Nelly normally would find it rather uncomfortable to be fucked against a glass case, wherein all the animals around her could see it happening, but in these instances, she didn't care one bit. Besides, they'd locked the doors to this area of the exhibit, and she'd killed the cameras for a brief period of time. As Harvey pushed up against her, kissing her neck, her fingers in his hair as he screwed her, Nelly couldn't remember the last time she'd actually been happy like this, particularly with a romantic endeavor...if ever, honestly. Afterwards, as they both attempted to get themselves looking halfway decent again, Nelly couldn't help but bite her lip and think about the future.
"You know," she said as she tried to smoothen out of her tie, "I had kinda given up on love."
"Is that right?"
"You all know that," Nelly replied, "it's not like it was a secret what he did to me. But...I don't know, you made things so much better. You make me feel like...like maybe there's a good part of life I can still attain, you know, where I'm loved and cared for."
Harvey smiled, but inside his heart was breaking. If she ever knew...if she ever knew about his wife, it would destroy her. Not to mention he felt guilty. This affair hadn't come out of nowhere, nor had it been created as a result of a marital rift. He had his reasons. But it was starting to eat at him. Nelly finished buttoning her collar and approached Harvey, who was cleaning his glasses and putting them back on his face.
"You just...you have this way of making life seem worthwhile," Nelly said, "I don't know if it's your attitude or what, but...you make me want to keep going even when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope."
"I'm glad I can give that sort of resilience to you," Harvey said, smirking, as Nelly put her arms over his shoulders and leaned up, kissing him, before hearing someone scream. They each turned towards the doors and quickly raced to unlock them. Once out in the morning sun, admist the guests, they saw it. A group of people centered around a little exhibit, a monkey exhibit to be precise, where a baby monkey was being brutally attacked by the adults around it. Nelly didn't know what to do, as Harvey quickly leapt into action, going over the rail and into the exhibit, scooping the baby up and rushing back out best he could to avoid being attacked himself. Nelly was grateful for his swift efforts, but god...
...it was always something, wasn't it? Never a dull day.
***
"What causes parents to just start abusing their children?" Casper asked.
"The child forming an independent personality, more often than not," Fletcher replied, him and Robin fist bumping at the table.
"It was awful," Nelly said, leaning against the counter, sipping coffee as she waited for her muffin to warm up in the microwave, "like...it was just a full on attack. They would've killed it had we not intervened.
In some monkey species, males kill infants to eliminate competition for mates and increase their own reproductive success by causing the mother to become receptive sooner. Even in controlled environments like these, I suppose, it can happen."
Robin looked to her right and saw Sophie staring at the ground. She didn't seem to be taking in any of this, completely lost in her own thought. Robin reached out and touched her arm, trying to jolt her back to reality, but to no avail. The door to the break room opened and Kacie entered, sitting across from Fletcher as she ripped open the lid to her yogurt and started pouring things into it from the little packets it came with, Fletcher paying her simply no mind whatsoever. Robin started to wonder if anyone was okay today.
"How's Harvey?" she finally asked, looking back up towards Nelly, who was now retrieving her muffin from the microwave.
"He's okay, it seems," Nelly said, shrugging, "he didn't appear to be too bothered by it."
Nelly took her muffin on a plate with her coffee and headed for the door.
"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my office," she said, before exiting, leaving the five of them alone together. Robin looked at Kacie, who was just eating silently, then at Fletcher, who was reading a magazine, legs propped up on another chair. Her eyes then turned back to Sophie, who finally looked up to meet her gaze, and the two smiled softly at one another before Robin, taking her by the hand, led her out of the break room. Casper stood up and stretched, yawning.
"Well," they said, "guess I better get to my tour duties. Kids ain't gonna educate themselves."
"Oh is that what you call what you're doing?" Fletcher asked, making Casper laugh as they too exited after the girls, leaving just Fletcher and Kacie alone now.
"You seem...invested in what you're reading," Kacie said.
"It's interesting," Fletcher remarked, shrugging, "it's about a species of bird that went extinct and now scientists are trying to bring it back."
"Are you for or against-" Kacie started to ask, before he abruptly got up and also exited the room, leaving her feeling bewildered. She was starting to notice what Robin had noticed, which is that nobody today seemed to be alright.
