Ivory White

<p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>She showed up at the bar completely out of place. Wide blue eyes scouring every corner searching the shadows like she expected them to swallow her whole.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>I thought her kind of beauty only existed in storybooks but then she opened her mouth. </span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>Frankly it ruined her face.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>Aloof unfriendly insulting.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>So yeah I stood there and watched her get arrested didn't lift a single finger to help. Didn't feel one ounce of guilt as she got hauled away in cuffs.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>Then she calls. Uses the number I scrawled on a napkin and stuffed into her pocket while I was still enchanted by her beauty.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>I scoff.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>She whispers my name.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>And now she's on our couch. The five of us staring down at her like we'd never seen a girl. </span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>To be fair they don't make them like her in the Grimms.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>When she opens her eyes I remember why I let her get arrested. </span></p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>Maddening ridiculous completely helpless.</span></p><p class=ql-align-center>It's no wonder someone wants her dead.</p><p class=ql-align-center>But the more entangled I get with Ivory the more I realize she's more than I thought. So much more that my flatlined cold heart starts to revive.</p><p class=ql-align-center><span style=color: rgba(5 5 5 1)>Suddenly it doesn't matter </span>I'm a thief and she's a princess. </p><p class=ql-align-center>All that matters is keeping her alive.</p><p></p><p></p>