"I'm not a child," Orion said in a strangely patient voice. She already missed the small obstruction of Hagar's hand between her palms, but she hooked her fingers through her worn belt loops to keep them still. "I know that life is hard, harder now than it's ever been. But it doesn't have to be as ugly as you think."
The words were bubbling like a stew pot just behind her teeth, and she decided to let it all out so the memory of not doing so wouldn't haunt her while she was trying to sleep that night. "I think you're beautiful. I mean, really beautiful, until it hurts a little to look at you. I don't know what kind of life you had before we met, and I guess the past doesn't mean anything now, but I want...I want to make you smile."
Her damnable hands were doing their fluttery thing again, but in this case they were in good company because they were accompanying her stomach's flutters. Orion stuffed them into her back pockets as if they were small animals that kept getting loose and she wanted to keep them in their cages. "I swear I won't interfere with your...business," she said. "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with anybody. Just don't...don't turn your back on me too soon, okay?"