***
Since Sophie didn't really have a job, other than odds and ends around the zoo, Robin had recruited her most time as an assistant on tours. Miss Gazelle and Miss Kudu, and they were by far one of the most popular, if not the most popular, touring guides available. Today they gave 4 different tours, and after the last one wrapped up - a final one would be had later in the evening before the zoo closed - the girls found themselves by the Hippo Campus, sitting at a table and enjoying some iced tea and sharing a big basket of nachos.
"You ever get the feeling," Robin started, "that people only come to the zoo cause they lack better entertainment options? They don't really care about animals, exactly, it's just that there's nothing else?"
"I know lots of people come cause they love animals," Sophie replied, shrugging, "so I don't think that's a fair generalization. But you're probably not wrong for a lot of them. The nice thing about zoos, especially Wild Kingdom, is we have seasonal passes. Movie theaters don't. Minigolf courses don't. But we do. So you pay a lump sum and then you get to come here whenever without paying more, outside of snacks I guess, which you can bring in yourself and aren't necessarily required to purchase."
"That is true, we are kinda cost effective in that regard," Robin said, nodding in agreement before adding, "...are you okay? You seem kinda...not with it."
"Do I ever seem with it?" Sophie asked, making Robin chuckle.
"Good point," she said, "I just...I love you and I want to know that you're doing alright, that's why I do these little emotional check ins."
"I'm okay," Sophie said flatly, in such a manner that Robin didn't buy it.
"Cause, you know, if you're not, I want you to know that you can come to me, and-"
"I'm okay," Sophie said again, smiling now, "really, I'm fine."
But she wasn't. She wasn't okay. And the thing was, normally she would go to Robin for reassurance, but in this instance...she simply wouldn't be able to understand. She would empathize, certainly, give her comfort, but she wouldn't get it. Robin nodded, finishing up the nachos and gathering their trash to throw away in a garbage can that looked like a Hippo with its mouth wide open at the top of the receptacle. Robin then wiped her hands on her pants and put her hands on her hips as she looked at Sophie, who was still drinking her tea.
"Nelly didn't seem too upset about the incident," Robin said.
"Nelly only seems to get upset at incidents that are avoidable and human made," Sophie remarked, "this was just...nature being nature."
"I guess that's fair," Robin said, "still, weird to see her react with virtually no animosity."
"Animosity. Cause there's animals," Sophie said, the both of them giggling as Robin leaned down and kissed Sophie before excusing herself to go to the bathroom. Sophie, now sitting alone, let her thoughts wander back to the event of the morning, and to other related things. She heard a cart pull up and noticed Fletcher getting out, then walking up to the table and seating himself.
"Figured you'd show up eventually," Sophie said.
"...I can't stop relating it to my sister," Fletcher said.
"Me too," Sophie replied.
Robin wouldn't have understood, but Fletcher...Fletcher understood all too well.
***
Nelly was, as she'd stated, in her office.
She wasn't working. Hell, she wasn't doing much of anything, to be honest. She was, instead, just sitting behind her desk listening to music, staring at nothing. Her thoughts had returned to Rufus. God, he still took up so much space in her brain and she hated herself for allowing him to do so. Even now with Harvey in her life, Rufus invaded her thoughts more than she'd prefer he did. The door opened and Nelly immediately tensed up, then flinched when it was closed. Harvey was standing there, looking at her.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked.
"...about what?" she asked.
"You know damn well what," Harvey said, "that couldn't have been easy to witness, if it reminded you of him."
Nelly exhaled and leaned back into her chair once more, trying to let her body unclench. She shut her eyes and shook her head. She'd only ever told Harvey a little bit about Rufus. The others knew about him, knew he'd hurt her, but they didn't know to what extent. Only Harvey knew a little bit more, but even he didn't know the full brunt of what she'd been through.
"He didn't just hurt me," Nelly finally said, almost whispering, "...when we first started dating, I didn't know he had a daughter. Cutest little girl, 5 years old, just...just the sweetest thing you could imagine. She and I got along famously, better than he and I did I think, and I think that made him jealous. I started to see her with bruises, scrapes. I knew what he was doing. Then when I confronted him about it, he turned his ire to me."
