"Nah, I'm not feeling this." Keir declared, looking away from the window of Word Lust as a dull ache forming in his chest did nothing to soothe the uneasy twist of his stomach.

The Saturday sun had long gone down but left a few clouds in its wake refusing the moon's glow to chase away the blackness of night spreading across the Pacific Coast.

Hazina tutted, continuing her trek towards the double doors of the bookstore, "You've been telling me about his place for weeks. I'm here. I'm—" His hand clasped around her arm halted her steps and words.

"She's in there." He released her now that her complete attention was on him. "...with her husband."

Her head tilted like a perplexed golden retriever, "I thought you said he was in South Carolina."

"He was...he is." His choice of verb tense drew more confusion to her tanned face as her eyes slid side to side. He witnessed her brain working and decided to give her more clarity, "He moved to a hospital in Charleston due to his indiscretion."

"Is that what they call screwing you coworker, now?" She smirked at her own words and probably fond thoughts of when she snuck around with one of her coworkers who was now her husband of eleven years.

"Apparently," Keir sounded not fully listening to his sister with her eyes trained on Kartina sitting at a rectangular table in the back of the rows of chairs that was situation in from of a de facto stage that was usually decorated with oversize chair, ottoman and a faux fiddle leaf fig tree. The tree was still there while a mic and stand took the place of the furniture as Imani held the mic in her hand, speaking words he couldn't hear.

His eyes went back to Katrina, who wasn't sitting alone but with the man whom he'd never met in person but knew his appearance from the several pictures he helped her take down through her house. He knew that was Terrence, leaning towards her saying something that caused her to erupt with laughter.

Keir's jaw clenched of them joking and thought to himself, it ain't that damn funny. He was so entranced that he didn't hear a word Hazina said.

She nudged his shoulder, regaining his attention. "They don't seem estranged to me."

"It's called being cordial." He said sternly, eyeing her with assertion as if conveying not to assume things even if anxiety was beginning to set roots into his psyche.

"Married couples are fickle. The only people that know what's going on in their relationships are them." She told, drawing from her own experience. "Add a child and things get more complicated."

"Katrina has always been honest with me." Keir affirmed as a poet stepped up to the stage with a notepad and shaky hands. She'd been honest to a fault, telling him how she felt and how she felt they had the potential to be something good but she was still nervous and unsure if she could handle those strong emotions. He wondered if the newness of their relationship, filled with uncertainty and worry was enough for her to go back to the old familiar things of her past. She knew what was getting with Terrence and maybe that was easier than learning a new person and crafting a new partnership.

"We can go see what that's about?" Hazina gestured to the equally busy business across the street wielding the moniker, Etchings.

Keir knew the placing was a great Saturday night experience with his vibrant paint, limitless wine refills, and bare canvasses wanting for one to create but he had a creation that couldn't relinquish. It had been a while since he met someone he'd yearn to spend an undefined amount of time with, someone that loved literature and loved conversing about the different themes that lay buried in a work of art. He had been absent from someone that ejected from his cocoon of splendor and solitude. She complimented the calm in his life and he wasn't giving that up for anyone, let alone the man that didn't know the greatness he had.

"I thought you wanted to buy some books." He opened the door to the bookstore and gestured for her to go in. "Let's get some books."

"If that's a euphemism for what I think it is. I'm down." She said with a smirk strolling into the establishment.

It wasn't a euphemism but it could be. Keir thought to himself as he followed behind her. 

Do you think Hazina was right, they should just go to Etchings and paint their hearts out?

Do you think Keir is right, Katrina is just being cordial or is Hazine right about married couples being fickle?

What do you think Hazina thinks the euphemism is for "Lets get some books."