Julie's Butterfly Read Online Free PDF Page A

you intended to hurt me, you wouldn’t have helped me.”
    “Maybe I wanted to take you for myself,” observed Bastian quietly, menacingly.
    Julie folded her arms, undeterred. “I’ve got nothing against us continuing this discussion here. Or you could just come back with me so I can at least see to your injuries.”
    “I’m fine.” Detecting the determined gleam in her eye, Bastian could see that Julie was losing patience with him.
    “Will you stop being so stubborn?”
    “All right, fine,” he conceded with a sigh. “If it’ll make you happy.”
    Julie set her chin. “Yes, it will.”
    That didn’t sound entirely true, but it was clear she wasn’t going to give in.
    Her apartment was just five minutes away, and they walked the entire way in tense silence. Bastian found it difficult to think of an appropriate way to break the ice. He wasn’t one for small talk, and since he hadn’t exactly shown her his best side earlier that evening, he could hardly blame her for her silence.
    As she showed him into her small apartment in a large house, he realized that it was the opposite of his place in every way—even the entryway gave him an idea of the chaos that reigned there. The walls were entirely covered with postcards and colorful framed photos of her life in pictures. He spent a moment considering the photos, which showed Julie in a variety of poses, easygoing and happy—feelings that were totally alien to him.
    She hung up her coat and slipped off her shoes. Then she stretched out her toes like a ballerina and closed her eyes contentedly.
    Against his better judgment, Bastian let his eyes fall to her bare feet. They were completely unblemished. He would have preferred to see an ingrown toenail or a tiny corn. It would have made things so much easier for him—at least that’s what he liked to think.
    A soft meow drew his attention to a small white ball of fluff sitting in the doorway to the living room, yawning heartily. The cat had a black spot on her brow.
    Julie crouched down to greet her furry friend. “Hey, little one,” she murmured, stroking her back. The cat arched up to her hand, emitting an amazingly loud purr for such a small thing. When it noticed Bastian, it padded up to him, gave his feet a cautious sniff, and immediately decided that it liked him, which it expressed by rolling over submissively, inviting him to stroke it. Bastian looked down in irritation. It wasn’t that he didn’t like cats, but he didn’t usually come across any that were so friendly.
    Julie stood and nodded toward a door. “The medicine cabinet’s through here.”
    Bastian followed her and stood uncertainly in the tiny room.
    “Here, sit yourself down on the edge of the bath,” Julie said.
    She began rummaging through a box in search of bandages. He sank down obediently onto the narrow ledge and, after a moment’s hesitation, removed his jacket and carefully rolled up his sleeve. He kept his gloves on.
    He examined the wound with a critical eye. The force of the impact with the asphalt had done its worst. The back of his right arm was covered in scratches, and the skin was grazed from his elbow down to his wrist. It looked like a normal enough scrape, except that it was much more extensive than it would have been on other people. He hoped to God that Julie wouldn’t notice.
    “Let me have a look.”
    Bastian held out his arm. “As I said, it’s nothing.”
    “What a hero,” she said sarcastically. She sat down on the toilet seat next to him and placed everything she would need in her lap. She inspected his arm more closely.
    First she took a damp cloth and dabbed the wound lightly to remove the worst of the blood. His arm burned under her touch, and a sharp stab of pain shot through his body. Bastian gritted his teeth and concentrated hard on Julie’s face to distract himself. It helped.
    “You’d better take your gloves off.”
    “No.”
    She looked up, perplexed. “But I can’t clean your wrist