Sufferable Acceptance

Fifteen

Theo

The next time I saw Amelia after she brought me food was when she came back from shopping with my mom.

She sat in the kitchen listening to stories my mom was telling. I'm sure they were sharing embarrassing stories about me because as soon as I walked into the kitchen they went dead silent, gave each other a funny look, and burst into laughter again.

Mom excused herself to the living room as I looked in the fridge for something to drink.

"Did you eat the food?" she asked out of nowhere.

"The food Victoria made me?" I asked.

"Yeah, the sandwich from Victoria, did you eat it?" She wondered.

"It was delicious," I said, trying to hold back a smile.

We don't have a maid named Victoria, but I wasn't going to let Amelia in on that little secret. If I told her she would stop bringing me food. As long as she thought she got away with it, maybe she would keep coming to see me.It made my heart jump thinking about her standing outside my door in her pajamas holding that little tray of fruit and tea. I wanted to stay and talk with Amelia more, but I had to head over to Marcus' and work on some leads.

*****

When I arrived at Marcus' I heard yelling.

"And I'm telling you dude, to just drop it. Trust me. She would be pissed." I heard Alfie screaming.

"I don't know what to tell you Alf, Theo told me to look into it. I can't just stop because it might hurt her feelings. We don't know if we can trust her yet." Marcus yelled back.

"Well you trust me, and I'm telling you that she can be trusted, so just drop it already! You'll regret it if you start digging!" Alfie was pissed.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I was showing Alfie what you had asked me to pull up about the safe houses, but then he saw the files about Amelia, and he blew up at me!" Marcus explained trying to hold Alfie back from his computer.

"I can't believe you've had Marcus spying on Amelia this whole time. You told me you trusted her and had no problem with her." Alfie said to me.

"Why would I trust someone who has done nothing but lie to me since the first night we met? I get she's your friend or whatever, but I'm just doing my job." I tried to explain.

"So that's what this is about? Come on man, grow up already move the fuck on. It was one night. So what she "lied" to you about who she was. Can you blame her? If she'd told you the truth you would have dragged her into this fucked up world more than she already is now. Here's my advice Theo: Move on!" Alfie yelled at me.

"You know?" I was shocked she told anyone about that night.

"I know everything. I wasn't lying when I said we were family. We tell each other everything, and now I'm asking you to let this whole thing go." Alfie said.

I can't believe he knew this whole time. I rarely saw Alfie get this defensive which meant he was hiding something.

"I think Alfie has something he doesn't want us to find out." I said to Marcus as I walked to the computer.

"What is it? Were you lovers? Did you get in some trouble together? What could it possibly be that you don't want us to find?" I interrogated.

"Stop." He said.

"Come on Alfie don't be shy, tell us. It looks like you're dying to tell us anyway, or should I call Amelia over here and force her to tell us the truth? What is causing Alfie to get so upset right now?" I asked.