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“We should take a trip to the bookstore this week,” Lore said, eyes bright at the prospect. “Pick something out we are all interested in.”
We were just finalizing our plans when the door opened, and Elian came in.
“There you are.”
“We stole her,” Lore said, giving him a sweet smile. “We are starting a bookclub.”
“The smutty kind,” Saff said, moving to stand. “So either make yourself available to Elizabeth after she reads the spicy scenes, or invest in lots of batteries.”
“Batteries won’t be necessary,” he said as I got up to walk over to him. “You want to head out?” he asked.
“I’m not rushing you,” I insisted.
“Nah, things are starting to wind down. Cinna and Dav headed out already. And Renzo keeps glancing up to his room like he wants to go to bed.
“I guess that’s my cue,” Lore said, getting up, folding her blanket, setting her book on the table, then thinking better of it, and holding it against her chest as she made her way to the door. “It was nice finally meeting you. Saff and I will text you about the bookstore.”
With that, she was gone, and Elian and I made our way out.
“I like that you’re making friends with Lore,” he said as we rode the elevator down.
“Not Saff?” I asked, getting a chuckle out of him.
“Depends. Are you feeling the urge to castrate anyone?”
“That was one time,” I said, defending my new friend, but making Elian break out into a laugh.
“I love you making friends with any of my people. I want you to start seeing them as yours too.”
The crazy thing was, I was starting to see them as mine too.
Elian - 3 months
“Hey, baby,” I said, pulling the headphone off of Elizabeth’s ear, making her jolt hard.
“Oh, hey,” she said, pulling them down to let them ring the back of her neck. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Not surprised,” I said as the sawing started up again across the hall. I could barely hear myself think over it. “How are you working with that racket?”
“The best noise-canceling headphones known to man,” she said, reaching up to pat the headphones.
“You could work at the coffee shop on the corner,” I told her, dropping down at her side.
Dimitri had been making the moves we’d been hoping for, setting up a new massage parlor in East New York, and slowly moving his apartment there as well.
It was safe for Elizabeth to be going back to normal life.
“But I can’t bring my coworkers with me there,” she said, reaching out to pet Kevin who was asleep on the arm of the couch as Richard lay on his back under one of her crossed legs, swatting at her sock-clad foot.
“How’s it going?” I asked, waving toward her laptop.
“I’m not even sure why Rico thought the meat shop needed marketing. It seems like he’s too busy to keep up most days already,” she said, having visited herself more than a few times to pick up meat for dinner.
“He’s really taken to running his own business. And you know Rico. He never does anything halfway.”
Elizabeth had settled on working freelance now that she didn’t have to worry about her bills at her fancy apartment building. She’d sub-letted the place until her lease was up in six months, and moved everything into my place instead. Not the guest room this time, either. My room. The hers walk-in closet. The empty drawers in the bathroom.
There were parts of her all around.