~*~
The growing brightness in the room drew her out of sleep, but Kit kept her eyes closed. No alarm sounded, so she saw no need to join the living yet. She turned onto her side and buried her face in a pillow, paying no mind that the bedding felt unfamiliar and rough under her bare skin.
Finally a low, muffled buzzing bothered her enough to open her eyes, and she startled for a moment at the strange décor. After a few hazy seconds she remembered she’d gone home with Sid and hadn’t left.
A sudden flip to her other side revealed a missing body. Kit sat up and saw a closed door with a sliver of light shining from the bottom as a sign that Sid remained in her apartment. She relaxed and reached over the side of the futon for her clothes, where she found her phone. She powered it on to an immediate buzz.
Annalise continued to send messages. Not unusual for six in the morning if her friend worked the first shift at Buzzkill, but this was Sunday, her usual day off. That meant her friend got lucky and wanted to brag ASAP. Kit scrolled through photos of the woman’s late night adventure with a multitude of blurred images featuring exposed tongues and nipples, and tongues attached to nipples.
Gene Simmons lookalike contest?she replied. Seconds later, a response:
Who?
Kit snorted.Come on, you’re not that young.
You miss a lot of fun when you go to the wrong bar.
“Wrong bar?” she muttered, thinking of her night of mind-blowing sex. She doubted she’d have awakened as satisfied had she driven all the way to the beach.
She almost replied again, thinking a snapshot of Sid’s apartment might end Annalise’s prude-shaming. Instead Kit set down the phone and got dressed. Her night out with Sid remained their business, and while it could inspire some awe in her friend, Kit refused to trot out the gorgeous culinary school grad like a prize. She liked Sid, and while she didn’t normally go home with somebody within hours of meeting her, she had a gut feeling that what they shared meant more than a desire to satisfy mutual lust.
She believed Sid liked her, too. Yeah, she’d worried about the woman threatening her position at Tish’s Riches, but if Sid intended to use her body to get ahead, she’d fucked the wrong person. Tish was hetero and happy with Vinnie, and Vinnie didn’t seem the type to share, anyway.
The door opened and a nude Sid padded to the kitchen area, greeting her with a smile. Kit watched the sway of her pert, petite ass and crossed her legs to ride out the renewed throbbing in her clit. “Good morning.”
“I didn’t want to wake you. I figured since it’s Sunday and Tish’s is closed today there was no rush,” Sid said. She opened two cupboard doors. “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, but I’m not a breakfast person. I usually eat a granola bar on the way to work and cereal on weekends, so you don’t have to go to any trouble.” She watched Sid take down two plates, worried her hostess felt obligated to cook.
“Not even Sunday brunch?”
Kit shrugged, walking over to the kitchen area. “Kinda pathetic going out to brunch by yourself. Like I said, granola bars.”
“Well, it’s no trouble, and we can have one here. I cook my meals in advance and freeze them. There’s plenty to eat.” She opened her freezer, perhaps the most organized one Kit had ever seen. Stacks of plastic zipper bags took up most of the space, each with the meal contained within written in black marker and the date it had been prepared. Kit noticed, too, that Sid had arranged them in columns. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. The shelves in the small door held a few pints of ice cream and miniature liquor bottles.
Holy cow.Kit considered herself a stickler for order, but Sid had her beat with this impressive display.
“I have blueberry pancakes, egg burritos with sausage or veggies, and quiche slices. Won’t take a few minutes to heat. Anything you like?”
“I’m a part-time vegetarian, so I’m thinking the pancakes are my safest bet.”
Sid laughed at that and pulled out two bags. “Part-time, that’s funny.”
“I guess. I try not to eat meat but occasionally I slip,” Kit said. “We get vegan and gluten-free people coming to the shop sometimes, wanting complete ingredient lists for everything we make. I’m sure you’ll hear it eventually. Tish used to keep a full tray of non-dairy sweets for sale, but they didn’t move. She only makes them for special orders now.”
Sid hummed. “Odd that people create a demand for something and don’t follow through when Tish delivers. What about customers with allergies?”
“We have a separate prep area for making sweets without gluten and peanuts,” Kit said. “We do our best to make sure thetreats we make there are clean, but we do warn people we sell stuff with nuts.”
Sid arranged the frozen flat cakes on a large plate and set the microwave. “That makes sense.”
“As for the special requests, it used to piss off Tish. The people who wanted those things would complain about the price points, when it cost us more to make those sweets. We couldn’t sell the surplus to our regular customers because that’s not why they come to Tish’s. They want butter and cocoa and sugar, and I don’t blame them.”
“Well, I used almond milk in these, so you be the judge.”
Kit ate dairy, but the pancakessmelledgood, anyway. She took a stool at the kitchen bar as Sid set a short, steaming stack before her along with a bottle of maple syrup. They looked as though she’d just flipped them from the griddle. Dark juice from thick blueberries bubbled on the surface, and as Kit forked holes through her pancakes she found no cold spots.
They were delicious, fluffy and tart with fruit. She didn’t bother adding syrup. Kit cut off a triangle, three layers deep, and ate some more. Soon, she was humming.
