SharedObjectives by Chandra Ryan

after
day.” She swiped angrily at the tears that continued to fall. “So no. I don’t
particularly feel like giving you a pass right now.”
    His face had a chalky-white complexion and he looked as if
he were about to be sick. Both were positive signs in Lisa’s opinion. They
showed that he’d taken her words seriously. “I want to apologize,” he said
after a moment of silence. “But I can’t find the words to tell you how sorry I
am. I don’t think they exist. And the ones I can come up with all seem hollow
and clichéd.”
    “Just tell me the truth. That’s all I want to hear.”
    He took another deep breath. “I’d planned on asking you to
run away with me that day. That’s why I came up to your room early. And I saw
you there, standing on the balcony. The sun made your skin glow. The carefully
prepared speech disappeared just like that. I couldn’t think around you. I
wanted you so badly that I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if you said
no.”
    It was everything she’d hoped he’d say to her back then. But
now it left her feeling empty.
    “I’d never needed anyone before. But I needed you. The
realization shook me. It shook me pretty hard.” He looked away from her as if
the conversation had become difficult for him. “When you took that call. When I
heard what you were and that you worked for the government, I couldn’t believe
I’d fallen so completely for a woman I knew so little about. And I couldn’t
believe you’d ever consider running away with me. You were too smart. You had
too much of a life to give it all up for me.”
    He reached out to her and she allowed him to take her hand.
That moment held too much pain for either of them to relive it alone. “My mind
started making up scenarios, each one worse than the last. It started with me
believing that you had to know that I was modified all along. I mean, really,
that’s your area of expertise so it only makes sense. But then that quickly
morphed into you being responsible for the modifications done to me. And if you
knew and were responsible, there was no way you could feel even a fraction for
me of what I felt for you. To you, I’d always be an experiment. I became
convinced that you’d laugh at me if I told you what I’d come to say. Or worse,
turn me in to your bosses. It’d taken me years of plotting and planning to get
out from under the government’s control. They wouldn’t give me a second chance.
If they didn’t lock me up forever or kill me, they’d do a complete memory
wipe.”
    Hearing the pain and sincerity in his voice, her anger and
pain started to dissipate. But that didn’t offer her much relief. Their chat
had left her heart heavy. It felt as if it’d been bruised somewhere along the
way.
    “There’s no excuse for what I did or said to you, but by
that time I had so much adrenaline pumping through me that I just reacted.” He
sighed as if he’d just gotten a huge weight off his chest. “I’m not proud of
it. I should’ve trusted you with the truth. Of course, I know that now.”
    She could see the raw pain in his eyes as he spoke and
wanted to reach out to him, but she still wasn’t ready. “So what do we do now?
What is it that you and Dixie want from me?”
    “We want you.” The words were simple and yet profound. They
made her stomach clench with fear even as her heart began to warm with a sliver
of hope. And, for one moment, she didn’t know which emotion she should nurture.
“Dixie is intense and bossy, but he’s a good guy. He’s one of my closest
friends.” Ben laughed softly. “Guess today officially makes him my closest
friend. But it’s up to you. If you can’t forgive me, if you’re still angry
about our past, I understand. But I would like to at least have a relationship
with Nate.” He looked down at the bed as he spoke. “After the modification, I
didn’t think I’d ever be able to have a child. I refused to even think about
being a father. It was just too