Chapter 5
Night deepened. After her shower, Sophie came out to find Evan already lying obediently on the pallet, wrapped in the blanket like a cocoon and looking at her with only his eyes exposed.
She turned off the light, but couldn't ignore his tall figure in the tiny room.
"Still cold?" Sophie asked in the dark.
"Cold..."
Evan's voice was thick with grievance.
Sophie sighed, got out of bed, pulled another blanket from the closet, and tossed it to him.
"You can have them both."
Only then did he finally stop moving.
Listening to his breathing steady out, Sophie started to drift off too. Just then, a dark shadow loomed over her.
She jolted awake, about to scream, when a warm dry hand covered her mouth.
A familiar clean scent surrounded her. It was Evan.
"Do not be scared. It is me," he whispered. Sophie thought, 'What is he trying to do?'
'Did I bring home a harmless deer, or a wolf in disguise?' Fear and anger seized her as she pushed, but he did not move.
Just when despair was about to set in, Sophie felt the other side of the mattress dip. Evan carefully climbed onto the bed, then quickly lay flat, leaving a wide gap between them. The hand over her mouth withdrew.
"What are you doing? Get down!" Sophie hissed, angry and shaken. In the dark, Evan shrank back a little, his voice tiny.
"Sophie... cold. Floor... hard."
So now he even knew how to bargain. Sophie was so mad she almost laughed. "If you're cold, then get out and sleep on the street!" The words came out before she thought, and she regretted them at once.
The person beside her went silent. Then she heard a faint sniffle and wondered, 'Is he crying?'
"Don't... don't cry... Sophie, don't cry... you're not cold anymore." He seemed to think she was the one crying.
He hadn't climbed off the floor because he meant to do anything to her. He was just cold, and the floor was hard. Maybe he'd even heard her crying in her sleep.
Sophie's heart went soft and sore, and all her anger and defenses collapsed.
She grabbed another pillow and slammed it down between them. "You can sleep here, but don't cross this line."
"Move one inch and I'll toss you out the window." Evan immediately went still, as if the pillow were a true border he dared not cross.
Sophie lay there staring at the ceiling. She could clearly feel the warm body beside her, its heat seeping through the thin blanket and driving off the night's chill.
His light breathing and clean scent made her feel strangely safe. Just tonight, she told herself. Just this once.
But as she listened to his steady breathing, all the hurt and exhaustion she'd carried for days came rushing over her. Her eyes grew damp. This time, though, she didn't feel alone anymore.