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Bunk Buddies

My heart raced as Schneider stepped into the cell. I reminded myself for the tenth time that this had been my idea (well, sort of, I wasn’t really sure about that one) and that I needed to stop panicking around him. By now, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could finally make out some of his facial expression.

He looked tired.

That was a shock. Somehow, Schneider managed to look flawless and unaffected every single time we met. Like meeting a celebrity, who never seemed to have a hair out of place. Yet now, he looked very much… human. 

I was tempted to ask if he was all right, but something stopped me. 

“Well, I’ll be taking the upper bunk then.” 

I nodded, then it occurred to me that he might not have seen it, so I said, “Okay.” 

Even tired, Schneider was striking in handsomeness. Tonight, his perfect hair was slightly ruffled and sticking out from the top. His eyes, usually vigilant and bright, were hooded. I couldn’t be too sure, but I thought I saw a flush in his cheeks. 

Wordlessly, he climbed to the upper bunk, lifting himself with his strong arms without needing the metal ladder. The upper bunk sank beneath his weight. 

And speaking of weights, his presence in my cell lifted a weight off my shoulders. I was silently grateful for his… thoughtfulness. Indeed, it was quite thoughtful of him to have come here, first offering to stay so I could feel comfortable falling asleep, and then taking into consideration our mutual agreement and actually offering to continue the ruse of his own volition. Schneider didn’t have to do any of these things.

So why was he? 

“Why are you being nice to me?” I asked, staring up at the underside of what was now his bunk. 

Very briefly as I was escorted back to this cell, I considered actually paying the king to protect me, assuming that someone like him wouldn’t give me the time of day if I didn’t make it worth his while somehow. I’d already inconvenienced him enough. And since I wasn’t giving up my pretty ass, it would have to be my life savings I gave up. What was the use of life savings if they wouldn’t save my life anyway? 

When he didn’t answer immediately, I thought he must have fallen asleep. But then I heard his voice, deepened by his exhaustion. “I feel… guilty for your situation.” 

A moment passed as I processed his confession to me in shock. “Why?”

“I invited you here. Granted, I never imagined it would ever come to this, that you’d run into that psychopath and he’d dare to put his hands on you like that. Still, had it not been for me, you would have never been here to begin with. For that, I am sorry.” There was a note of sincere remorse in his tone that touched my heartstrings. 

Schneider was turning out to be unlike anything I’d imagined. He’d subverted most of my expectations, and in a good way. Who would have thought that a criminal mastermind could be capable of genuine remorse? 

I smiled ruefully. “Yeah, that makes two of us.” Then I said honestly, “But you’re not the one who needs to be sorry.” 

I had no qualms against him. After all, he wasn’t the one to sexually assault me, doing the most depraved things to me I’d ever experienced. Well, he had kissed me unsolicited, but he hadn’t gone too far. He hadn’t done anything  that bastard Kevin did. 

Although it was never my style to speak ill of the dead, or bear long-term grudges, I was willing to make a special exception for Kevin. I hadn’t meant to kill him, but I couldn’t say with a hundred percent certainty that it was undeserved. Unhinged, cruel people like him belonged in a special facility where they couldn’t harm people, not employed. My only qualm was that he never made it to one of those facilities. 

Unfortunately, talk about Kevin elicited the dreadful memories of that day. They were forever burned to my brain matter, plaguing me day and night, in waking and in sleep. 

The most vivid of those memories was the look in his eyes as he’d come for me. There had been unmistakable deadly intent in his eyes. I’d stared death in the face and won. If I hadn’t killed him, he would have killed me. I reminded myself of that everyday. 

No, there was not an inkling of guilt or regret for Kevin in me, and there never would.  

I hope you’re burning in hell, motherfucker. That’s where you belong. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be in this place. 

It occurred to me that I, too, was now stuck in a different kind of hell, but a hell all the same. 

“Why did you choose me, anyway?” I asked, genuinely curious. Schneider could have had any lawyer in the world, not just because he was a high profile client, but because he could afford it and then some. As such, I’d always wondered why he’d picked me. My own employer had better repute and far more experience. 

“You seemed like a pretty good lawyer to me.”

“How did you figure that?”

“You got Aiden out of this pisshole.” 

The 25-year-old’s face flashed in my mind as I recalled the first time I’d come here to meet him on behalf of my widowed client. Aiden had widowed her, but he’d done it to keep her late husband from killing her. He’d stepped in to save her, and the gun my client’s husband had pulled on her went off accidentally, killing him in the process. Unfortunately, the court didn’t see it that way, and Aiden was sentenced to life in prison before my client finally stepped forward to do the right thing and testify against her late husband. 

Somehow, I hadn’t realized just how similar our circumstances were. Now I knew the injustice Aiden felt when he’d been in my shoes. Somehow, I doubted any of the guards would grow a conscience and testify against their dead comrade. 

“I didn’t do anything. He got himself out by being innocent. I simply helped bring it to light.” I said truthfully. I couldn’t take credit where credit wasn’t due. 

Schneider didn’t say anything for a long time. I began to think he wouldn’t reply. 

“I do have another reason,” he finally admitted. 

I yawned, the fatigue finally returning. This time, it was welcome. “What’s that?” I mumbled, closing my eyes.

One heartbeat. Two heartbeats. Three heartbeats. Five heartbeats. Ten heartbeats. 

****

Schneider’s P.O.V

“I think I’ve fallen in love with you, Julian.” I confessed against my better judgment. The regret was instantaneous. I knew that this wasn’t the appropriate time or setting, but it had whooshed out of me like a sigh.  

When I didn’t immediately get a response, I inwardly groaned, realizing that I might have freaked him out (who could blame him after all he’d been through just today) and peeked down at Julian.  

He’d already fallen asleep. He hadn’t heard my confession. 

I was both dejected and relieved. 

Sighing, I lay back down on the bunk and closed my eyes. For now, I’d sleep and I’d let him sleep. Tomorrow, I’d go about making him mine.