Page 92 of Stoker's Serenity

“And on that thoroughly depressing note!”

“Alright, alright,” he groaned.

“I love you,” I uttered with a slightly seductive edge. I lived to drive him just a little bit crazy, loving the stories of how when he got off of some of these calls he had to pleasure himself before he could sleep.

“Hey now, knock that off,” he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. “I love you, too. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

He ended the call, and I sighed at the tones in my ear indicating the call was done. I turned my head and looked down at the empty rocker on Mrs. Sedgwick’s night-dark porch. The hardest part about all of this would be the one thing I hadn’t talked about. It always was. I was sincerely hoping she wouldn’t be horribly disappointed. Or that I wouldn’t be putting her in a tough spot by leaving.

I went to bed, and was surprised that I actually fell asleep pretty quickly. I had honestly expected to lay awake tortured by my decision, like I usually was by anything big like this.

I guess the fact that I wasn’t, in the slightest, meant that I was doing the right thing.

28

Serenity…

“Hey, beautiful,” he said and I startled and turned around, surprise coating my insides like splattered and dripping paint.

“What are you doing here?” I blurted. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow!”

“I know, but the guys in the band aren’t getting along and rather than sit around with Gideon PMSing or whatever the fuck he’s doing, I bagged on band practice, told him to get his shit together, and let ‘em know I had better shit to do with my time.”

“Oh, and I suppose that shit would be me?” I asked with a wink.

“No, that shit would be me helping my woman pack up her shit.”

I laughed slightly, and he leaned his hands on the cash wrap of the department I was working today.

“Anything?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“She’s afraid for her job, I think.”

That conversation had been unexpected and completely empowering. I’d gone into Lydia’s office at the end of the day on Tuesday and had put in my two weeks.

She’d told me, “You can’t quit. They’ll think it was because of me.”

Instead of my usual route of not making waves or of being any kind of apologetic I’d made my first stand in, God, what felt like forever. I’d pretty much told her in no uncertain terms I didn’t give a shit, that I was putting in my two weeks, and she could either live with that or I could walk right then and there.

I was sort of bluffing on that last part. I mean, I really could use the last couple of paychecks to help facilitate the move.

I still hadn’t looked into the rental cost of a moving truck or any of that. Stoker had told me not to get ahead of myself, to not worry about that just yet, and so I hadn’t. I set that bit aside for the time being and let Linny commandeer some boxes from her place of work.

I’d already started packing, but honestly I couldn’t wait to unpack Stoker, with him standing there looking absolutely delicious in his jacket and cut, his faded jeans hugging his thighs.

“She should be. Maybe it’ll teach her a lesson in respect,” he said, and I smiled.

“A lot of those lessons could stand to be passed out,” I said, frowning at a woman who took something off the hanger to inspect it, but rather than hang it back up, just slung the top over the rack itself.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” he said, and I smiled.

“Love you,” I said softly, and went around to ask the lady if she needed any help. Not that I actually wanted to help her, I just wanted to keep her from wrecking the department I’d spent all morning putting back to rights.

People, they were savages, I tell ya.

I finished up what I needed to do and waited for the clock to wind down so I could get out of here. I found Linny talking to Stoker out at the little lounge area outside my department store.

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