Lexi shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t even know where that dress is. Storage, maybe. Or torn up and used for rags.” Ironic what impractical clothing was used for among different groups of people. “And just because I learned to dress appropriately for the weather doesn’t mean I’ve completely given up on dressing to impress.”
Ducking her head, she walked over and turned to lean against the wall. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “After Ollie… After he… Once he was gone, nothing much else mattered. I didn’t want to go to California alone, so I came back to the only other place where people knew who I was; the people I trusted most. That should tell you something about the state of the rest of the country that I’d willingly come back here.” After what she’d done, the people she betrayed. Coming back to Sing Sing was the lesser of the evils.
“It’s appreciated, but whatever fences need to be mended, I should do them myself.” They’d be more genuine that way; make the manipulations that much easier. She smiled weakly when he rambled. “Or a handgun with no bullets. That’s about the extent of my knowledge of guns now. As long as you avoid asking me about makes and models, I can brag about how well I can point and shoot.”
She wouldn’t force him to talk about anything he didn’t want to talk about, though. Not this time. Maybe once she’d earned back some of his trust. “Well, either way, just know I’m sorry for leaving it all for you to deal with.” She paused and bit her lip when he explained the fight between himself and Elliot. It was still hard to believe that Elliot was gone. Harder still to believe that Ollie was gone, too.
Lexi inhaled suddenly, snapping herself out of her depressed thoughts before they took over completely. Tonight wasn’t a wallowing night. Tonight was a night to reconnect, to put the first pieces of Tallis’ plan into motion. “And now that we’ve caught up on the sad stuff, let’s turn to the happier stuff. The past few months can’t have been all bad here, right? Tell me about some of the good things that have been happening.”