Last Hit(32)

As the professor leaves, Christine gives me a shy, hesitant smile and I beam at her.

I’ve got Christine’s back.

***

That night as we do the dishes, I tell Nick about Christine’s absence. About the new bruises on her arm. Instead of offering sympathy or solutions, he shakes his head at me.

“Stay away from her, kotehok. She is involved in trouble.”

I refuse to. “She needs a friend now more than ever.”

But the look he gives me is wary, and his eyes are old and too knowing. “Your heart is good, Daisy, but I do not know that your friend wants help. What would you do if someone tried to take you from me?”

“But that’s different,” I sputter.

My words make him smile. “Da, we are different, love. But I would kill any man or woman that tried to come between us. Perhaps this Saul feels this way about his Christine, hmm?”

I frown as I wipe my hands free of the sudsy water. I don’t like that Nick is warning me away from her. Christine needs me. I know she does. I see in her the girl I was before I ran away: trapped, miserable, and friendless.

I won’t abandon her.

***

The next time I head to the commons for lunch, Christine is at her regular spot. Cheered by her reappearance, I sit down happily and offer half my sandwich.

Christine waves it away with a weak smile. “I already ate, but thank you.”

I doubt it, but I keep smiling. “Of course.” I take a bite of my ham sandwich and choke down the dry mouthful. As I do, I pull out my notes from class and offer them to her so she can make her own copies.

She flashes me a grateful smile and I don’t even mind.

“How’s your eye?” I ask her.

Christine flinches back. “Fine.”

“Haven’t run into any more doors?” I tease gently, trying to defuse her panic.

She looks relieved and smiles at me. “Nope.”

I force myself to keep eating even as Christine works on my notes. I keep trying to think of topics to discuss and discarding them. Eventually, I settle for buttering her up. “So that was your boyfriend from the other day? Sal?”

“Saul,” she corrects, and the wary look is back in her eyes.

“He seems very protective of you,” I say. “He must love you very much.”

Her smile slowly blossoms across her face. “He is. He’s such a great guy. So smart and strong and very protective of me. He only wants the best for me.”

I want to vomit at the rapture I hear in Christine’s voice. Instead, I put down my sandwich. This is the most eloquent she’s been. “I bet. Have you two been together long?”

“Since high school. How about you and Nick?”

“Less than a year,” I tell her with a smile. “But he’s my soul.”

She nods in understanding. “Saul and I met at a game store,” she tells me. “I worked there part-time while in high school, and he used to come in and play. I’d give him a discount because he was cute, and he eventually figured it out and asked me out.” She grins.

“Is Saul a big fan of gaming, then?”

She nods and hands my homework back. “He’s majoring in programming. He’d love to do video games for a living, I think.”

“Cool,” I say, though I’m mentally noting this down. “What kinds of games?”

“Oh, I don’t know. First-person shooters?” She shrugs. “I mostly play Japanese RPGs, so we don’t play the same types.”

I don’t know anything about video games, but I get cold when she mentions “shooters.” I wonder if Nick will know much about games? He seems to know a little about everything, though he prefers to spend his time with me instead of playing video games.

Even as I think this, I worry. Nick is stressed lately, and he worries about me. His cover as Nick Anders will be compromised if he takes up his job as a hit man once more. I can’t allow that to happen. I love Nick more than I love my freedom, but I also can’t let Christine suffer.

It’s clear I’ll have to handle this on my own.

“Do you play video games?” Christine asks, interrupting my thoughts.

I shake my head. “No,” I tell her. “I’ve never tried one.”

“You should,” Christine says. “I can give you a suggestion or two if you want to play something.”

“I could come over and you could show me how to play something.”

A shadow crosses her face. “Well, I was tight on money last month and uh, I pawned my systems.”

I nod sympathetically. Maybe now is a good time to approach Nick’s suggestion. “You know,” I tell her. “Nick and I live in a big apartment building that has a lot of empty units. You’re welcome to move into one if you need help getting on your feet.”