While he finishes unloading, a knock sounds at the door. I tense, automatically. Anne catches my eye and moves to open the door. Thankfully, it appears to just be a delivery man and not the asshole of my nightmares.
Exactly how long is this trauma gonna haunt me? Asking for a friend.
Absently, I think how awesome it would be if I could erase memories willingly. I mean, I already don’t have much of a past. If I could erase Brett from all our memory banks, I feel like we’d all be happier.
Anne accepts two bulging bags from the very confused teenager at the door, digging for a tip, giving him a saucy smile and then shutting the door in his face. She turns to Flint and says “Did you lose your mind? Who the fuck is going to eat all of this?”
Oh. It was a food delivery.
Studying the large bags that appear to be quite heavy, I’m also starting to wonder who’s going to eat all the food.
Then Calida soars through the window and Anne succinctly says, “Well, holy fuck.”
I thoughtabout mentally cursing when Calida made her entrance, but what difference would that make?Annemarie took it a lot better than I anticipated. And by that I mean, she sat down, right there on the floor and had a giggle fit that was — probably — not entirely healthy.
We respected her space until she gestured for me to hand her her wine glass. Then Flint collected the food bags and went about dividing it for all of us, muttering something about day drinking under his breath.
Why is everyone constantly muttering?
I couldn’t call him on it though because the man is dealing with not one, but two, traumatized females and I really feel like someone needs to cut him a break.
It’s me. I need to cut him a break.
I manage to heave Anne off the floor and get her to the couch. I get her settled with a blanket and some pillows. Flint offers her one of the two heating pads he brought home and refills our wine glasses. Then, he plops two heaping plates of food on the table before making direct eye contact with me and almost snarling “Eat” in our general direction.
I settle next to her and pick up my fork. My eyes fill when I realize that he ordered an abundance of all of my favorite things, from all my favorite places.
While I’m settling back with my food, Flint snatches the remote and stabs at the buttons with one long, scarred finger until one of my comfort shows is playing on TV.
Calida is eating pasta in the kitchen — Flint decreed she can’t survive off pizza and rats alone. The break is probably a blessing. Hopefully Annemarie will be able to get her bearings while Calida snarfs down chicken parm. All in all, she’s taking it better than I did. Then again, Calida has been talked to about the problems that can arise if she sets a fireinour apartment.
“You good?” I ask, gently.
Anne sits forward and takes a long sip of her wine.
“That’s a fucking dragon.”
I nod.
“Exactly how long have you been living witha fucking dragon?”
I shrug, like it’s no big deal.
It’s a very big fucking deal.
“Since Flint got here,” I mutter, trying to focus on my food because I’m a coward.
“And Flint…” she allows her sentence to trail off.
I take a deep breath. “I’m pretty sure he is, in fact, the main male character I’ve been writing. I wrote his description before he just… showed up, so yeah….” I let my sentence trail too. I love the woman, but I also wouldn’t blame her for calling the psych ward and making a reservation for three.
She studies my face for a long time. I finally force myself to meet her gaze. Traumatized, yes. Crazy? I don’t think so.
She nods once and takes another long sip of her wine. “Well, introduce us. I feel like I should know all your roommates.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I’m working on shelving when I hear the first news of Brett’s sudden misfortune. Everyone thinks they whisper, but they never really speak softly enough that people in the vicinity can’t hear it. Even more so with a Fae in the area — we have amazing hearing.
