Oh Snowy Night

“Don’t cover up.” His eyes take me in from head to toe. I keep my arms over my chest because I’m getting annoyed with him now. I don’t like being told to not talk. My sister always said I talked too much. That I rambled on.

“Don’t talk, don’t cover up, don’t stay here,” I say tartly at him because he’s driving me crazy. I put my hands on my hips until I realize that I inadvertently listened to him. Then I lift them and cross them over my chest again. I swear that I see his lip inch up a tiny bit. I head back over to the fireplace and put my hands over Smittens’ ears. “Are you going to take my virginity or not?”

Chapter Five

Conn

The phone rings before I can answer her. I knew I should have never had any technology installed in my house.

“Wow, a landline. You have an actual phone on your wall.” She hops up from the floor and scurries over to the kitchen to inspect the infernal machine. “And it’s a rotary dial! Where did you get this?”

She acts as if she didn’t just ask me to fuck her. I scratch behind my ear and look on in confusion as she inspects the phone.

“It came with the house.” I stride over and hang the car keys on the hook. The sun’s almost down. Bear gets to his feet and pads to his bowl. He nudges the empty stainless steel container with his nose. I reach into the fridge and take his dog food out. Smittens must smell the meat because she comes scurrying over as well, winding her tiny body around Bear’s legs.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

“No.” I dump the meat mixture into the bowl and then search for a smaller one for Smittens. “What’s your cat eat?”

“What if it’s important?”

“They’ll call again.” Right on cue the rings cut off. “What’s your cat eat?” I repeat.

“Oh, um, cat food.” Faith sidles up to me. She pokes a finger against a piece of raw meat. “This is dog food? I think your dog eats better than me. What’s in here? Peas, carrots, steak?”

She smells like a fruit tree. I want to unhinge my jaw and swallow her whole, but she’s out here asking me for dog food recipes. “Oatmeal,” I grunt.

“Oatmeal?”

“Fatty acids. It’s got egg yolks, steak, carrots, peas, spinach and oatmeal.”

“That is better than I usually eat. Yum.” Her little tongue snakes out.

She’s on the small side but maybe that’s because she’s not getting enough to eat. Her car is a late model foreign edition—dependable but not fancy. Her clothes look decent. I mean, her sweater lights up and I figure that can’t be cheap, right? Maybe she spends all her money on clothes and doesn’t have enough for food. I guess I should feed the girl before I do anything else, whether it’s fucking her or sending her down to King’s. The thought of sending her down to King’s pisses me the fuck off so I go with focusing on food.

“You okay with me giving your cat some?”

“I don’t know. What if Smittens eats this food and then refuses cat food? I’m a terrible cook and can’t make a meal this good for myself, let alone my cat. But maybe she’d understand we’re on vacation and you always get something special when you’re on vacation. Although, to be honest, we really aren’t on vacation. I’m running away.”

I clench my fist around the small bowl I grabbed for Smittens. “What’d you say?”

“Erm? That I’m a bad cook?” She lifts the bowl and sniffs it. “It doesn’t even smell like dog food. Are you sure this is what Bear eats and not you? Maybe you took the wrong bag out of the fridge.” She waves a hand in front of my face. “Do you have bad eyesight? That would make sense to me because you have to have flaws. You can’t be hot with perfect vision, right? God has to leave some material for the rest of us.”

The lightning quick change of topic and the unexpected compliment leaves me speechless. She thinks I’m…hot? I don’t think anyone’s ever said that about me. Grumpy. Yes. Asshole. Also yes. Not neighborly. Double yes. Maybe she’s the blind one. That makes sense to me but I set that aside because there’s something more important to address. This girl is in danger.

I pour a little of the dog food into the small bowl that’s now slightly lopsided from being squeezed too hard in my fist and set it on the floor with Bear’s. I wait until the two pets start to eat before confronting Faith. “You mentioned revenge, King, and running away. All those things say to me that you’re in trouble, so start talking.”

She flaps her hand. “It’s no big deal. Just my ex cheating on me with my stepsister is all. It’s not like I loved him. I’m not even sure I liked him much. Trish, that’s my stepsister, was the one who hooked me up with him in the first place. Why she did that when she wanted him herself, I don’t know. It really doesn’t make sense, does it?”