ChapterTwenty-Four
Bianca awoke to the sound of her shower running. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence now that Sam practically lived with her. And what a thrill it was to wake up to that thought.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t go back to sleep with Sam on her mind. Instead of reaching for her phone as she usually did, Bianca grabbed Sam’s pillow and held it close to her face, breathing in deep.
It smells just like her. For the umpteenth time in as many days, Bianca wondered what a future with her would be like. She already knew what it was like to go to sleep next to Sam every night. Talking. Reading. Sharing kisses.
Which led to sex more often than not. And the intensity was always different. Sam could be as gentle and loving as she was hard and unrelenting. But she was always in control, no matter what. Even when Bianca was on top.
Wasn’t that part of the fun?
She slipped out of her bed, careful not to disturb the still snoozing Spike, and stretched her limbs before opening the curtains. Her oversized T-shirt swished around her body as she turned around and spotted Sam’s clothes already laid out.
That included her leather jacket. Nowadays, Sam had taken to dressing down when they had nothing planned for the day. Lounging around Bianca’s apartment together wasn’t quite the same as going on real dates, but it was as close as they could get.
She picked up the jacket. Sam was several sizes bigger than her, so when Bianca put it on, the jacket was like a tent. She lifted the collar to her nose, inhaling the intoxicating mixture of Sam’s scent and the old leather.
A sigh permeated her body. She had never been in love before. But she had seen it. In her friends, although their young love affairs were all ephemeral things. In her sisters, who had been positively transformed ever since they met their significant others. She saw the sighs, the smiles, the brief touches that still made Bianca blush as if she was watching something forbidden. She saw how they were unconsciously drawn to each other’s sides, as if being apart felt unnatural and wrong, but being together was how they were meant to be. That was love.
This is love. This is what it feels like.
Bianca couldn’t hold back her smile as she lowered the jacket’s collar and shoved her hands into the front pockets. She wanted to pretend she was walking with Sam in the streets of Seattle on a cold night, her girlfriend’s surrendered jacket wrapped around her shoulders to keep her warm.
Her hand crunched against something. Paper?
“Hm?” Bianca pulled it out of the pocket. It was a letter.
And it had Bianca’s name written on the outside.
“This isn’t Sam’s handwriting.” She’d seen Sam’s blocky, practical script before. The writing on the envelope looked like it had been penned by someone trained to handwrite wedding invitations.
As she unfolded the wrinkled paper, Bianca barely noticed the shower shutting off in the bathroom. She scanned the page, trying to take in the words on it, but she was struggling to make sense of them.
“What the hell?” Her words prompted Spike to stir on the bed. As the bathroom door opened, he darted from the room, still wary of Sam’s presence in his home.
A moment later, Sam walked out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around her shoulders. But Bianca couldn’t appreciate the sight of a naked and semi-wet Sam standing before her, the loose and long hair clinging to the sides of Sam’s damp head.
Bianca had read the letter. And she wanted answers.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Uh…” Based on the ‘deer in headlights’ look Sam gave her, it wasn’t anything good.
Bianca frowned. “When did this come? Who is it from?”
“Yesterday.” Sam pulled the towel off her shoulders and tossed it onto the bed. She approached Bianca, grabbing the sports bra and clean briefs she’d left on the back of the vanity chair. “Remember when I had to step out last night? I went to talk to your mother about it.”
“What? You talked to my mom? What did she say? Sam, why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Sam pulled her bra over her head and stepped into her briefs. “You need to understand my position here. I’ve had my suspicions about who’s been stalking your family. I was certain your mom knew a thing or two about it, so I decided to go straight to the source.”
“Who is it? Who is this from?”
Sam attempted to take the letter from her, but Bianca snapped it back so hard that it almost tore. “It’s not my place to say. Your mom will tell you everything—”
“I can’t believe this.” Bianca shook the letter in Sam’s face. “How could you keep this from me? Were you ever going to tell me about it?” Suspicion brewed inside her stomach. “What else have you been keeping from me?”
“Nothing. Bianca, it isn’t like that.”