Page 91 of Stoker's Serenity

“Wait, what’d you say?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“You know,” I said, my cheeks heating. “The move. My moving. In with you…”

“You serious?” he asked, and his voice held suspense, like he was expecting me to pull a Lucy and the football on him a la the old Charlie Brown specials that played on television when I was growing up around the holidays.

“If you still want me,” I said softly.

“Holy shit, you’re saying yes. Please tell me you’re saying yes right now.”

“I think I’m saying yes,” I said with a nervous laugh.

“Alright. Okay. Um, your job, have you quit your job?” he asked.

“I suppose I should put in a two weeks’ notice…” I trailed off.

“What? No. Fuck no. Fuck that fucking ho,” he said, and I smiled and rolled my eyes.

“She was on her best behavior today,” I said.

“She fuckin’ better be.”

“Look, as wretched as she’s been the last couple of months, I wouldn’t be turning in two weeks for her sake, the company –”

“You aren’t seriously going to tell me the company’s been good to you, paying you a sub-standard wage, refusing to pay you overtime when you worked overtime hours… come on, baby. You’re better than that place, and if you’re gonna be a rebel, you might as well start somewhere.”

He was teasing me now, gently. I laughed and said, “How’s it going to look on my resume, not giving notice and just ghosting like that? Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence with any future employers, now does it?”

He made a dismissive noise on the other end of the line. “You’re gonna be just fine, Orchid.”

“Well, be that as it may, I am still putting in my two weeks tomorrow, and then that will give me time to pack this place up and weed things out.”

“Sounds like a plan, baby. Want me to come that way Friday after band practice?”

“Would you?” I asked softly.

“I would do anything for you,” he said, and I closed my eyes and savored the notes of his voice as he said it.

I believed him.

“Okay, well, it’s getting late. I know you need to be up early, and so I am going to let you go for now.”

“Shit, I hate it when you’re right,” he said softly and with feeling. “But when you’re right you’re right, so I guess it’s bye for now.”

“Just for now,” I murmured.

“Moment by moment, minute by minute, mile by mile, Orchid.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. “Thank you, that helps.”

“I know this is a big step for you.”

“I haven’t lived with anyone since my parents kicked me out, expecting I’d fall flat on my ass,” I confessed.

“That’s not a story that you’ve told me,” he said.

“Um, the Cliff’s Notes version of it is, I graduated, they kicked me out that night, but they didn’t know I’d been pretty much expecting it, so I had money saved up, enough to get me into a place. I was at a fleabag hotel for a week, and then I rented a basement room at this flop-house. It was a shared bathroom, no kitchen, and there were some, um, seriously questionable individuals living in the other rooms. I was stuck there for about a year, kept surfing Craigslist on my phone, Linny helped me where she could, and I eventually landed in Mrs. Sedgwick’s mother-in-law apartment, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Wow,” he uttered.

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