"Nelly, for christ sakes-"
"And in the end I couldn't do anything to stop it," Nelly said, almost in tears, "like...I wasn't the girls mother. Hell, I wasn't even her stepmother. Tried to tell the cops, but nothing came of that. Called CPS but nothing came of that. Course doing these things, even anonymously, he knew it was me and I bore the brunt of it again. But...but so long as he was taking it out on me and not her, then that was a win in my book. He's not in my life now, and sometimes she calls and leaves me messages, but I still flinch at doors slamming, or people suddenly coming into my personal space. Watching that little baby monkey today get almost killed by the very adults that are supposed to nurture it, I guess...I guess it fucked me up."
Harvey nodded and sat down across from her at the desk. He adjusted his frames and ran a hand through his hair before running it back down to his face, massaging his stubble that was quickly becoming a beard.
"You know you're not responsible in either case, right?" he asked, "I mean, sure, you were dating the guy, and sure, you run this zoo, but in both instances you aren't solely responsible. She wasn't your daughter, and in nature this is just what monkeys do."
"That doesn't make it hurt any less," Nelly said, leaning back in her chair, hands cupped on her lap as she stared wide eyed at the ceiling, "do you have any idea what it's like to want to protect everything you love, only to find you can't protect any of it?"
Harvey didn't say anything, but he did understand. Like Fletcher, he understood all too well. Hell, he constantly had to sit across from Nelly.
***
"It's like...it's like you can try so hard to protect what you love, but it doesn't ever really seem to be protected, does it? Something will find a way to ruin it," Fletcher said, sounding so defeated, shrugging, "maybe that's just how the universe is, though. Cold and unfeeling."
"In my sisters case, there wasn't anything I could do, she just...was going to die, no matter what," Sophie said, "but at least your sister is here. Not to diminish what happened, or the severity of her issues, but yeah."
Fletcher nodded and exhaled.
"No, you're...you're right," Fletcher said, "I guess just...witnessing a child be attacked, be it human or animal, kinda fucked me up."
Robin suddenly sat back down at the table and Fletcher immediately perked back up, almost as if putting his mask back up and not allowing her to really see the depth of his pain, back to his usual jerk ass self.
"So," Fletcher continued, "got anymore tours today?"
"Feels kinda wrong to give tours today," Robin said, "honestly, I kinda wanna just go home. Well, not home, but-"
"We could go to my home," Sophie said, surprising Robin, who nodded happily, smiling. Fletcher smiled as he stood up and walked back to his cart. He climbed in and started the vehicle, waving by to the girls before driving off towards the bird area. Sophie and Robin stayed at the table and canoodled, while Fletcher drove, a little faster than he should've, dodging visitors and workers alike. Finally he pulled up to the little area Kacie worked at, and he parked, almost skidding into a column. He quickly climbed from the cart and found Kacie standing at a wall of cages, doing feeding. She turned to see him when he entered as he walked towards her.
"What are you doing in my neck of the woods?" she asked.
"I was rude this morning," Fletcher said, "and not rude like I normally am, but rude, like, ya know. just casually, I don't know how else to put it. Not playful rude. Just actually rude. And you're the last person I want to be rude towards, because you're awesome."
Kacie set the bird feed bag down and now turned to fully face him, leaning against a cage, playing with her braid, biting her lip as she grinned.
"I'm not a very...open person," Fletcher continued, "but, ya know, sometimes some people are worth being open with, and you're definitely one of them. So I was thinking maybe, after work, you would like to go out with me somewhere. And not just...not just casually, the way we have been, but like...on an actual date. I got scared to get close to people cause I knew what could happen if I did, how I could so easily lose them, but maybe the love is worth it."
Kacie nodded, stood upright and put her arms around his shoulders, leaning on her tiptoes to kiss him, surprising him. He happily kissed her back as she tossed her other hand, still full of bird seed into the air near the surrounding cages, making the birds squawk and go nuts, their sounds filling the area. Fletcher hadn't expected to almost lose his sister, but he aslo hadn't expected to fall in love, and he realized that sometimes, as in nature, life has things you just don't see coming and you have to adjust for.
And he was ready to adjust.
Meanwhile, back in her office, Nelly and Harvey were laying on the floor together staring at the ceiling, both fully clothed. Nelly sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"I take time for myself," Nelly said, "and bad things happen. We get intimate and bad things happen."
