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Yeah. I was glad I hadn’t decided on a quickie jerk-off session or I’d have had an audience.
“Let’s just forget what was going on in here, okay?”
Out of nowhere, she made a noise like a growl. I didn’t even know rabbits growled like that.
Reaching out, I carefully lifted her into my arms. She made the same noise again but seemed to be tolerating the contact.
When I emerged from the bathroom, Hazel caught sight of me holding her.
“Oh my heart.” She rushed toward us. “You found Abbott! I’d been looking everywhere for her.”
“Yeah, everywhere but the bathroom. Little bugger scared the snot out of me—hopped up from inside the bathtub to the top of the sink.”
“She has a habit of doing stuff like that. I find her in the weirdest places.”
The rabbit purred, seeming to have acclimated to being in my arms.
“She likes you.” Hazel smiled. “Her mom likes you, too.” Her cheeks turned red as she looked up at me.
Oh, Hazel. All the things I would do to you tonight if I could. I wanted to devour her mouth so badly right now. My eyes lowered to her neck, and I wished I could bite it.
Maybe it was a good idea if we got the hell out of here for a bit.
“Didn’t you say you needed to take her out for a walk?”
“Yeah. It’s that time of evening. Let me get my leash.”
I laughed to myself as she walked away. This was going to be interesting.
After she returned, I bent down, setting the rabbit free and watching as Hazel adjusted the leash around her. We grabbed our coats and headed out for a brisk walk around Hazel’s neighborhood.
It was dark aside from the light coming from people’s houses. Abbott scurried a few inches in front of us.
“So, no one ever questions why you’re walking a rabbit?”
“Oh, I get looks, believe me. I just don’t care.”
“I love that you don’t care. Fuck people if they have a problem with it.”
Hazel slowed her pace and arched her neck to look inside one of the houses.
“What’s so interesting over there?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing. One of my favorite things to do is walk at night and look inside people’s homes,” she said. “When it’s dark and people have their lights on, you can really see inside. There’s something so interesting about catching people in the midst of their daily lives without them knowing, whether it’s a man reading a book in the corner of his living room, or a family sitting down to dinner. It’s real, unfiltered life, you know?”
“I believe there’s a name for that.”
“Yeah?”
I knocked my shoulder playfully into hers. “It’s called voyeurism.”
“Very funny.” She laughed.
“So, this…spying inside people’s houses while walking Abbott on a leash is basically your nightly routine?”
“Yeah. Abbott likes fresh air, and I find it calming for me, too. Well, except for that one time a dog tried to attack her. Have you ever heard a rabbit scream?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“They don’t do it often, but it sounded like a screaming child. It was a shock to hear that noise come from her. They say rabbits scream when they’re feeling truly threatened.”
I could relate to that. As soon as she said those words—feeling threatened—they reminded me how I felt about losing Hazel to Brady. Maybe I’d feel better if I screamed out into the night like a scared rabbit to let out my frustrations.
I breathed in some of the cold night air. This walk was good for us. The less time alone in her house together, the better.
As Hazel and I continued our stroll, it seemed her habit had rubbed off on me. I was now checking out the insides of people’s houses. We caught one couple having a pretty heated argument and watched about two minutes of the news on someone’s television.
“Thank you again for agreeing to stay in town a little longer,” Hazel said.
I looked down at my shoes hitting the pavement. “Leaving so soon didn’t exactly feel right, although I’m not sure I’ll be going back with any more closure than if I’d left when I was originally supposed to. This feels like…an impossible situation. And right now, time doesn’t seem to be fixing it.”
That was more than I should’ve shared on what was supposed to be a casual walk. Without knowing how she truly felt about Brady, the future was a blur to me. I didn’t know what would happen with us, or with my friendship with him, for that matter. I didn’t even know if I’d see her again after I went back home. I had to trust that I’d gotten into this situation for a reason, and what was meant to happen would.
I backtracked. “You know what? I shouldn’t have gone there. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company tonight.”
She reached for me, looping her fingers with mine, and we walked the rest of the way hand in hand.
