Page 37 of Heartsong
Wading out into the adult world meant no more college insurance and her healthcare got much spottier. There were years she went completely uncovered and suffered through the headaches with generic medication. She’d waited in so many doctor’s offices and urgent care lobbies. She’d spent years tackling medical debts and bouncing between coverages.
Friendships had fallen to the wayside. So had her love life. Her figure, always curvier, had grown when she couldn’t afford or couldn’t manage more than quick and cheap food.
Captain was the only thing she’d had the capacity to care for beyond nursing her headaches in years. She’d spent most of her twenties either with a headache or preparing to have a headache.
It’s a crappy way to live,she ruminated.
Another reason why she’d be going back to her job with its stellar health plan tomorrow.
Groaning, Anna managed to get herself upright. Her mind fuzzier than a dryer lint trap, she shuffled out of her bedroom into a quiet apartment. Frey had taken up position in a discreet corner, not far from her door. That he’d stayed near had her heart fluttering in a way that felt…dangerous.
After a shower and thorough scrub, Anna dressed in her coziest loungewear and prepared for a day in. She wasn’t much use to anyone with this kind of medicine hangover, and the best thing to do was sleep it off.
It was almost a crime to draw the curtains and block out a pristine, clear San Francisco day, but her sensitive eyes wanted darkness. That meant running to the grocery store was out, so Anna hunkered down, content to be a little feral for the day, and cuddled up on the couch with Captain.
Toggling through the TV’s watch history brought a grin to her lips. Frey had already covered so many topics in his few nights with the internet. She found a documentary to watch and put it on for noise, hoping he might be able to hear even in his stone state.
Glancing at him over the back of the couch, Anna couldn’t help wondering what going through so many centuries in stone must have been like.
I do know what it is to suffer.
She hadn’t asked him many questions about his time as a statue, nor what it was like for him and his kind. Part of her didn’t think she could stomach hearing about so much suffering. Another didn’t want to burst the little bubble they’d made over the past few days.
Good to his word, he hadn’t brought up her going to work or his belief that they were soulmates. What history they talked about had been his own living history or the far-flung dramas of world politics.
That she hadn’t delved deeper seemed…wrong. She should ask him more. It wasn’t a pleasant topic for him, she knew. And it would bring up harder questions about the situation of his kind remaining in the museum. Still, they were questions worth asking. She should know more about her mythical houseguest.
She should know more because he…he was her friend. Not just a houseguest anymore.
Somewhere in the past few days, Anna had grown used to the big, brooding gargoyle. She liked his curiosity and intensity, even liked his flirtatiousness, though she’d never admit it to him. Whenever he gave her that smoldering smile, her insides flipped and Anna feltalive. Like she was more than a body attached to a painful head.
She wasn’t ready to think about what that all meant, but she could admit to herself that she enjoyed his company. She’d worried having him stay with her, after being on her own for so long, would begin to grate. Having roommates before was always a challenge, and Frey certainly came with a bevy of his own, yet Anna liked having him around.
She liked cooking for two. She liked their evenings of chatting and cards and history documentaries. She liked how much Frey and Captain got on.
Anna wouldn’t have thought it a week ago, but she was enjoying her time with her statue-come-to-life.
And isn’t that just insanity.
It’d certainly seem like it to anyone else.
Settling back into the cushions, Anna listened to the documentary with half an ear as she tapped through her laptop, on the dimmest setting, double checking her coming appointments and prescription renewals. She wanted a new plan with more robust treatment because life had to be lived and she wasn’t really.
It just took a giant flying mythical creature with beautiful eyes and prettier pecs crashing into her life to make her realize it. Anna snorted with a laugh.
Not much got done that day, but then, there wasn’t much to do. Anna didn’t have friends or a significant other to go out and do things with. She couldn’t run errands or do chores. So she dozed and ate and dozed some more.
It was after an early dinner, during another doze, that she felt herself moving.
Cracking open her eyes, she had to blink a few times before realizing she stared straight into a wall of warm gray chest.
Frey had gently picked her up bridal style, blanket and all, from the couch and was carefully carrying her.
She had only a moment to register the heat of his skin and the rich scent of him, like petrichor and pine, before the softness of her bed surrounded her.
He set her down as gently as he’d carried her, and when his arms slid out from under her, Anna’s throat clogged with wanting to ask him to stay. His warmth drew her in, making her want to curl against that wide chest and hear the steady beat of his heart.
Don’t go,something inside her begged.Don’t go.
