Page 37 of Divine Sense
Just answer my question.
I rolled my eyes at the screen.Okay I guess we aren’t being flirty.
I’ve always wanted to go to Aspen, Colorado. All the photos I’ve seen are stunning and I think it would be fun to get all dressed up and look cute on the slopes.
You want to ‘look cute’ on the slopes? Do you even ski?
God no. I’d rather be eaten alive by an alligator than go flying down a mountain on a pair of toothpicks. But all the photos I’ve seen are stunning and I’ve always wanted to go.
I see. Have you ever seen snow? It rarely ever snows here in the lowcountry.
The question made me realize how little we actually know of one another. Beyond what we had shared in stolen moments or what I had heard about him from my family, I knew as much about him that he knows of me. Which is practically nothing.
Have I seen snow? HA.
I lived in a perpetual winter for four years when I went to school in New Hampshire.
That’s right, Dartmouth.
How did you know I went to Dartmouth?
I scanned my memory trying to think if I had told him that at some point. I don’t think I had.
It’s in your file.
My brows raised.
My file?
Yes, your file. You and your parents all have one. We do a complete run up on our clients and their families to make sure we are aware of any threats that might come up.
Dartmouth, graduated with honors with a double major in economics and political science. Your parents must be so proud.
They were. So much so that they rewarded me with my own place downtown. Four years of appeasing them ended up working out in my favor for once.
You didn’t want to study economics or political science?
Not even a little. I wanted to study psychology or neuroscience. Maybe anthropology. I’m fascinated by what makes people tick.
And why didn’t you?
Because my parents pay for my entire life and in order for that to keep happening, I need to do what makes them happy.
What about what makes you happy?
I gnawed on the inside of my lip and felt a stirring in my gut. What about what makes me happy? Without even realizing it, he had just pointed out the thing that I feared the most.
That one day I would wake up and realize I had only ever lived my life for other people. That I lived for everyone else’s happiness except my own and then it would be too late for me to be happy just for myself. I stared at my phone and felt a warmness grow in my cheeks that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
You make me happy, Jack.
You make me happy too, flower.
25
MAGNOLIA
“Whatareyou wearing?” she scoffed as I walked in the front door.
