Chapter 9: Ten Breaths

I got to the dock at two minutes to three.

Roan was already there, on the bottom step this time.

He had put six feet of cold concrete between his usual spot and mine.

I looked at the gap and understood it was on purpose.

Every night for two years he had sat one step down and a foot to my left.

I had thought that was just where he liked to sit.

I had read it as the distance of a kind man with a married friend.

Now I saw him sitting on his hands.

"You came," he said.

"I said three o'clock."

"You said a lot of things."

"I'm still angry."

"Good," Roan said. "You should be."

I sat down on the top step, three feet from where I belonged.

"Terms," I said.

"Tell me."

"One. You tell me everything you know about Kasper, the show or Siri, every night, before I have to ask."

"Done."

"Two. If I ask you a question, I get the answer, even if it makes you look bad."

"Done."

"Three." I stopped, because three was harder. "Nothing happens between us on hospital grounds."

His head came up.

"Kasper's lawyers are going to look for a way to say I'm unstable," I said.

"I won't hand them a doctor and a nurse in a loading bay."

"That's fair."

"It's also what I'd tell a patient."

"It's fair, Anja," he said. "I'll keep to it."

"Say it."

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