Page 67 of Until He Confesses

Ididn’t really know what to do with myself. Technically I was still on vacation, but returning to the city, I was certain I was sure to immediately destroy this. There were already calls requesting my attention but they were being forced to wait for my return. If word got out that I was back in the city, then everyone would throw consideration out of the window. I remained in a hotel that wasn’t too far away from the hospital and vacationed the only way my family could during my earlier years. I stayed in, worked out at the gym though their treadmill was broken, and tried to catch up with television. It was like entering a foreign land as I tried to figure out what was current on the entertainment front but when eventually nothing held my interest, I switched over to the news but kept the volume down as background noise.

I wished that I could hear some updates about her mom as I didn’t think that I would be able to remain here past the next day, but I refrained from calling them in case the ringing woke her up. Instead, I sent a message and a few minutes later Callie responded.

“She’s doing great and she’s resting. The doctor says she needs a lot more time to recover so I’m just going to let her be for the time being. Where are you?” she asked. “Did you return to the city yet?”

“No, I didn’t,” I texted back. “I'm still on vacation so I’m trying to avoid being sucked into the trap of working. I got a hotel in town.”

“Oh,” she wrote back, and I wondered what it meant but I didn’t pursue it.

But still, she sent another message a few minutes later.

“Have you eaten anything yet? We could go for some lunch. I know a great Chinese place here we could head to, or we could just order in?”

“Order in?” I asked. “Are you planning on coming over?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I wanted to ask since you’re still around if you wanted to stay at our house?”

I smiled at her offer.

“No,” I replied. “That’s sure to bring some measure of discomfort to both you and your mom. I’m fine here.”

“Okay, but can I come over?”

Of course, she could but I also couldn’t help but suspect that she was doing this as usual to begin covering the debt she was sure that she owed me.

At least she wasn’t offering me all her money yet so I guess I couldn’t reject this. It was a good start so as not to create too big a distance between us, I agreed.

She placed the order for the food before she left the hospital and it arrived much earlier than she did.

At the knock on the door, I opened it and wondered at the smile on her face as she walked in.

“What is it?” I asked and she replied.

“You didn’t quite choose the best hotel in town,” she said. “What is it? Running low on cash?”

I was amused.

“Kinda.”

She took her seat in the small lounge area by the window and seemed to relax.

And then she looked around once again.

“You didn’t go somewhere more expensive because you wanted to be as close as possible to the hospital?” she asked.

It wasn't exactly the most exciting of things to admit to this, however, I truly wondered what she was expecting me to say by so clearly pointing this out.

“Yeah,” I replied, and she nodded again.

"I'm going to spend the rest of my life paying you back," she said.

Once again, I was amused at her words.

“Is that a threat or a promise?” I asked and she turned to me with a funny expression.

“What do you mean?”

"Well, having you on my tail for the rest of your life trying to pay me back will be annoying as hell. So, it sounds like a threat," I replied.