first crack. What happened next was what brought down the wall. When he touched her shoulder, she turned around like a fury. Enraged after being called pathetic. The way the word "idiot" rolled so easily off those full lips. An insult directed at him, something no one else dared to do, as everyone avoided him like the plague, except Johnny and the Captain.

But she, not content, didn't stop at insults. As a keen observer, she immediately pinpointed that he was a military man and hit him where it would hurt most: the Vietnam joke. Who else would have had the guts to joke with him like that?

Johnny called Lenora a sweet and gentle creature. Simon, on the other hand, saw her more like a stray cat, with a vocabulary that would make a redneck blush. He had to admit that this was the version he preferred. He wondered why the sergeant had painted her so inconsistently.

His thoughts only heightened that strange tingling in his palms. And every time he thought of her while she was insulting him, that tingling would shift to his groin.