“You’re welcome sweet Angel,” I answered.
“Please keep me,” she said, her voice laced with emotion.
I sighed, “You gotta gimme me time to figure this out, baby. My head is fucked over this.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t ask again. Take all the time you need, Dare. I’m yours for as long as you want me.”
Mine. Fuck.
“Sorry I was a dick today.”
She snuggled in and said, “You don’t have to say sorry to me.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You don’t. But thank you for saying it anyway.”
I didn’t fall asleep for a long while. She took every kindness from me as a gift. She deserved to expect kindness. Could she get to where she didn’t feel so grateful for any scrap I gave her? I only worried that once she did she wouldn’t want this, wouldn’t want me. Not because I wasn’t good enough but because she wouldn’t need me. She’d start to wonder where her life could go without being owned.
What was she was like before Kruna? I wondered if I’d ever see that side of her. I was torn between waiting for her to tell me her story and finding out myself. As I was drifting off to sleep I heard her whisper, “You’re a dream I was too broken to even wish for but somehow you still came true.”
Damn.
** ** **
The next morning I was up before she was and I texted Zack. I told him to try to find out about her but not to tell me the information until I asked for it. I gave him the information I had, which was minimal, that she’d been at Kruna almost 23 months, that she was almost 23, she’d had an Alaska driver’s license, and went to teacher’s college and then taught first grade in an English school in Thailand before Kruna. He said he’d see what he could find out.
Suddenly I heard keys and my front door being opened and then Sarah Martinez was at my alarm panel, punching in her code. Aw shit; I meant to cancel her today.
“Mornin’, Dario. How was the business trip?”
“Hey Sarah, I meant to call. I don’t need you here today. You can skip---”
“What? I need to do your laundry and change the bedding, and wow…it’s too clean. What’s up? You replace me?”
“I have a houseguest and she’s tidy. She did the laundry already.”
“She? Your sisters said you were on a date Saturday.” She was smirking.
“Leave it alone, Sarah.”
She laughed a big belly laugh, “I hear she’s a pretty little thing.”
“Time to go. I’ll let you know about the next time I need you. Don’t just pop by.”
“You need groceries?” She put her purse on my island.
“No. You stocked me up for like a month with enough food to feed a family of six just a few days back.” I passed her the bag and jerked my chin toward the door. She put the bag down again and picked up a sponge by the sink and started wiping the already spotless counter. For fuck sakes.
“Where did you meet her?”
“Sarah, I’ve got shit to do. You can see yourself out.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll take your dry cleaning with me.”
“No, I’ll deal with it.”
“Don’t be silly, I pass there on the way to Lisa and Tessa.”