"Bad things just happen, Nell, that's just life," Harvey reminded her, shrugging, "but it doesn't mean good things can't just happen too."
Nelly rolled her head to face his and smiled.
"You're a good thing," she said, making him smile, as she leaned in and kissed him.
He was. He was a good thing.
But he was also a very bad thing, and she just didn't know it yet.
"You know," she said as she tried to smoothen out of her tie, "I had kinda given up on love."
"Is that right?"
"You all know that," Nelly replied, "it's not like it was a secret what he did to me. But...I don't know, you made things so much better. You make me feel like...like maybe there's a good part of life I can still attain, you know, where I'm loved and cared for."
Harvey smiled, but inside his heart was breaking. If she ever knew...if she ever knew about his wife, it would destroy her. Not to mention he felt guilty. This affair hadn't come out of nowhere, nor had it been created as a result of a marital rift. He had his reasons. But it was starting to eat at him. Nelly finished buttoning her collar and approached Harvey, who was cleaning his glasses and putting them back on his face.
"You just...you have this way of making life seem worthwhile," Nelly said, "I don't know if it's your attitude or what, but...you make me want to keep going even when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope."
"I'm glad I can give that sort of resilience to you," Harvey said, smirking, as Nelly put her arms over his shoulders and leaned up, kissing him, before hearing someone scream. They each turned towards the doors and quickly raced to unlock them. Once out in the morning sun, admist the guests, they saw it. A group of people centered around a little exhibit, a monkey exhibit to be precise, where a baby monkey was being brutally attacked by the adults around it. Nelly didn't know what to do, as Harvey quickly leapt into action, going over the rail and into the exhibit, scooping the baby up and rushing back out best he could to avoid being attacked himself. Nelly was grateful for his swift efforts, but god...
...it was always something, wasn't it? Never a dull day.
***
"What causes parents to just start abusing their children?" Casper asked.
"The child forming an independent personality, more often than not," Fletcher replied, him and Robin fist bumping at the table.
"It was awful," Nelly said, leaning against the counter, sipping coffee as she waited for her muffin to warm up in the microwave, "like...it was just a full on attack. They would've killed it had we not intervened.
In some monkey species, males kill infants to eliminate competition for mates and increase their own reproductive success by causing the mother to become receptive sooner. Even in controlled environments like these, I suppose, it can happen."
Robin looked to her right and saw Sophie staring at the ground. She didn't seem to be taking in any of this, completely lost in her own thought. Robin reached out and touched her arm, trying to jolt her back to reality, but to no avail. The door to the break room opened and Kacie entered, sitting across from Fletcher as she ripped open the lid to her yogurt and started pouring things into it from the little packets it came with, Fletcher paying her simply no mind whatsoever. Robin started to wonder if anyone was okay today.
"How's Harvey?" she finally asked, looking back up towards Nelly, who was now retrieving her muffin from the microwave.
"He's okay, it seems," Nelly said, shrugging, "he didn't appear to be too bothered by it."
Nelly took her muffin on a plate with her coffee and headed for the door.
"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my office," she said, before exiting, leaving the five of them alone together. Robin looked at Kacie, who was just eating silently, then at Fletcher, who was reading a magazine, legs propped up on another chair. Her eyes then turned back to Sophie, who finally looked up to meet her gaze, and the two smiled softly at one another before Robin, taking her by the hand, led her out of the break room. Casper stood up and stretched, yawning.
"Well," they said, "guess I better get to my tour duties. Kids ain't gonna educate themselves."
"Oh is that what you call what you're doing?" Fletcher asked, making Casper laugh as they too exited after the girls, leaving just Fletcher and Kacie alone now.
"You seem...invested in what you're reading," Kacie said.
"It's interesting," Fletcher remarked, shrugging, "it's about a species of bird that went extinct and now scientists are trying to bring it back."
"Are you for or against-" Kacie started to ask, before he abruptly got up and also exited the room, leaving her feeling bewildered. She was starting to notice what Robin had noticed, which is that nobody today seemed to be alright.
***
Since Sophie didn't really have a job, other than odds and ends around the zoo, Robin had recruited her most time as an assistant on tours. Miss Gazelle and Miss Kudu, and they were by far one of the most popular, if not the most popular, touring guides available. Today they gave 4 different tours, and after the last one wrapped up - a final one would be had later in the evening before the zoo closed - the girls found themselves by the Hippo Campus, sitting at a table and enjoying some iced tea and sharing a big basket of nachos.
