Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 33 of 37

Ashley found Miko in the hotel garden that evening, kneeling by a row of pots. Miko was the hotel owner who had touched Ashley's bone arm without flinching, then shown her a hidden blade and named her own violent past. She had given Ashley the one thing no one else had: a place to stop hiding. All day Ashley had rehearsed the question. Now the words stuck in her throat. She still had no idea if Miko wanted her back, or only pitied the strange girl who showed up alone. "Becca," Miko said, not turning. "You've been circling me since noon. Say the thing." Ashley's heart slammed. The rehearsed speech vanished. Her body moved before her mind agreed. She crossed the grass, took Miko's chest in her hands, and kissed it softly through the fox robe. The fabric was warm. Ashley held there one long second, giving away the whole truth at once. Then she stepped back, sick with fear. She waited for Miko to reach for the blade. She waited to be sent packing. Miko rose slowly. Her fox ears tilted. For a moment her face gave nothing. Then she laughed, low and real, and set her hand over the spot Ashley had kissed. "So that's the thing," Miko said. "You could have used your mouth for words first." "I couldn't," Ashley said. "I've wanted to do that since the noodles. I didn't know if you'd want it too. I thought maybe you just felt sorry for me." Miko stepped close. She lifted Ashley's bone hand and pressed it flat against her own chest, where the heart beat hard under the robe. "Feel that," Miko said. "I don't pity guests. I feed them and send them on. You, I asked to stay." She smiled. "I've watched you look at me for two days. I was waiting to see if you'd stop running long enough to try." Ashley's chest cracked open with relief. Her eyes stung. "You wanted me." "Yes." Miko cupped Ashley's face and kissed her mouth, slow and certain. This time there was no fear in it, no hiding, no bone arm to explain. Ashley kissed her back and felt, for the first time in her life, wanted as her whole self. When they parted, Miko kept hold of her hand. "But you should know," she said, quieter now. "A woman came asking at the front desk today. About a girl with a bone arm. I told her nothing." Her thumb traced Ashley's knuckle. "Whatever you're running from, Becca, it just found this town." Ashley went cold. She had a girlfriend now. She had, at last, a person who wanted her fully. And someone had followed her here to take it away.