When someone knocked on the door, Helios padded over to it, nose working, and sneezed at whatever he was smelling. Summer frowned, rolling off the couch, and pulled the door open …
… and froze.
“Isaac,” she said finally. “I — hi.”
Isaac swallowed and stared at her, looking her over before clearing his throat. “…Hi,” he said, smiling a little and running a hand through his hair. “If… You want me to just leave and never come back, I can do that. Just say so. I just… Wanted to explain. I don’t really expect you to forgive me or anything…” he rambled.
She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. “If there’s going to be an explanation, I guess you can come in.” Her voice was toneless, pitched slightly higher with the crystalline, frozen state of her emotions.
She wanted to say, sharp and hard and with all the worry of the last month, ‘Where the hell have you been?!’ She wanted to take the sleepless nights and heartsick worry and soul-wrenching belief in her own responsibility for his absence and rub his nose in it. But she didn’t. Couldn’t, really; the shock of seeing him again dammed up all the words.
All she could do was step to one side of the door and gently set her ereader down and wait.