"You ever get the feeling," Robin started, "that people only come to the zoo cause they lack better entertainment options? They don't really care about animals, exactly, it's just that there's nothing else?"
"I know lots of people come cause they love animals," Sophie replied, shrugging, "so I don't think that's a fair generalization. But you're probably not wrong for a lot of them. The nice thing about zoos, especially Wild Kingdom, is we have seasonal passes. Movie theaters don't. Minigolf courses don't. But we do. So you pay a lump sum and then you get to come here whenever without paying more, outside of snacks I guess, which you can bring in yourself and aren't necessarily required to purchase."
"That is true, we are kinda cost effective in that regard," Robin said, nodding in agreement before adding, "...are you okay? You seem kinda...not with it."
"Do I ever seem with it?" Sophie asked, making Robin chuckle.
"Good point," she said, "I just...I love you and I want to know that you're doing alright, that's why I do these little emotional check ins."
"I'm okay," Sophie said flatly, in such a manner that Robin didn't buy it.
"Cause, you know, if you're not, I want you to know that you can come to me, and-"
"I'm okay," Sophie said again, smiling now, "really, I'm fine."
But she wasn't. She wasn't okay. And the thing was, normally she would go to Robin for reassurance, but in this instance...she simply wouldn't be able to understand. She would empathize, certainly, give her comfort, but she wouldn't get it. Robin nodded, finishing up the nachos and gathering their trash to throw away in a garbage can that looked like a Hippo with its mouth wide open at the top of the receptacle. Robin then wiped her hands on her pants and put her hands on her hips as she looked at Sophie, who was still drinking her tea.
"Nelly didn't seem too upset about the incident," Robin said.
"Nelly only seems to get upset at incidents that are avoidable and human made," Sophie remarked, "this was just...nature being nature."
"I guess that's fair," Robin said, "still, weird to see her react with virtually no animosity."
"Animosity. Cause there's animals," Sophie said, the both of them giggling as Robin leaned down and kissed Sophie before excusing herself to go to the bathroom. Sophie, now sitting alone, let her thoughts wander back to the event of the morning, and to other related things. She heard a cart pull up and noticed Fletcher getting out, then walking up to the table and seating himself.
"Figured you'd show up eventually," Sophie said.
"...I can't stop relating it to my sister," Fletcher said.
"Me too," Sophie replied.
Robin wouldn't have understood, but Fletcher...Fletcher understood all too well.
***
Nelly was, as she'd stated, in her office.
She wasn't working. Hell, she wasn't doing much of anything, to be honest. She was, instead, just sitting behind her desk listening to music, staring at nothing. Her thoughts had returned to Rufus. God, he still took up so much space in her brain and she hated herself for allowing him to do so. Even now with Harvey in her life, Rufus invaded her thoughts more than she'd prefer he did. The door opened and Nelly immediately tensed up, then flinched when it was closed. Harvey was standing there, looking at her.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked.
"...about what?" she asked.
"You know damn well what," Harvey said, "that couldn't have been easy to witness, if it reminded you of him."
Nelly exhaled and leaned back into her chair once more, trying to let her body unclench. She shut her eyes and shook her head. She'd only ever told Harvey a little bit about Rufus. The others knew about him, knew he'd hurt her, but they didn't know to what extent. Only Harvey knew a little bit more, but even he didn't know the full brunt of what she'd been through.
"He didn't just hurt me," Nelly finally said, almost whispering, "...when we first started dating, I didn't know he had a daughter. Cutest little girl, 5 years old, just...just the sweetest thing you could imagine. She and I got along famously, better than he and I did I think, and I think that made him jealous. I started to see her with bruises, scrapes. I knew what he was doing. Then when I confronted him about it, he turned his ire to me."
"Nelly, for christ sakes-"
"And in the end I couldn't do anything to stop it," Nelly said, almost in tears, "like...I wasn't the girls mother. Hell, I wasn't even her stepmother. Tried to tell the cops, but nothing came of that. Called CPS but nothing came of that. Course doing these things, even anonymously, he knew it was me and I bore the brunt of it again. But...but so long as he was taking it out on me and not her, then that was a win in my book. He's not in my life now, and sometimes she calls and leaves me messages, but I still flinch at doors slamming, or people suddenly coming into my personal space. Watching that little baby monkey today get almost killed by the very adults that are supposed to nurture it, I guess...I guess it fucked me up."
