10

Ty gave Lo a week to calm down. He was convinced that she was just scared of the intensity of her emotions and needed time to come to terms with them. It was the first time she had actually been in a serious relationship but he wasn’t about to let her go that easily.
No fucking way. He was prepared to fight tooth and nail for her to be back at his side.
What he wasn’t prepared for, however, was the huge FOR SALE sign outside her house when he got there. He was confused as fuck as a quick look in the windows showed that none of her stuff was in the house; all her furniture was gone.
Ty knew Lo would never sell her house willingly. It had belonged to her mother and had been left behind for her after her mothers death when Lo was about 15. She had never known her father who had died when she was a baby. It was one of the few things that Lo used to feel close to her late mother as her mom had been the one to build and furnish the house herself.
Shaking his head, Ty made a quick call to the realtor on the FOR SALE sign and drove to Pam’s Place.

He and Lo had frequented Pam’s Place every Friday to buy Pam’s special brownies and he had come to pick Lo up and drop her off there several times. The smells of the bistro and the environment in general were now familiar and comforting to him.
But not today. Today, his stomach was a tight ball of tension and fear. There were so many questions in his head and he couldn’t wait to spew them all out.
He went straight into the back and found Yaz lounging in Pam’s office. The owner, however, was nowhere to be found. At that moment, Ty couldn’t care less.
“I was wondering when you’d show up,” Yaz said when she saw him. There was a look in her eyes that made Ty suspect she knew what had happened between he and Lo.
“Yaz,” he greeted, forcing a smile, “its good to see you. How was Paris?”
Yaz shrugged, “The usual.”
She had been in Paris for the last three months participating in a gymnastics competition which Ty had seen on the news that she had won (as usual). He didn’t know when she had gotten back but right now, she was looking at him inquisitively.
“When are you going to start groveling to know where Lo is?” she asked, “My feet need licking, yunno.”
Despite himself, Ty chuckled, “Please, please and please, o mighty Yaz. Show me my beloved.”
Yaz rolled her eyes, “I’m only going to tell you because my friend is a dumbass that I'm fucking tired of and you manage to successfully get her off my hands.”
Ty nodded and waited for the answer.
“Upstairs.”
Ty looked at the ceiling, “What?”
“She’s not hanging on the ceiling like SpiderGirl, you dumbass,” Yaz chided, “she’s renting the studio apartment upstairs from Pam.”
“Why on earth would she do that?” Ty asked, bewildered.
At that question, Yaz looked away from Ty and shrugged.
He knew Yaz shipped he and Lo together fully, but there were somethings she would never tell him unless she knew Lo would want him to know. He understood that whatever this was, he would have to get Lo to tell him herself.
“Where’s the entrance?” he asked.
Yaz briefly described the location of the stairs that led upstairs and with gratitude, he was on his way.
The steep stairs were dark as Ty climbed them, the flickering fluorescent above barely doing anything. It was obvious that Pam had never planned to use this place by the decaying look of it. It smelled that damp stone and a piece of paint pealed off in Ty’s hand as he held on the wall to support himself. At least, it wasn’t dirty. But he knew how much Lo hated dirt so it was expected. Under the damp smell, he could faintly make out the lemon and tangerine air freshener Lo loved using.
He knocked on the door when he got to the top of the stairs and in a few seconds, Lo tore the door open.
“Pam, I don’t care if your girl is sick,” she started, “I'm not fill-”
She stopped abruptly when she saw that it was the man she had been desperately pushing out of her mind that stood on her doorstep and not her annoying friend. She had to blink twice to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. She had told him not to look for her, but it would be fucking idiotic to expect Ty to follow instructions. It had only been a week but she missed so bloody much and she was tempted to jump on hum but she held herself and tried to smell.
Ty studied her and her fake as hell smile. It made her look like the Grinch and he would’ve laughed if he didn’t see the sad look in her eyes. There was melancholy there, as if whatever was happening to her weighed constantly on her mind. He would do anything to relieve her of that burden, he'd even take on the weight of the sky for her, if only she’d actually tell him what was going on.
“Are you going to invite me in or are we going to keep staring at each other on the threshold?” he asked through clenched teeth. It was taking everything in him not to grab her and show her exactly what she meant to him.
