Gifts and Doubts

Anna sat quietly on her bed, plucking at the strings on her guitar and turning the knobs at the end to tune it properly. Once she was happy with the tone of each string, she gave it a strum before she started to play quietly, now aware of the effect that her music had on people who heard it. She would have to be wary of how loud she played or sang from now on...so as not to affect her neighbors in ways that they probably wouldn't be too upset about, but still. Better to be safe than sorry.

She looked up as someone knocked on her door. "Come in," she called, knowing that she usually left her door unlocked. Perhaps it wasn't the safest thing to do, but that thought didn't really occur to Anna...it had never brought her any trouble to leave it unlocked when she was home. Anna picked out a little tune on the strings, something that sounded vaguely Spanish, and hummed in gentle tones.​

Anna returned James' smile brightly, glad to see that her friend seemed to be feeling better. He'd been down and out lately, but he was looking healthier, like he'd slept and eaten more...much less of the wreck that he had been previously when she'd been taking care of him. "Of course I don't mind," she told him, scooting over on the bed so he'd have room to sit comfortably.

She smiled down at her guitar and continued plucking the strings for a moment, then stopped as he said he'd wanted to talk. Anna looked up at him and searched his face, concerned. "Okay," she said, setting the guitar aside on the bed so her playing wouldn't distract from the conversation...it could be something important. "What's up?"​

Anna examined the guitar pick that was pressed into her hands, with the delicate initials AP on it. She grinned and hugged him. "It's perfect. Thank you so much," she told him warmly, squeezing him tight before releasing him to look at the pick again, running her thumb over the engraved letters. It was beautiful. She'd been needing a new pick, too. James was such a good friend to her, she was happy that they'd met. From tours around the town to keeping her company in the hospital, to just having someone there to hang out with...they'd gotten very close over the short amount of time they'd known each other, but she was glad for it.

Her smile stayed in place, even widened a little as he told her the good news. "Oh, James! I'm so happy for you," she hugged him again. "Is she nice?" She pulled away and gave him a mock-stern look, "She better treat you well. You deserve to be happy." She bounced a little on her bed. "I'm so glad that you seem to be doing so much better...it makes me feel better, too. I was awfully worried about you."​

Anna watched James as he told her about his new catch. It sounded like it was a rather quick relationship...and made something in the back of her mind stir. It seemed only slightly suspicious. But hey. He was happy...right? She honestly couldn't tell all that much. She watched him flinch and raised an eyebrow.

"You okay? You seem a little...off," she said, setting a hand on his arm. It wasn't cold in here or anything...he certainly didn't feel cold. She wondered what was wrong. She had like...a sixth sense sometimes about these kinds of things, but it wasn't like it was well-tuned or anything. She would just sometimes get these feelings that something wasn't quite right.​