Episode 699: Pearl

"I didn’t ask you to get a babysitter, and I didn’t ask you to go anywhere with me. One of the consequences of having a boyfriend you bribed with his privacy is that privacy is really important to him," Xavier pointed out.

"It’s not like you’re here twenty-four seven. You go to the garage and places. So why can’t we go to the movies or dinner or just somewhere?"

"This is somewhere for you, you don’t live here, never will." At the rate she was leeching into his life, he figured he needed to make that clear.

"This is nowhere," she complained.

"It’s where I want to be. If you don’t like it, we can always call it quits."

Talia frowned at him. She was always frowning at him. So why didn’t she just give up on the idea of them already?

"Why do you have to make this so difficult?" She asked. "Am I really that bad?"

"Bribery isn’t good."

"Fine, yes." She flicked her hand as if a little bribery were merely a pice of lint you dust off. "But me, as a person, setting that stuff aside, am I really so awful to be around?"

"I don’t know you as a person, you never gave me the chance, you just dove right into the blackmail five minutes after we met. I know you as the nightmare who’s holding me hostage."

"Fine, if that’s who I am, I guess I better live up to my reputation and be your nightmare." With that ominous statement, Talia stood, grabbed her purse and her coat, and headed for the door.

It took a moment for Xavier to recover from her thinly veiled threat and say, "are you telling the world about me? You can’t do this." He grabbed her elbow as she reached the door and turned her around. "Please, don’t - wait… are you crying?"

Talia pressed the heels of her hands to her glistening eyes. "I guess I’m crying a little."

"That’s weird."

Talia scowled at him. "What do you think I am, a robot? It’s weird that I have emotions like an actual human?"

"It’s weird that you’re the one who’s crying when I’m the victim."

"I’m not a villain," Talia insisted. "I don’t go around blackmailing people."

"I’m just lucky."

"You said no without even really considering me. You wouldn’t give me a chance; no decent guy has given me a real chance in a long time. I know what I’m doing to you, this whole forcing you to hang out with me, I know it’s sad, and bad, but it’s not all I am. There might be a pearl in here," she tearfully pointed to her chest, "if anyone would bother to look."

Episode 700: My Signature Move