If Finley was anything, it was full of pride, unable to give in to a man simply because he asked her to. He’d been pretty spot on in his analysis of her, in figuring out that she came from money, that she thrived off of attention, that she found him intriguing for his eyes, his beard… and the way he distanced himself, too. But instead of answering, she looked past him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of an answer. “Why? You didn’t want anything to do with me ten minutes ago. What changed?”
“What changed?” he paused, stopping as they neared the steps that ascended up to his building. “I realized I was hungry,” he answered, then began walking up. Once he unlocked the door and walked inside, he left it ajar for her to follow after him if he wanted. But as he walked in and threw his keys down on the island in the kitchen, he realized that he hadn’t thought this through. He still had pictures of him and Vera everywhere, some with his ex-wife Anna in them as well. And the one sitting above the fireplace on the mantle, right beside his daughter’s urn, was the last one of them taken together. Him smiling through the pain in his chest, knowing that his little girl was dwindling into nothing, as he held her weakened body in that hospital bed. She had all types of tubes and wires attached to her, but she’d slumbered, bald and adorned in hospital gown, peacefully in his arms. Just an hour prior, what had prompted him to lay down in the hospital bed with her, she’d been huffing out weak sobs. She was in pain, even through all of the narcotics. She was in unimaginable pain. And when Archer had held her, she’d cried into his chest, whispering that she loved him, until she fell asleep. Anna had snapped the picture. A few hours later she flatlined.
Archer tried to expel the memory from his head, willing himself to return to the refreshed state the fresh air had brought to him. In an attempt to regain his composure he walked around the perimeter of the kitchen and living room, pushing open all the windows to let the cool air in. “Make yourself comfortable,” he called out behind him, gruffly, not actually knowing if she was in the house.