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Was I playing with fire on purpose?
Did I want to knock her up?
Throwing back her head, she finished cumming as I rubbed her clit for her. Then she fell to me, her face pressing against my chest.
I held her tight, never wanting to let her go, but knowing that I would have to.
“Breakfast?” I asked after a while, when we’d caught our breath.
“Sure.”
“In or out?”
“I think we just did both, sweetheart.”
“No, I mean—” I started to say.
“I know, I’m kidding; let’s go out. It looks like a beautiful day.”
She was right about that. Once Holly had gotten dressed in new clothes, with me still wearing my old ones, we stepped out into the bright Seattle sun, ready to face the wide open Saturday.
This was the most time we’d had together since we’d first met. It would be great if we could find a way to stretch it out through tomorrow, which would be Sunday. A weekend together could be just what we needed.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked.
“I’d rather not know. It’s more fun that way.”
She had a point. I was the sort who liked order, and to have a plan. I’d always been that way, but with Holly I was beginning to break a lot of habits, not all of them bad.
Hand in hand, we wandered the downtown streets, looking for somewhere that looked good or even just interesting.
“Der Waffle Haus,” I read off the sign.
“Sounds familiar. Not sure why.”
“Want to give it a try?”
“How about we leave it to chance?”
“Chance who?”
“Otherwise known as Lady Luck,” Holly said, getting a quarter out of her pocket.
“Heads we go in; tails we move on?” I suggested.
“You catch on quick!”
“Very funny.”
The coin came up heads and Holly led the way to Der Waffle Haus, to see what sights there were to behold inside.
“Guten tag!”
The server’s German was approximate, but she said it in all conviction. I was far from a Native speaker, but Norwegian was close enough to know the nuances. I had a niggling temptation to respond in Norwegian to see if she could, too. I didn’t, though.
“Morning,” I said, keeping things safe.
After filling up on waffles and fruit, Holly and I spent the rest of the day getting to know the city on foot, with her showing me some of her favorite places in Seattle.
“This doesn’t seem safe,” I said, as we descended the stairs leading to an underground store.
“Use the rail, honey. That’s what it’s there for.”
After getting to the bottom with all our bones intact, we found a cornucopia of underground culture. Going through the door of the record store at the bottom of the stairs was like stepping into a different realm. I wasn’t sure about the shadow part, but the rest made sense.
“Holly?” someone in the store greeted us.
“Hey, Ana.”
“How long has it been?”
“Too long,” Holly said, as the two of them took each other in for a bear hug.
Then Holly introduced me to her, saying that she was the owner of Shadow Realm Records, and Ana and I told each other, “Nice to meet you.”
“Are you doing okay?” Ana asked Holly. “Have you heard from, uh, he who shalt not be named?”
“Yeah, a bit.”
“Oh, my God! Even with the restraining order?”
“Yep. He walked right through it.”
“If you need a spell that will curse him, let me know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Holly said, not seeming to be kidding, “but there shouldn’t be a problem. Stig here fixed him good.”
“With an ax, I hope,” Ana said, smiling up at me.
“Sorry, no. Just with reason and appeals to his self-preservation.”
“That’ll do ‘er.”
Ana seemed to like me, which was a relief. I was enjoying getting to know Holly’s world and beginning to wish I never had to leave it.
Chapter Eleven – Holly
1 Month Later
It was a dream. And a great one at that.
Everything I ever wanted was coming up out of the ether, as if I’d helped out a leprechaun without knowing it.
There were undercover fairies in the mortal world, going about their business like mortal humans, helping out when they incurred debts.
The problem with dreams was that they ended.
And when I woke up this morning, Stig was nowhere to be found, even though I was in his apartment.
Suddenly, I felt sick. The urge to puke was undeniable. Just as you always knew right when you had to pee, the body had a similar early-warning system for things about to come out the other end.
Wondering if I had a stomach flu, I hurried to the bathroom, puking my guts out.
My mind was on my physical symptoms so much that I temporarily forgot how anxious I was when I woke up and couldn’t find Stig.
It wasn’t until I tried to call him and got no answer that I started to worry.
I looked for a note, still holding out hope despite the evidence before me.
