“Holy shit, really?”
She groaned loudly. “Get your pale butt back here. I’ve got to get out of this car, but it’s negative sixteen outside.Negative sixteen! I thought my dash was broken!”
“All right, all right. I’m leaving.”
I ended the call just as Felix’s arm snaked around me and pulled me back onto the mattress. Warm skin, soft hair, slow breathing…. Ugh… this was painful.
“Darling,” I said. “I’ve got to go.”
“It’s early,” he whispered. “Still haven’t had morning sex.”
“You are going to kill me,” I said, laughing. I raised his hand and kissed Felix’s fingers, leaving each one an IOU before sliding out from underneath the covers.
The cold had seeped into the wooden floors and bit my toes as I rushed to dress in yesterday’s clothes. I pocketed my bow tie, hopped on one foot to tug each oxford on, then threw on my suit coat before leaning over the bed. I kissed Felix’s mouth, and he threaded his fingers through my hair.
“My best friend is waiting at my house. I’ll see you later today, okay?”
“Okay. Love you.”
I smiled. “Love you too.”
After slipping out of the house and into the dark, I sat in my car for several moments, letting it warm up in the driveway. When I reluctantly left Felix’s house, I made it across town and to my place in record time. Not that traffic was even a thing up here to begin with—I’d learned that if three cars were on the road at any given time, it was considered “busy”—but there wasn’t a soul alive and stirring at the early-morning hour. Save for no one but me, Scarlet, and the poor guy working the early shift at Dunkin’ Donuts.
I pulled up to my little house and shut the car off. I climbed out as Scarlet got out from behind the wheel of hers. “You steal someone’s car?” I asked, shutting the door and looking at her over the roof.
“Ha-ha. I rented it.”
I walked around the front and met her halfway before smiling and throwing my arms around her. “You’re fucking crazy! I can’t believe you came up here without a warning!”
“Let’s bring the reunion inside.”
“Hey, if you wore goddamn pants during winter…,” I suggested, making for the front door. I let us both inside and immediately cranked up the thermostat.
“These are thermal tights,” Scarlet said.
“Sounds like snake oil.”
She snorted. There she was, in her full glory at barely five in the morning. Blue and pink hair braided over one shoulder, gauged ears, septum ring, and when she took off her leather jacket and hiked up the sleeves of her sweatshirt, arms as colorful and vivid as Gideon’s.
“I’m guessing you were at Felix’s?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
Scarlet tugged the beanie off her head and sipped the extra-large coffee in her hand. “Sorry to drag you out of perfect arms.”
“You dragged him out ofmyarms,” I corrected.
“Look at you,” she said, smirking before reaching out to hit my arm lightly. “So, come on! Ask me what the hell I’m doing here.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Well. Last night I listened to my brother from another mother regale me with the sad, sordid lies someone has been spreading about him and his guy, which is costing him his job and reputation. I thought, Self, you’ve got to do something about this.”
“Uh-huh. And what did Self plan to do?” I asked warily.
She grinned like a shark. “We’re going to invade enemy territory.”
I stared at her for a long minute. “Honey, how long has it been since you’ve slept?”
