Re: Shiloh & Kit: the B&B sitting room
"You have to admit," Shiloh said, leaning forward in that backward chair, fixing his sage gaze on Kit's face, "that it's quite the coincidence. That of all the places in all the world, you choose to come here. And I don't believe, not for a moment, that you came all this way for the remarkable coffee." In truth, Shiloh no longer believed in coincidences. In fact, Shiloh wasn't certain he'd ever believed in coincidences. Perhaps children with joyful childhoods believed in such things, but Shiloh had always known the world to be a place where things happened deliberately, and where every exchange was currency. He wouldn't call himself jaded, precisely, but he knew how the world worked. His siblings, all, were the same; there wasn't a dreamer among the collected lot of them.
Shiloh barked another laugh, drawing attention from the diners who disliked him madly. He was not beloved in this town, and he liked it that way; one knew what to expect when one was abhorred, and Shiloh was fine with the negative sentiments cast his way. "My tadpole, singular, was metaphorical. You ran away with the metaphor, so now it belongs to you completely."
He pretended to consider the link, but it was done in such a way to emphasize the mockery of his consideration. This, of course, was followed by something of a lightbulb going off above Shiloh's head, again, metaphorically. Shiloh was not particularly complicated, and it took him little imagination to comprehend what Kit was suggesting from the opposite side of the table. "As Mal and I have cut ties, then I suspect you'll be out that particular bit of pocket money," he said truthfully, and the realization that Mal and Kit had been talking about him, it made Shiloh quite displeased.
Displeased enough that he abandoned his straddle and stood. The chair made some semblance of screech on the floor, and Shiloh stood at full height, hands on the chair back, chin pointed down in Kit's general direction. "If you would, I'd prefer you remain out of my life. Go befriend Mal. He has an empty apartment to let, and I'm sure you'd feel right at home."