The ride to his place was pretty short but it was freezing. I was so ready to be warm again.
He pulled into the alley behind the bar he worked at and we took the rickety wooden staircase on the outside of the building up to the floor Nik’s apartment was on. The door back here opened right into his apartment as he keyed his way into the two locks. It took me a minute to realize we were going in through the fire escape, but it was handy and it got us inside quicker. The problem was, it was just about as cold in here as it was out there.
I pulled his bag out of mine and handed it to him. He thanked me and rooted around in it, setting a couple of big cans of stew on the kitchen counter and handing me first a box of bath stuff and then a plastic wrapped bath bomb.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said, and finally added a big bag of lavender Epsom salts to the top of the growing pile in my arms. “So I got it all.”
I blinked, surprised, and laughed a little, “You didn’t have to do all this,” I said softly and sniffed, my nose running from the cold.
“I’ll get a fire going in the fireplace and the soup on. Your best bet on getting warm is the hot water from the tank, so, go on.” He hooked a hand behind my neck carefully and stepped up to me, pressing a kiss to my forehead, his thumb stroking along the side of my neck. I closed my eyes and sighed, grateful.
“Okay,” I murmured and he let me go, moving past me to the cold, dark, fireplace grate set in one wall.