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Sabine snickered. Even early in the morning and before a full cup of coffee, Kara was an expert shit giver. “She’s messing with you.”
Max huffed but visibly relaxed.
Sabine slid her shoes on and then her coat.
Time to face the inevitable.
She doubled back and drained the last of her coffee. The hot liquid cascaded down her throat and landed with a splash in her belly. She imagined it reinforcing her resolve and giving her courage.
It’s not that she was afraid. She wasn’t. Or at least, she wouldn’t call it fear.
But maybe it was fear. Who knew at this point?
It had started out as fear and now it was more of an unpleasant fact.
She tucked the mask under one arm and paused at the door.
She turned to face her friend and Max, pressing her mouth into a grim line. “Wish me luck.”
Kara saluted.
Max shook his head and flung his hands out in exasperation. “Fine. You’ve perplexed me. I’m coming with you.”
He put his shoes back on—they were nice loafers, probably expensive—and then his coat. “Do we have to go outside? Is that why the coat?”
“Yeah.” Sabine opened the door out into the hallway. Max followed.
“Safe journey, pilgrims,” Kara called just before the door shut behind them.
Sabine walked beyond the elevator to the stairwell. “Our storage unit has roof access,” she explained. Cold air greeted them in the stairwell and she tugged her coat close to her neck. Maybe she should have put a sweater on over her tank top. Even though the storage unit wasn’t far, and the unit itself was temperature controlled, it was freezing the entire journey there and back.
If they made it back.
She snorted at her own dark joke. She didn’t share because she was pretty sure Max wouldn’t have appreciated it.
But Dave would’ve laughed.
As stressful as it seemed at first to have everyone come over to the loft for Thanksgiving, she was stupid excited to spend any amount of time with Dave as she could.
He was sofun.
It probably wasn’t the most prudent idea for her heart. Oh well.
They trudged up the stairs, the only sound their feet hitting the cement steps as they traveled in single file. When they reached the top, she stopped and glanced at Max. She peered out the small window in the top half of the door.
She didn’t see anything.
But she’d been fooled before—just last summer when she thought she’d try sunbathing on the roof and had wound up having to get a tetanus shot and three stitches.
“Zip your coat all the way and put your hood up,” she instructed.
Sabine put on the goalie mask and then raised her hood over it. She tugged and pulled the fabric around the mask and secured it with the hood’s strings.
Max frowned but did as he was told. “What’s out there?” he asked.
“Sometimes nothing. Sometimes hawks. Sometimes feral cats,” she said simply. She sighed a resigned sigh and noticed Max’s pale face. “It’s okay. Just stay close and I’ll protect you,” she promised. Then she shoved open the door to the roof and stepped outside.
Freezing wind whipped around them and sucked her breath from her lungs for a moment. She checked her immediate surroundings, saw nothing, and hurried across the rooftop to the storage unit, Max right behind her.
