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I chuckled. “Yeah, pretty damn innovative.”
Philippa was strange, but everyone around here was. They talked about the human race as if they weren’t a part of it, and Philippa’s upbeat attitude had a sort of magical quality to it. If emotions could shimmer and glow, I was willing to bet hers would do just that.
I walked to the open-plan kitchen and put wood into the oven, lighting it. I blew on the flames until they burned bright enough that they wouldn’t die and put a pot of water on the stove.
“So… Ash, huh?” Philippa asked as she hopped onto the kitchen counter. She leaned forward, hands curled around the edge of the counter, and she kicked her legs back and forth like a child.
“Well, he saved me,” I said. “And he comes to check on me, so… yeah.”
“Do you like him?”
The question was so straightforward, without any ulterior motives. She just wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m really drawn to him. I don’t know what it is… everything here is weird. I don’t want to get involved with someone right now, though. I just got out of a bad relationship.” I shuddered just thinking about it. “Really bad.”
“Tell me about it,” she said.
Her face was so open, and she was so wholesome and pure. She’d appeared out of nowhere, but it was as if she was heaven-sent.
So, I told her about it. I told her about Oscar, our relationship over the last couple of years, his gambling. When I told her about the guys coming in the middle of the night to take me away because he’d promised me to them as repayment for his debts, I felt sick to my stomach. I hadn’t really thought about what had happened too much—it hurt like a bitch—and putting it into words made me feel dizzy.
“Oh, gods,” Philippa whispered. “I can’t believe someone would do something like that.” She closed her eyes. “I was going to say that humans could do terrible things to each other, but it’s a universal thing, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Pain and suffering at the hands of others,” Philippa said.
I had no idea what she was trying to say, but I nodded. “Anyway, since that’s my last experience with a relationship, it stands to reason that getting into something now would be stupid.” Stating the facts was easier than dwelling on the scary shit that had happened in the past. Now that I’d recounted everything, it was horrifying. How could Oscar have done something like that to me? How could someone do that to anyone?
“Besides,” I continued, “it’s not like anything could happen with Ash.”
“Why not?” Philippa asked.
“Nothing serious, anyway. He lives out here… I don’t even know where ‘here’ is, and I live back home with my sister.” Thinking about Cat made my stomach twist. “When all this is over, I’m going home, and I doubt he’ll come with me.” I shook my head. “It’s way too soon to think about something like that anyway. Especially after the last relationship I had ended so badly.”
Philippa huffed. “That’s putting it mildly. If I had it in me, I would have his head for what he did to you!”
I giggled. “I like you. You’re sweet.”
Philippa blushed, her smile returning right away. Whenever she smiled, it was like she shone from the inside. When her smile disappeared, it was like someone had turned off the light. I much preferred it when she smiled.
While I’d talked, the water came to a boil, and I prepared two cups with the instant coffee Ash had gotten me.
“I don’t think Ash has ever even tasted real coffee,” I said while I poured the hot water into cups.
“Why do you think that?” Philippa asked, tilting her head to the side.
“It’s great of him to bring it here, don’t get me wrong. I don’t know what I would have done without this normalcy through all this… but this coffee isn’t the best brand there is, and he drinks it like it’s incredible.”
“We don’t really have good coffee out here,” Philippa said carefully. “He must really care for you if he brought you something like this. We usually just drink water around here.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That’s very healthy. And completely unrelatable.”
Philippa laughed heartily, and I smiled. Her laugh was contagious. She took a sip of the coffee after blowing on the top, and her face changed to an ethereal expression.
“You might have to lump me together with Ash when it comes to knowing about coffee,” she said in a breathy voice. “This stuff is divine.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Let’s sit down,” I said, and we walked to the living room with our cups. The sun streamed in through the window, making the cabin seem much homier than it had been before, and I liked having Philippa here. While we drank coffee, she talked, and I could listen to her sweet voice and her innocent way of looking at the world for hours.
