Off Limits
I whispered, the gauze wrapping smoothly around his palm, my fingers brushing against the thick veins of his wrist.
"Doing what?" he asked, his voice flat, detached, and empty.
"Avoiding me. Pretending that if you stare at the wall hard enough, you can rewrite what happened against this exact counter before the lights went out." I stopped wrapping, holding his hand still within mine, forcing my voice to remain steady despite the sharp, painful twist of rejection in my chest. "You kissed me, Peter. You didn't just run a program. You put your hands on me and told me you’ve been watching me for nine years. You can't just flip a switch and turn back into a robot because the auxiliary power came