She stepped aside and he walked into the tiny apartment. She closed the door as he looked around. It was cute, but Lo deserved way better living conditions. It was clean, but of course, less couldn’t be expected of Lo, and the space was quite breezy with large windows on each side of the small apartment.
“Sit down,” Lo said, pointing to the small single sofa in the apartment, “would you like some coffee?”
“Yes please,” he ground out as he took his seat. Some scalding coffee could distract him from the severe attraction he felt to Lo and the rush of emotions he felt from just being in close proximity to her.
She went to the small demarcated kitchen area and started preparing coffee.
Ty heard a small sound from the stool beside him and looked at the source of the sound.
It was Lo’s phone and he could see the text that had just entered her phone plain and clear:
L: Or would u prefer I show pretty boy?
Ty could feel his head throbbing and his jaw ticking.
Without having to be told, he knew he was the one being referred to as ‘pretty boy’ and he was pissed off for two reasons:
1. He hated being called ‘pretty’ and
2. This asshole was threatening Lo for some reason.
Lo came back with the coffee and Ty had to fake a calm disposition to mask the storm that was raging inside him. It was very clear that this was the asswipe that had been giving Lo a hard time and the realization made Ty want to break something, or preferably, someone.
“So,” Lo started once she had given Ty his coffee, “to what do I owe this visit?”
She still looked like the Grinch and Ty thought it was ridiculous.
“Why are you selling your house?” he asked, straight to the point. He didn’t feel like beating around the bush.
“Wanted a change of scenery,” Lo said with false nonchalance.
“Bullshit,” Ty dropped his cup of coffee on the table loudly, “you mean to tell me you sold your mothers house for this shit hole and you tell me you wanted a change of scenery? What scenery is this? Pain and suffering?”
Yes, Lo almost whispered. Since she had left his house, all Lo had experienced was the pain and suffering Ty had just mentioned. But she put on a brave face and even braver pants.
“It was my house to do with as I wished,” she said firmly, “besides, it was sold shortly before you got here.”
The look in her expressive eyes when she spoke about her house being sold told Ty that she didn’t really want to sell it. She had just been desperate.
“If you needed the money from selling your house, Lo, you could’ve just asked me. You know that.”
“You also know I would never ask you for money,” she retorted.
“You would never ask me for anything,” he said, exasperated, “not even to take out the trash.”
“I am perfectly capable of taking it out myself.”
He sighed, “Lo, why are you so adamant about refusing the fact that I want to help you. I want to be there for you. I want to be your partner and your helping hand.”
Lo looked at him and just by the look on his face, she could tell that he was serious. She was about to open her mouth to reply when her phone chimed.
As usual, she lunged for it but before she could grab it off the stool, Ty had already seen the text that came in:
L: I'm at ur friends pretty little bistro. Such quality coffee.
Lo read the message and as she stared at her phone, Ty imagined that an invisible giant syringe had been stabbed into her and used to suck out all her colour.
Looking pale and lifeless, she looked at Ty and with a voice that she wasn’t sure was her own, said, “I think you should leave now, Ty. Thanks for your visit.”
She walked robotically to the door and held it open without looking at Ty. In fact, Ty noticed, she wasn’t looking at anything. It was like her spirit had flown away and all that remained was her empty body. Even her eyes looked like glass; nothing but emptiness to be seen beneath.
He stood up and walked to the door, nodding curtly at her before descending the stairs. He heard her close the door and he walked into the bistro. Lo didn’t know he had seen the text message and he was going to use that to his advantage.
He looked around the bistro; it was a light afternoon and there were a total of five people in the bistro: a couple, two teenagers and a man in a dark coat drinking a cup of coffee ominously and looking like he was waiting for somebody.
Ty walked over to the man and sat opposite him with a deep frown on his face. The man looked up with a similar frown but smiled widely when he saw Ty. His smile made Ty’s skin crawl; it reminded him of an alligator’s smile. Ty imagined it was the kind of smile a psychotic murderer gave his victims before cutting out their scalps. Unknown to Ty, even if the man wasn’t a murderer yet, a was most definitely psychotic.
“Lo send you?” the man asked.
“No,” Ty replied gruffly, “she doesn’t know I'm here. Who are you?”
The man leaned back and assumed a relaxed position, as if Ty was the last thing he could be worried about in the world, never mind that Ty was much larger than him in size.
“My name is Lou,” he introduced, “I'm Lo’s step-brother.”