Page 88 of With Us

Theo squeezed me tight, saying something, but I didn’t catch it as I feel into a deep sleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Love Me Meow

Dahlia

I screamed.

Loudly.

I was blind.

All I’d been trying to do was bake some cookies. And I’d blinded myself.

“What’s wrong?” I heard from behind me. Since it was just Gus and me, and last I knew, he couldn’t talk, this made me scream louder.

“Gus?!”

“Gus?” the voice questioned. “You mean the cat?” The voice became amused. “Dahlia, it’s Ben.”

“Oh. Hey, you called me Dahlia. Also, I’m blind. But, really, I’m glad you aren’t Gus.”

I heard his chuckle. “The power is out. You blew the fuse. I’m going to go flip the switch in the basement. Don’t move. At all.”

“Got it.”

I was drunk. Not wasted or anything, but still drunk. Probably drunker than I should’ve been on a Wednesday. But Theo’s company had made a ton on some big deal, so we went out celebrating. Unfortunately, our celebration had been cut short by a call from Luc. He got a fair number of those, which was part of running his own business. But there was something different about this one.

Left to my own devices, I’d decided to bake cookies.

This was a major mistake.

Not because I’d been drinking. I was drunk, but not unsafely wasted. I knew to set a timer, turn the oven off, all that good stuff.

I just sucked at baking.

“What are you doing here?” I yelled out.

“Theo asked me to come hang out since…”

“I’d been drinking?” I finished for him.

“Something like that.”

The lights came back on and Ben entered the room a minute later, his amused chuckle turning into a deep belly laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You’ve got a little something…” His words trailed off, but he gestured to his entire face.

“Crud. The mixer was going slow, so I was looking to see why. Next thing I knew I was blind.”

“Go wash up, I’ll get this mess cleaned.”

Walking into the bathroom, I erupted in giggles when I saw my face was completely covered in flour.

I returned to the kitchen a minute later to find the ingredients neatly lining the counter. My weird dough was dumped in the garbage can and the mixer was clean. There were a couple bowls added to the workspace, too.

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