“Callum!” I shouted, loud enough that strangers nearby glanced over.
This time he saw me, and his face went completely white, like he’d been caught doing something unforgivable. “Tilda,” he said.
The woman pulled her hand back. I looked at his arm, still resting along the back of the bench. “Who’s she?”
He shot up so fast his knee cracked against the seat. “Tilda, I can explain.”
“Good. Then start.”
The woman wiped her face. She looked to be around our age, early forties maybe, dark hair knotted loosely at her neck, with a small hearing aid curved behind one ear — though that detail didn’t register with me yet. I’d never seen her before. Not at any office party, not among any of his friends. Nowhere.
For illustrative purposes only
“So You’re the One He’s Been Protecting”
She glanced between Callum and me, and something shifted in her expression.
“Tilda,” she said quietly. “So you’re the one he’s been protecting from this.”
Everything in me stopped. “Protecting me from what?”
Callum cut in sharply. “Janet.”
