237 Ks Zero Fs Chapter 14
An utterly ordinary London winter morning.
Sleet mixed with ice pellets drifted down from the sky.
I was heading to work in the City as usual, a flat white in hand. I’d just reached the base of the office tower when I saw Conor.
He was curled up next to the red pillar box by the curb, utterly stripped of any dignity.
Wearing a thin, expensive but now crumpled black cashmere coat.
His signature blond hair was a matted bird’s nest. His jaw was covered in scraggly stubble.
His eyes were closed. Two dark, bruise-like circles hung beneath them. The whole man radiated the derelict aura of a vagrant.
I walked past him, cold and indifferent. Didn’t even slow my stride.
The sound of my boots splashing through a puddle jolted him awake.
The fog of confusion hadn’t yet cleared from his eyes. The instant his gaze caught me, his whole body seized as if electrocuted. He scrambled to his feet immediately.
But his legs were frozen stiff. He crashed down hard onto the mud-slicked pavement. His coat tore open with a long rip.
“Maya…”
“Wait—wait for me—”
His mind finally caught up. He stumbled after me, crawling and staggering in equal measure. His voice sounded like sandpaper scraping, parched beyond measure.
I had no intention of wasting my time on him—time I billed at several hundred pounds an hour.
I was about to call building security when Conor lunged and grabbed me from behind. No—not a hug. The desperate, drowning clutch of a man seizing the last piece of driftwood.
The Le Labo woody fragrance that had once captivated me now mingled with days-old sweat, coiling in my nostrils. It just made my stomach turn.
I drove my elbow hard into his chest, trying to break free.
But Conor’s arms were like iron bands, locked around me. He squeezed with a force that felt like he was trying to crush my bones into his body.
“God… it’s you… it’s really you.”
His voice trembled, incoherent. “I screwed up. I screwed everything up. Please… don’t… don’t look at me like I’m trash.”
“A year. I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I can’t… I can’t function. It’s like… I can’t breathe at all.”