Harvey nodded and sat down across from her at the desk. He adjusted his frames and ran a hand through his hair before running it back down to his face, massaging his stubble that was quickly becoming a beard.
"You know you're not responsible in either case, right?" he asked, "I mean, sure, you were dating the guy, and sure, you run this zoo, but in both instances you aren't solely responsible. She wasn't your daughter, and in nature this is just what monkeys do."
"That doesn't make it hurt any less," Nelly said, leaning back in her chair, hands cupped on her lap as she stared wide eyed at the ceiling, "do you have any idea what it's like to want to protect everything you love, only to find you can't protect any of it?"
Harvey didn't say anything, but he did understand. Like Fletcher, he understood all too well. Hell, he constantly had to sit across from Nelly.
***
"It's like...it's like you can try so hard to protect what you love, but it doesn't ever really seem to be protected, does it? Something will find a way to ruin it," Fletcher said, sounding so defeated, shrugging, "maybe that's just how the universe is, though. Cold and unfeeling."
"In my sisters case, there wasn't anything I could do, she just...was going to die, no matter what," Sophie said, "but at least your sister is here. Not to diminish what happened, or the severity of her issues, but yeah."
Fletcher nodded and exhaled.
"No, you're...you're right," Fletcher said, "I guess just...witnessing a child be attacked, be it human or animal, kinda fucked me up."
Robin suddenly sat back down at the table and Fletcher immediately perked back up, almost as if putting his mask back up and not allowing her to really see the depth of his pain, back to his usual jerk ass self.
"So," Fletcher continued, "got anymore tours today?"
"Feels kinda wrong to give tours today," Robin said, "honestly, I kinda wanna just go home. Well, not home, but-"
"We could go to my home," Sophie said, surprising Robin, who nodded happily, smiling. Fletcher smiled as he stood up and walked back to his cart. He climbed in and started the vehicle, waving by to the girls before driving off towards the bird area. Sophie and Robin stayed at the table and canoodled, while Fletcher drove, a little faster than he should've, dodging visitors and workers alike. Finally he pulled up to the little area Kacie worked at, and he parked, almost skidding into a column. He quickly climbed from the cart and found Kacie standing at a wall of cages, doing feeding. She turned to see him when he entered as he walked towards her.
"What are you doing in my neck of the woods?" she asked.
"I was rude this morning," Fletcher said, "and not rude like I normally am, but rude, like, ya know. just casually, I don't know how else to put it. Not playful rude. Just actually rude. And you're the last person I want to be rude towards, because you're awesome."
Kacie set the bird feed bag down and now turned to fully face him, leaning against a cage, playing with her braid, biting her lip as she grinned.
"I'm not a very...open person," Fletcher continued, "but, ya know, sometimes some people are worth being open with, and you're definitely one of them. So I was thinking maybe, after work, you would like to go out with me somewhere. And not just...not just casually, the way we have been, but like...on an actual date. I got scared to get close to people cause I knew what could happen if I did, how I could so easily lose them, but maybe the love is worth it."
Kacie nodded, stood upright and put her arms around his shoulders, leaning on her tiptoes to kiss him, surprising him. He happily kissed her back as she tossed her other hand, still full of bird seed into the air near the surrounding cages, making the birds squawk and go nuts, their sounds filling the area. Fletcher hadn't expected to almost lose his sister, but he aslo hadn't expected to fall in love, and he realized that sometimes, as in nature, life has things you just don't see coming and you have to adjust for.
And he was ready to adjust.
Meanwhile, back in her office, Nelly and Harvey were laying on the floor together staring at the ceiling, both fully clothed. Nelly sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"I take time for myself," Nelly said, "and bad things happen. We get intimate and bad things happen."
"Bad things just happen, Nell, that's just life," Harvey reminded her, shrugging, "but it doesn't mean good things can't just happen too."
Nelly rolled her head to face his and smiled.
"You're a good thing," she said, making him smile, as she leaned in and kissed him.
He was. He was a good thing.
But he was also a very bad thing, and she just didn't know it yet.