“No, we didn’t get that far. He went upstairs to work and closed the door to his studio. I don’t bother him when he does that.”
“Oh. Well, eight o’clock, here. Just park behind the building and knock on the back door if it’s locked.”
Maybe there’s still hope for me if she’s inviting us both. “Okay. Can we bring anything?”
“Just yourselves.”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
He hung up and stared at his phone. Chickenshit.
He started toward the side door when he thought he heard a woman’s bright, giggling laugh.
“Hello?” He turned, peering into the darkness beyond the security light over the kitchen door that illuminated the parking area.
No one.
Shaking it off as his imagination, or maybe sound carrying oddly from a neighbor’s house, he returned inside.
Mandaline felt relief so strong it started her trembling again and she had to lean against the kitchen counter for support. She’d gone upstairs to make the call, expecting an interrogation from Ellis about what had happened between her and Brad, not that.
She stared down at Pers, who sat at her feet. “What do you think?”
His tail wagged a few times.
“You’re no help.”
Kim had left and Sachi was gathering her things when Mandaline went downstairs again. Sachi paused and studied her. “You all right?”
“I’m having Brad and Ellis over for dinner tomorrow night.”
Sachi burst out laughing. “Wow. You work fast. From swearing off love to a ménage in the space of a few days.”
“I’m not in a ménage. I’m not even in a relationship. I don’t want or need a relationship. Especially right now!”
Sachi snorted. “Suuure. Keep telling yourself that. How long’s it been since you’ve been laid?”
She fumed. “Irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not.” She put her hands on Mandaline’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’ve got a huge, honking void in your life. A vacuum. Basic physics. What’s the one thing the Universe abhors?”
“A vacuum,” Mandaline mumbled.
Sachi grinned. “So suck it up, buttercup. Most single women would kill to have your problem. Obviously, regardless of your opinion on the matter, you aren’t a person meant to be alone.”
“The last thing I need is a man, or men, telling me how to run my life. Or who want me to change for them.”
“Who’s telling you how to run your life? Besides me, I mean. And who says you have to change?” She grabbed her purse. “No one says you have to change. You never did have to change. With your ex, at that point in your life, that was all you. You just didn’t have the confidence to say ‘no.’ Just because someone says ‘change’ doesn’t mean you have to.”
“Relationships are a hassle.”
Sachi rolled her eyes. “Say what you want, boss. The Universe has painted a bull’s-eye on your back. You can keep running as long as you want from the truth, make all the excuses you want, but shit’s going to keep happening until you finally go with the flow and let the Universe have its way.” She hugged her and headed toward the back door. “Come lock yourself in and set the alarm.”
Mandaline followed her and locked the door, but she didn’t set the alarm. She needed to walk Pers again before calling it a night.
She headed back to the front of the store to check the front door and pull the shades in the windows and door. It didn’t feel empty to her, despite being alone. She’d never had a problem with being alone.
It wasn’t her preferred state, but she wouldn’t admit that to Sachi.
It was bad enough she had one friend trying to fix her up from the beyond. She didn’t need Sachi also setting her sights on getting her a boyfriend—singular or plural—from this realm.
She closed her eyes. “Julie, why didn’t you come to me? Why are you speaking through Brad?” Her voice sounded loud to her ears in the quiet store.
Her eyes flew open at a soft scritching sound coming from behind the counter. When she went in search of the noise, she couldn’t find anything. Then her eyes settled on the little zen garden on the counter. She would have sworn it had been freshly raked a few minutes ago. That was one of their unofficial closing rituals. Someone always raked out the zen garden.
In it, someone had drawn a smiley face with three stones marking the eyes and nose.
Her heart raced as she stared at it. Finally, she reached over, grabbed the rake, and quickly erased it before heading upstairs.
Chapter Eight
Brad awoke to dim, grey light forcing its way through the attic windows. He groaned as he sat up. He’d fallen asleep on the attic couch with the TV on in an attempt to escape answering Ellis’ inevitable questions about Mandaline and what they’d been doing upstairs when he arrived home.
A dark, dense pall filled his senses as he looked around. Everything hurt. Especially his neck, upon which he’d apparently slept wrong.
Maybe I’m coming down with something. It certainly felt like it.
At some point, even though he didn’t remember doing it, he must have turned out the attic lights. Then his eyes settled on an easel at the far end of the room. A large sketch pad sat on it. In the dim light he couldn’t make out the drawing.
He didn’t even remember the drawing.
With a growing sense of dread he stood and slowly walked over to the easel. Hell, even his feet hurt! He’d fallen asleep with his sneakers on, but it felt like he’d walked miles since last night.
The piece was in pencil and charcoal. When he looked at his fingers, he saw the dark smudges on his hands. He had a utility sink up here so he didn’t have to constantly run up and down the stairs. Apparently he hadn’t washed his hands after his somnambulic art session.
The piece frightened him, quite honestly. It looked like something out of the Dark Ages, with an ugly, three-eyed demon menacingly hovering over a cowering woman on a chaise. Terror filled her features as the demon leveled what looked like a shotgun at the woman.
What have I done?
He started to tear it from the sketch pad to throw it away when he looked more closely at the woman’s face.
Without a doubt it was Mandaline.
Instead he grabbed the sketchbook, slammed it shut, and buried it between some half-finished canvasses along the wall. He hurried over to the sink to scrub at his hands. When he sniffled, he realized he was crying.
What’s happening to me? Why am I doing this?
He headed downstairs to the bathroom. It wasn’t quite seven yet, and Ellis would need to get into the bathroom to take his shower soon. He stripped and stepped under water so hot it quickly turned his skin red. He wanted to wash away the feeling, the thick, dark, dirty feeling coating him.
When he got out, he wrapped a towel around his hips and jammed his clothes into the hamper before heading to his room. He grabbed a pair of shorts.
He lost his balance trying to put them on and fell back onto the bed, his legs hanging over the edge.
The way her eyes looked staring up at him from between his legs, the way her hot, sweet mouth had felt while sucking his cock…
He closed his eyes and fisted the covers as he tried to shove the memory out of his head. Yes, it’d felt good, the best blow job he’d ever gotten in his life. But it wasn’t fair to saddle her with his problems.
Was it?
He rolled over facedown on the bed, hands fisting the sheets again as a blue haze took his vision. He had just enough time to realize he was having a seizure before the world went dark.