Storm here. I’ll get back sometime tonight.
Immediately, three dots appeared.
Everything ok?
TBD. If I don’t turn up for work, send the cops.
Will do. Kiss.
Nothing. Again.
I closed yet another cupboard with a little too much force. By now, it was clear I hadn’t just misplaced my laptop. Someone had hidden it deliberately. And, for all I knew, that someone had slipped my work into their suitcase and dragged me out of the competition.
“I’m pretty sure they have tracking,” John said, walking up to me as I was gazing out over the front porch, like a widow waiting for my laptop to return from war.
“Huh?” I said. I felt beaten, tired, and still fucking angry.
“Whoever took it can’t have taken it out of the house. They insure these things in case an angry writer throws it against the wall.” John leaned against the doorframe next to me.
“So you believe me when I say someone took it?”
“I think,” he said, facing me, “someone was jealous.”
“Of what? The amount of praise I received?” I asked mockingly.
“You have a unique angle. It may have scared someone off.” The shadows seemed to carve out his cheekbones even further.
My face heated as my thoughts drifted back to our little game in the tub. The way he readjusted himself. I could swear his eyes dipped to my mouth for the shortest of moments.
A sudden flurry of dizziness had me grab the window frame I was leaning against.
John stepped closer, but then seemed to rethink and dropped his hand. Instead of a worried look, he watched me with annoyance. “You forgot to eat again, didn’t you?”
I wanted to bite back but then tried to remember the last time I’d eaten. “No. I ate.”
He made a whirly motion with his hand. “Anything after the tray of food I brought up?”
I focused on him warily. “That was you?”
“You think I'm incapable of human emotions?”
“No, not that.” I shook my head. “Actually, yes. I just thought it must have been May.”
“No. She and Jeremy were holed up in her room the entire day doing the devil-knows-what.”
My eyebrows scrunched together. Weird. “So instead of letting your competitor faint from lack of nourishment, you brought me breakfast to my doorstep?”
His shoulder made contact with the wall once more as his posture eased. “You’re welcome.”
I fought against the urge to clear my throat.
At that moment, the light above us flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then died.
