Page 30 of Forget Me Not
Syve paused, how the hell was she supposed to explain everything else withoutexplaining everything else? She hated keeping secrets from her best friend—truth be told, she hadneverkept a secret from Aimi for as long as they had been best friends.
“And?” Aimi pushed. “Where does the hottie with the sweat suit fit into all of this?”
She narrowed her eyes, searching Syve’s face for answers. Syve just stared back, still silently debating how to proceed. She’d promised not to spill the beans about Bastien being a shifter, but while the thought of going back on her word made her want to vomit, the thought of lying to Aimi was infinitely worse.
What if Aimi figured it out on her own? Bastien would just have to understand.
“I guess he saw me before I made it to the tree line.” She shrugged. “He found me pacing—do deer pace? Is that a thing?”
“Focus, woman! You’re saying he saw a deer running through town and just, what, followed it?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Syve took a deep breath. “He had good reason to believe I was the same deer he had previously seen sulking around the cemetery.”
“You are being so cryptic right now.” Aimi deadpanned. “What are you trying to say? Ornotto say?” She tilted her head in suspicion. “Are you saying he’s seen you, or deer you—Syve!” She sat up suddenly, her voice raising three whole octaves when she shouted her name. “Are you shitting me right now? Are you trying to not tell me that Butcher Boy is—” Syve waved her hands frantically in front of her friend, shushing her and looking around like someone was going to be there listening in.
“Is he the dog?!” Aimi whisper-shouted around Syve’s hand.
“Wolf,” Syve corrected.
“Wolf, right, yes, that makes such a difference,” Aimi responded sarcastically. “Am I following you right?”
Syve nodded, reaching for the fried pickles.
Aimi slapped her hand. “Oh, hell no. You don’t get any of those until I know the rest of the story.”
Syve sighed.
“He found me pacing and tried to talk to me. I think he was trying to convince me I could trust him or something, so he straight up dropped his pants and went wolfy right in front of me.”
“Oh my god, heNew Moonedyou!”
Aimi screeched, slapping her hands to her cheeks. This woman and her unhealthyTwilightobsession. Syve ignored the outburst and continued.
“I don’t think he put a lot of thought into the action though, because obviously it freaked me out more.”
“Right, fucking magic and shit.”
“Not to mention wolves are historically known toeatdeer,” Syve added. “Anyway, my fight or flight reflexes kicked in, and I bailed. So, he chased me down, all the way out to the lake, and then tackled me—fuckingtackledme! Knocked my ass out. I woke up buck naked in the mausoleum. He had carried me the entire way back. I don’t know why he had clothes and food there—I forgot to ask that—but my options were: throw-blanket toga, or monochrome sweatsuit.”
Now it was Aimi’s turn to look dumbfounded. That was a first, Syve could not remember ever having seen her friend speechless.
They spent the next two hours annihilating the table full of food, Syve taking all of the questions Aimi asked and adding them to the list of things she would have to ask Bastien while Aimi made as many movie references as she could. When Syve started to nod off, Aimi gave her a bone crushing hug, demanded she promise to answer her phone and said she would see her in the morning for coffee, no excuses. Syve agreed while dragging herself off the couch. Shehollered over her shoulder for Aimi to lock the door behind her and she dragged her feet down the hall to her room.
As she passed the bathroom door she glanced over, noting Bastien’s clothes on the floor where she had left them to shower. Sleepily she gathered them up, backtracked to the laundry room and dumped them in. The least she could do was wash them before returning them. When she finally fell into bed, she fell asleep immediately.
She did not dream.
Bastien
Ifhewasalesser man he would have called in sick. After coming home and finding Cyrus in his kitchen, Bastien had gotten next to no sleep. His brother’s old roommate talked his ear off long after Soriah had gone to bed, explaining how he was visiting Timberfall for a business trip with the interest of possibly relocating. Apparently, he’d had enough of the East Coast and was looking for ‘new stomping grounds.’ By the time Bastien finally convinced the man to call it a night, it was already after three in the morning.
Bas wanted to keep his word to Syve, to go sit with her again, but it was late enough that she would have returned home and he was too tired to even think about shifting. Hebarely managed to slip out of his jeans before face planting horizontally across his queen-sized bed.
Calling out to catch up on sleep sounded heavenly, but after he’d gotten Syve back to the mausoleum the day before, he had called Hal and requested to take the rest of the day to “get his shit together.” He couldn’t justify taking another day off, so when his alarm went off at 6:30am, he rolled out of bed and begrudgingly began his day.
An hour after his feet initially hit the floor, Bastien was walking down the sidewalk to The Glass Half Full. He’d almost considered skipping the coffee shop in favor of Hal’s worn-out Keurig, just so he could avoid an awkward confrontation with the town’s favorite barista. Alas, there was not a drip coffee on Earth that would keep him on his feet after only three hours of sleep, so awkward confrontation it was.
Luck seemed to be on his side when he lumbered into the cafe amidst the busy morning rush. His order was taken by the only other employee he’d ever seen behind the counter, Toni, according to her name tag, who smelt like Woodstock but couldn’t be a day over twenty. When he caught Aimi’s eye as he was collecting his order, she let him know she was watching him, pointing two fingers at her eyes and then pointing them at him.
