Thrive by Rebecca Sherwin

no sugar, thank you.”
    “Just like Curtis.” She smiled at me over her shoulder as she popped a sweetener into her cup.
    I knotted my fingers together in front of me, the guilt moving in. I’d planned to storm in here and expose Phillip’s dirty little secret and watch Lois hurt like I did, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t hurt her. I couldn’t tell her something so life-changing. I couldn’t take that choice away from Curtis. But now I was here, in her house, with no purpose but to keep the truth from her.
    She made our tea and picked our cups up off the counter, nodding her head for me to lead the way into the living room. She curled her petite body into the corner of the sofa and held my cup out to me when I’d done the same. We were facing each other and as my eyes met hers, the same shape and shade as Curtis’, a calm washed over me. I’d always loved his eyes and it was a relief that he’d inherited them from Lois. It was a reminder that, despite Curtis and I being related in some sick, twisted way, we could still hold onto a sense of freedom.
    “Curtis told me I’d know when I saw you,” she said, smiling as she assessed me and seemed satisfied.
    “What do you mean?” I curled my hands around the mug, drawing confidence from its heat.
    “I knew all those years ago that something had changed him.” A sadness filled her eyes, bringing glistening moisture with it. “He was such an angry boy. I tried to help him, I really did. Geoff tried to help him…but it was you who finally gave him a purpose. That’s all he’s ever wanted. To feel needed. I don’t know how he could have ever let you go.”
    I hid my trembling bottom lip behind my cup. “He told you about me?”
    “Curtis has always struggled to express himself. He always preferred physical expression over anything verbal.” I looked away. I knew exactly how he expressed himself, I just didn’t know what he was trying to say. “I knew he’d found someone. I’m not his biological mother, Skye, but I raised him. I know him.” She took a steadying sip of her tea. “I asked him about the girl who had given him his life back. All he would tell me is that he’d betrayed you, and I’d know when I saw you.” She shrugged with a smile. “And here you are.”
    “I’m so sorry.” I muttered.
    “Fate has a funny way of getting us to where we’re supposed to be.” I nodded, cursing fate as I had done hundreds of times before. “Will you stay the night? I’d like to get to know you. You can have Curtis’ old bedroom.”
    I hesitated, but eventually let out a sigh and nodded. “I’d love to.”
     
    ***
    I stirred as gentle hands slipped around me and pulled me into a warm, hard body.
    “Thomas?” I whispered, turning and nuzzling into the chest of the man behind me.
    His body was too hard, too physically haunted to be Thomas and as consciousness moved in, I realised it was Curtis.
    He’d found me.
    I tried to move away, but my body was exhausted and my mind lacked the energy I needed to push him away, when it wasn’t really what I wanted.
    “Shh.” He stroked his hand through my hair and cupped my face. It was dark, but I felt his eyes on mine and sensed the warmth I thought they’d lost. “Just let me hold you.”
    I nodded and slipped my arm under his to hold him back. His body tensed as if my touch burned him, but clamped his arm over mine when I tried to retreat.
    “Hold me,” he breathed, his voice thick with conflicted emotion. “Hold me and fall asleep in my arms.”
    I snuggled down in the arms of my dark, tormented man and closed my eyes.

 
 
Seven
     
    I laid awake all night and watched her sleep. I tried to find a way to explain my life to her; to find a way to give her the information she needed, without her pushing far enough away that I’d never be able to get her back. How do you tell the woman you love more than the air you breathe, that you’ve failed? How do you tell her that you break the law, steal from