Page 4 of Carnal Desire

“Sausage or any of the vegetables,” I answered before I realized what I was doing.

The fact is, now that I’d gotten several hours of sleep, I was ravenous and pizza sounded really good. I guess I could eat before I went wandering around the city for the night.

“You got that Theo?” Ariel said to the person on the other end of the call. “Yeah, Aurelio’s… Oh good idea, have them send breaded mushrooms too… Sure, I’ll call you tomorrow. Thanks again, bud.”

Ariel set the phone on the counter and turned her attention back to me. Her dark brown hair was a bit disheveled, probably from traveling, but her lip stain was still in place, the dark red a contrast to the light brown of her skin.

When I’d first started working here I made it my business to research Ariel. I’d learned that she’d grown up here in Chicago and gone to some ritzy private prep school with the women who became her two best friends, Grace and Maeve. The three of them had gone to Northwestern together and stayed close friends.

Even though the three friends were born into wealth, they’d made a name for themselves in their own right, each of them a self-made billionaire. They’d gone into business for themselves,forming a development company specializing in boutique projects.

They’d built the building we were in, AGM Tower, named for the first initial of each of their names. The building had a restaurant and nightclub on the first two floors, with luxury condos on the other floors. The three friends had built their own homes on the three top floors, one floor for each of them, with a fancy rooftop garden and heated pool that was just for the three of them.

Rumor had it they were all very generous with their money, supporting a variety of charities, although they never made a big deal of it, staying out of the spotlight.

I also knew that all three women identified as sapphic, although none of them had been linked to each other romantically. The gossip sites were full of pictures of the three of them with models and athletes and other very important and very glamorous people.

Ariel lived in a different world from me, which made my crush on her all the more ridiculous.

“Do you have your belongings at the shelter?” Ariel asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I shook my head. “No, you’re not allowed to leave anything behind.”

She frowned. “Where’s the rest of your stuff then?”

“Everything I have is in my backpack.”

My ex had kicked me out so fast I hadn’t had time to gather all my belongings.

“What’s the name of the shelter you’ve been staying at?” she asked.

I wasn’t sure why she wanted to know but I figured there was no reason not to answer. “It’s called the South Chicago Women’s Shelter, it’s just south of the loop near Chinatown.”

Ariel frowned, probably because it wasn’t the best neighborhood. Then again, no one was going to put a homeless shelter in one of the fancy neighborhoods.

“Do you mind if I ask how it works?” she asked. “Like, do you have a room? What do you get there?”

I gave a humorous laugh. “No, nothing like that. It’s a big room with rows of bunk beds. You have to line up by seven o’clock every night and they take people until they run out of space, which is usually around seven thirty. The lower bunks always fill first but I prefer the upper ones, it’s easier to tell if someone is trying to steal from you while you’re sleeping.”

I paused and she waved her hand in a ‘go on’ gesture, her mouth set in a grim line.

“They feed you dinner, whatever the volunteers bring, so it’s usually a casserole or a sandwich. You can take a shower while you’re there, either before lights out at ten or between six and seven-thirty,” I explained. “Then you strip the sheets and blanket off whatever bed you slept in to help clean up, and they send you out on your way at seven-thirty with a large cup of coffee and a boxed meal for later. It’s actually one of the nicer shelters. The sheets are clean, and the staff are nice as long as you follow the rules. And sometimes they have donuts or cookies, that’s always nice.”

Ariel was glaring now and I knew instinctively that it wasn’t aimed at me.

“So there’s no privacy? Peoplestealfrom you? And what the fuck are you supposed to do at seven-thirty in the morning when they kick you out?”

I shrugged. “Most of us go to work. Honestly it’s not a bad place to crash.”

She gave me a long, probing look before she said the last thing I ever expected her to say. “That’s it. You’re moving in with me.”

Ariel

Sadie’s mouth dropped open in shock, then she shook her head like she thought maybe she’d misheard me.

She was right to be shocked. My impulsive offer was totally crazy.

“What?”

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