Decari grins at me, and I immediately feel my face start to heat up even more than it already was. Did I seriously just fucking say that? What is wrong with me? Obviously he's fit, he's a fucking police officer. Also, I have quite literally seen him shirtless. He's seen himself shirtless, as well. We both know that, it's obvious, why do I make myself look stupider with our every interaction?

"Have to make myself useful somehow," he replies, tone joking. I nod, trying to think of something normal to say that will not make myself look any weirder than I already do.

"I'm sure you're plenty useful."

Which I thought would be a safe response, but the way it comes out, in context of the conversation... sounds strange. Something flashes in Dex's eyes, and I realize all the ways that could be taken. I contemplate kicking him out and trying to do this on my own, despite the difficulty. Why do I make everything so awkward?

"I can be." Dex replies, tone off. I'm not making eye contact with him anymore, and he's looking at my mouth, and then my phone—thank god—rings.

I try not to look as relieved as I feel, giving him a small, apologetic smile and digging my phone out of my pocket. I turn away from him, smile dropping to a look of pure, exasperated self loathing. Then, I press the green button and put the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" I say, positive it's Willow even though I never checked the caller ID. She's the only person who could be calling me right now, though. Sure enough, when I get a response, it's a familiar light tone—though she's clearly not thrilled.

"Hey, I finished loading my stuff in the truck." She tells me, and I take pause. I frown, taking a seat on a box inside the room—ensuring I'm out of earshot of Decari—and stretching my legs out. What?

"Huh? I told you to just pack your things up."

"Yeah, I finished, so I put it all in the truck."

"How?" I can't help it, I'm so confused. Half of her belongings are comfort items and furniture, while the other half are electronics. How the fuck did she move all of that into the truck, especially in this short amount of time? Maybe I was struggling a bit more with the boxes than I initially realized.

Then, something else catches up with me. "Wait, you're outside the facility?"

"Yes. I made a pulley system," she tells me, and I wonder what she even means by that. A pulley system? Out of what? "I figured I could drive the truck over there, so you don't have to walk back here for it."

I run a hand through my hair, unable to hide how stressed I now am. So not only is she outside the secure facility, while the copycat is fucking following her, but she has been for a while. That is, if the fact she was able to load it all in the truck is anything to go off of.

Not just that, but now she also wants to drive. "We've only had a couple driving lessons, Willow. I don't think you're ready for the roads."

"No, I practice when you're gone, too."

This girl is stressing me the fuck out.

How often does she leave the facility? We had a deal, that she would message me every time she did so. Now I find out she's been practicing without notifying me. The copycat is on the loose, and clearly is after her in some way, and she's just out in the open right now. She's far too comfortable with it, which doesn't make me feel any better.

She can't get back inside the facility if she's already outside of it, though. She doesn't have a key. Every time she leaves, she has to prop the door open, which I don't want either. So, I don't have much of a choice. I'd rather her be inside of a car that she can lock, on her way to me, than outside in the open. Waiting.

"Fine, just lock the doors. And hurry up."

"Yeah, I know, I know." She replies, sounding kind of fed up. I roll my eyes, and when I do so, I catch sight of Decari. He's in the other room, and the boxes are stacking pretty high now. That's not what suddenly causes my stress to increase tenfold, though.

He's shirtless, now. He's sweaty, and I can see his muscles flex when he moves the boxes around, and it takes everything in me to look away when he starts to turn his head in my general direction.

I really need a break, Jesus fucking Christ. "Call me when you're here. Dex is in my apartment, helping me clear out a room. I want you to think of a name to go by on the way here, because we aren't telling him your real one."

Sorry, but Willow comes from a family that is far too high profile, and she has a recognizable face on top of that. She stands out, especially since the Korean population in Hadena isn't particularly large. Having her around Dex is already risky to begin with, but telling him her real name would just be setting us up for failure.

It may be harder to keep up with, may be more of an obstacle to be constantly reminding myself what name to call her, but I'll take those odds. Decari is far too smart, something I can tell without even knowing him all that well. He's quite young for a detective, so he must be good at his job to be getting that promotion so early. I can't underestimate him, no matter how much I want to. He's already caught me in one lie.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Willow says dismissively, and I purse my lips, reminding myself to keep my patience. Willow may be frustrating in how she does things, but in the end, she's helping. So is Dex. I shouldn't be irritated right now, even if they are both stressing me the hell out.

