The Beginning Chapter 27
Chapter 27 Audio:
Chapter 27
Willow typed the security code Stella had given her onto the keypad on the wall, pushed open the door to the other woman’s apartment, dropped her duffle bag onto the floor, then collapsed next to it, stretching out across the cool surface, and resting her head on the pale, gray rug just inside the room’s entrance.
“You okay?”
At the unexpected sound of a voice from the next room, Willow forced her eyes open and struggled to sit upright, pressing her back against the wall behind her. She had developed a habit of collapsing the moment she stepped through the door after training—a reward for pushing through another exhausting, frustrating day of working with Price. Normally, there was no one else around to notice.
“Yes,” she managed, blinking up at the woman to her left.
Stella stood at the edge of the kitchen, with one hand on a hip and her brow furrowed. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” The Enlist nodded, laughing at herself as she scooted across the floor until she was horizontal again. “Just lots of running. I’ll be fine after I lay here for a minute.”
“You ended the class with running?” Stella asked, stepping backward into the kitchen. She kept her gaze on the other woman for several more seconds before returning her attention to something on the stove.
Willow pulled her legs under her, sat a little taller. “Started and ended. There was also a lot of running in between.”
Stella pulled a small plate from the cabinet above the sink, placed a sauce-covered spoon on top of it, then moved back toward Willow, crossing her arms in front of her. It was unusual for any Lucky Ones member living on Command to prepare their own meal rather than acquire it ready-made from Nutrition, but Willow had learned that her temporary roommate viewed cooking as a method of relaxation. “You’re still spending that much time on conditioning?”
“Is that unusual?” It had seemed odd to Willow, at first, but she had nothing for comparison. All of her friends who ended up in Rescue had been assigned to train with Dak and Price had told her from the beginning that the two instructors used very different methods.
“Probably not,” Stella decided, tilting her head from side to side as if to indicate her thought process. “I’m not really in the loop on Rescue training protocol.” For a few seconds, she stared at a spot beyond Willow’s shoulder, apparently pondering something, before returning again to the half-cooked meal.
From her spot on the floor, Willow could hear the woman hurrying from the cabinet to the stove to the sink over and over for the next several minutes until she drifted into a state of mostly-asleep and woke to find Stella staring down at her, once more, this time holding a bowl of pasta for each of them. “How has training been, overall?”
Willa sat upright again, reached for her food. “Not bad.”
“That’s it?” Stella smiled, as she often did, but there was something in her eyes that prompted Willow to sort through her brain for more details.
“I think it’s been fine. Price doesn’t give a lot of feedback, but as far as I can tell, everything’s going as expected. He hasn’t said otherwise.”
Stella nodded but stared into the distance for another few seconds before her next question. “What does Dak say?”
The words surprised Willow. Stella stayed very much in-the-know about all things Lucky Ones related. “I haven’t trained with Dak in weeks.”
“What?” Stella had her fork halfway to her mouth but dropped it back into the bowl, then placed her dinner on the nearest flat surface.
“I haven’t worked with Dak at all since we started training with our primary segments,” Willow explained.
Rather than offer any immediate verbal response, Stella stomped across the floor, dropped the remnants of her meal onto the top shelf of the fridge, then hustled back through the apartment, apparently searching for something. “Finish your food,” she instructed, stepping around the other woman’s outstretched legs “then we have somewhere to be.”