“Okay, boys, off we go.” She headed toward the door and stopped. She started rubbing her temples.
“Are you alright?” Nick seemed genuinely concerned. She irritated him to no end because of her run-ins with Elaina, but she had come through when they had needed her, too.
She shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little headache.”
“Well, let me say goodbye to Elaina…just in case.” Nick headed down the hall. Nate headed to the door behind Sophie.
“That might not be a good idea. You know she will argue and come up with something like it’s too late, or you need rest, or whatever other shit flies out of her mouth.” Sophie needed to get the hell out of there, and she knew if Nick found out about Elaina’s and Henry’s argument, there would be no hope of leaving anytime during the next century.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Nick’s shoulders sagged as he walked back toward the door. Once again, he felt like Elaina didn’t need him anymore.
“We’re taking the truck. It’ll be better at night. Plus, we can take out some undeads with it.” Sophie chuckled like it was going to be a good time. Nick and Nate just looked at each other.
“You are one fucked up person,” Nick muttered.
“Why, thank you for acknowledging my rather fantastic personality.” She curtsied, flashed that big, toothy grin, and they headed out. If she wasn’t a woman, Nick would have punched her.
***
“What are we going to do, Claire?” I was still burying my face into Henry’s pillow. I was inhaling his scent like an obsessed teen. He smelled so good. Just one more thing that I would miss out of the thousands of things that I loved about him. “I’m so confused. I can’t handle any more of this.”
“I know. I’d love to help, but nothing I say will make you feel better.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know. There’s something going on besides the obvious, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Right.” I sulked. “I miss my old Henry,” I whispered to myself.
“Oh, hon. I understand.”
I let out a soft laugh, then found the energy to roll over to face her. “Listen to me! I’m so self-absorbed. I should be consoling you! You lost Marc.” Claire sucked in a sharp breath when I said his name.
“We need to be strong for one another.” I could see the pain in her eyes.
For some reason, I felt like our situation was my fault. If I had never gotten fired from yet another job, I would have never met Henry that night. Quite possibly, none of this would have happened. At least none of what involves Henry and me would have happened. My stomach knotted up. Then my thoughts went to our very first real date.
-October 2012-
I found my phone at the bookshop, my former place of work. My former hag of a boss told me some smoking hot guy dropped it off, and said he found it on the sidewalk right outside the door. I thought it was weird that I wouldn’t notice it dropping right there, but whatever. I was just thrilled that I could give this Henry Daniels a call.
I ran back out to my car and dug through my bag to find Henry’s number. When I finally found it, I stared at it for a minute, breathing rapidly, trying to decide if I should call him or wait a few days to make him sweat it out.
I’m not the most patient person on the planet so I pulled up my phone app and carefully dialed the near illegible number that was written in chicken scratch on an old receipt. That would be my writing. I’m sure his would be perfect, like he seemed to be.
It rang about five times before Henry breathlessly answered. “Daniels,” he barked. I was taken aback and didn’t say anything. “Hello?”
“Uh, sorry.” I cleared my throat, trying to relieve the nerves. “Is this Henry?” Oh, god. I sounded like such a loser with my croaky, nerve-wracked voice. He was going to think that I was a complete fucking loser, and I would never get a date with a man like him. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to call?
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Elaina Cooper.” I couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize my voice. Maybe it was because it sounded like a frog was living in my throat. I was sweating so I turned on the air in my car before I passed out. I thought I remembered to put deodorant on, but suffering Christ, my pits were dripping. I’m sure I looked like a paranoid pothead, looking all around, tapping my fingers.
“Hey, Elaina!” He sounded excited to hear from me. My heart flip-flopped. “Sorry it took me so long to answer. I’m at the gym. I was hoping that you would find your phone and would call me.” My mind drifted to thoughts of him shirtless, his gym shorts hung low on his hips, sweat pouring off of him. I almost dropped my phone and went into a full throttle orgasm.