Willow and I hang up a moment after that, and I sigh, shutting off my phone and placing it in my pocket. I run a hand down my face, eyes closed, and take a deep breath. Okay, so Willow and Dex are about to meet. That's fine, it will go smoothly. I had no idea this would be happening so soon, and am absolutely not prepared for it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Camilo?"

I jump, dropping my hand and looking up to find Dex in the doorway. He's still shirtless and sweaty, looking at me in expectation. I watch him point behind himself with his thumb, where there is a large stack of boxes, before he speaks.

"The room's clear."

My face brightens, and obviously there is still plenty of work to do, but at least Willow will have somewhere to put her things when she gets here. "Really?"

Dex nods, and I stand up. He moves out of the doorway so I can brush past him, and I take a moment to internally congratulate myself for not staring too much. Something that is quite a feat around a shirtless Dex, unfortunately.

Sure enough, he has moved all of the boxes out of the spare room, and they are now in my living area. I purse my lips when I find this, making a mental reminder to visit a dump at some point. There's got to be some things in all this mess that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.

"Wow, thank you so much," I say, turning back around to face Dex. I find him now moving the boxes inside the room, and can't help the spark of guilt it ignites. As if he hasn't already done enough, now he's doing my job.

"Wait, Dex—" I take a step forward and grab his forearm, which is straining as it holds up the box. Dex turns to look down at me expectantly, and it takes several long seconds for me to will my gaze away from his biceps and to his eyes. "That's okay, you've done enough. I got it from here."

Dex glances down at my hand on his arm, then back up to my eyes. I remove our contact quickly, and he has a half smile on his face. "Don't worry about it. I don't think you'll have enough room, anyway."

I look past him and into the room, then back down at the boxes that surround us, before it clicks that he's right. There's no way I'll have enough space in here for two room's worth of boxes, which I had accounted for at the beginning. I knew there was a chance, I just didn't have a plan for if I turned out to be right.

"Shit." I say simply, once this processes. I can't just leave all these boxes out in the living room, they take up too much space. I've already got enough shit out here, am I just going to need to make a trip to the dump? Again, I'm sure there are a few things I wouldn't mind getting rid of, but it'll take even longer to go through that. I was not intending for this to be an all day affair.

"I mean, I have plenty of empty space if you need some extra room."

I look over at Dex in disbelief when those words leave his mouth, unable to believe that someone could be this kind. People are not this nice unless they want something in return, there's no way. It's not like I have anything incriminating in these boxes—that I can think of—so that's not really the issue.

It's just... I already see him so often, and I know that I have made peace with the fact that we are friends, but still. I feel as though I already owe him for all the things he's done for me, and now he's offering to let me use his personal space to store my own belongings? That's insane.

"No, no, I couldn't possibly..." I'm stressed, I can't even hide it. I watch Dex place the box down inside the room, which is rapidly running out of space, before turning to face me. I'm eye level with his chest, and end up staring at it for a beat too long before I remember that it's polite to make eye contact when someone is speaking to me.

"Come on, we're friends, right?"

My gaze flickers to his mouth, then his chest again, then back to his eyes, which are annoyingly reassuring.

"Is that what friends do?"

Dex scans my face over, and I can't help the strange feeling this entire interaction gives me. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, likely signaling that Willow has arrived, and I really just want this all to be over.

"It is."

I can't take it anymore, I have to break eye contact. The way Dex looks at me, the kindness that radiates out of his fucking pores, it's all... it's all just too much. I'm not used to this stuff. I don't understand it. I need a break.

"Okay, well... okay. She's here, I'll—I'll be right back."

I take my exit immediately after the words leave my mouth, before walking out the entrance of my apartment and into the corridor. I spot one of my other neighbors walking down the hall out of the corner of my eye, but I don't even acknowledge them.

I don't breathe until I finally reach the elevator, and decide to just make peace with the fact that this is going to be a long day.