“Whew,” Hamlin said, letting
out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding until just then.
“She is a bit—imposing,”
Manny agreed. “Shall we get your bags and get out of here?”
They did, and half an hour
later Manny watched in amusement as Hamlin looked around the tiny apartment. “I
told you it was small, but I didn’t want to make a decision on something larger
until you got here.”
“I’ve seen storage closets
bigger than this place.”
“I know, but since I’m
hardly ever here it just seemed silly to invest in something more.”
Turning to look at him,
Hamlin frowned. “You travel a lot then?”
“Unfortunately, yes. It’s
rare that I get an assignment like the one I had in New York. Usually I’m here for a week at
most before Sofietje sends me off somewhere else.”
Hamlin dropped his bags by
the door before asking, “For how long?” When Manny said nothing as he debated
his reply, Hamlin sighed. “I’m going to be alone more than with you, aren’t I?
Well,” he smiled some then, “it’s still going to be worth it.”
“You can come with me.
Keegan said that Thom travels with him sometimes. But, well, there’s one time
when you can’t.”
Something in Manny’s face
told Hamlin he wasn’t going to like this. He leaned back against the wall,
looking at Manny. “When is that?”
Manny dropped his gaze.
“Occasionally I’ll be gone for a year.”
“A year? You’re kidding me.
If it’s for that long why can’t I go with you?”
“Because I’ll be in some
other century and I have to travel through the veil to get there and only the
dead can do that,” Manny told him all in one breath. “I’m sorry, I should have
said something sooner but I was afraid that if I did you’d change your mind
and—“
Hamlin nodded slowly,
running a hand through his hair. Pushing off the wall, he paced across the room
to look out the window, staring at a city that was foreign to him.
“Mijn liefde, I’m sorry, I
was a coward, I know it.”
Turning, Hamlin stared at
him, saying coldly, “More than that, you didn’t trust me. What else haven’t you
told me? What else did you think you had to hold back until you had me over
here where I can’t just say ‘fuck you’ and go back to my old life?”
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