That night he made love tenderly to me, holding me close while staring into my eyes the whole time and being my ice cream parlor hottie. It was beautiful. But during pillow talk he told me something that had also been discovered about Tom Sr. that completely shocked me and when the rest of the family found out about it, things might never be the same.
A few hours later he woke up out of breath and covered in sweat and he went up to the rooftop and beat up his punching bag, refusing to come back to bed, and refusing to talk about whatever he’d dreamt about.
Dare
When I woke up Felicia was lying beside me, snuggled into my side with her head on my shoulder and she was awake, looking up at me.
I stretched a little, not enough to make her move. Her warmth felt nice. Too nice.
“Mornin’,” I said.
“Hi,” she said.
“Sleep okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she whispered. And the way she was looking at me, a little star struck or something, made me uncomfortable.
“You want coffee? I want coffee.” I motioned to get up so she’d shift. I grabbed a robe from the hook on the door to the master bathroom and put it on the end of the bed, motioning to her so she’d know to put it on. She was just in her bra and panties. I got into a pair of jeans and threw on a tee and headed to the den to get my phone from the charger. I was gonna text Zack and get him over here to check her things as well as mine. I got the coffee started and headed out to the terrace for a smoke with my phone so I could check my messages.
When I came back in she was standing by the island in my black fleece robe with two cups that she’d poured.
“How do you take your coffee?” she asked me.
“Just black. Like my soul,” I joked.
She gave a thin smile, a fake smile.
“Sugar’s there,” I opened a cupboard and pulled out a canister of sugar.
Her eyes widened.
“Milk?” I asked and opened the fridge.
She nodded a little nervously.
I passed it to her and then fetched a spoon from the drawer. She was hesitant for a sec and then she spooned two big heaping spoons of sugar into her coffee, added a big glug of milk and stirred it and then took a small sip, wincing probably at the heat, but her eyes rolled back like it was the best cup of coffee she’d ever had.
“Lemme guess. They didn’t allow you to have milk and sugar.”
She gave me a little nod, “Or coffee. Green or jasmine tea, mostly.”
“Gross. So,” I sat at one of the stools in front of the island and motioned for her to take the one beside me, “I know it’s still probably sinkin’ in but the things I told you last night --- I need to reiterate that we have to play things very carefully. I can’t have them at all suspicious about my motives so it’s best you stay here and in case they’re watching outwardly it’ll look like you’re here, you’re mine. Until I know there’s no threat. We’ve gotta take things one step at a time.”
She chewed her cheek, staring past me, into space.
“I’ll move my stuff outta the den and get a better bed in there for you. That futon bites. Once we have it all sorted I’ll help you get set up somewhere else. It could take a little while and we might have to get creative but if we play it carefully there’s no reason why you can’t eventually get back to a regular life. I dunno how long it’ll take me to feel sure that they’re not watching and we’d be safer to get you a new identity. They wouldn’t take kindly to hearing you were set free because that’d put their secrets in jeopardy. And as far as contacting your family…”
She jolted like she’d been prodded with a branding iron.
“You alright?” I put my hand on her arm. She looked at my hand and then looked at me and then looked at the floor.
“I know this is a lot to take in, angel, but if you can communicate with me it’ll put my mind at ease. Try to help me out here.”
Her coffee cup slipped out of her hand and crashed to the floor, spilling hot coffee on the both of us.
“Fuck!” I reacted and she hit the deck and turtled, covering her face
.