ARIA
A long quiet moment passed between us.
"You're welcome," he said finally, in a voice that was slightly less formal than usual and somehow more real for it.
"Good," I said. "Now close the laptop and rest. You're terrible at it."
He almost smiled. Actually almost.
A few days passed.
Then I was discharged.
I had assumed we were going back to the hotel. Packed my few things, said my goodbyes to the nurses who had been very patient with both me and Kael for the past several days, and walked out to the car with Kael's hand resting on my back.
We didn't go to the hotel.
He drove for about twenty minutes through parts of the city I didn't know particularly well, and then we turned through a gate and up a long driveway and stopped in front of a house I instantly recognized.
I stared at it.
