Page 97 of Stalked By Shadows
He laughed. “You’re so weird.” Micah brought me fresh clothes. A pair of boxers he’d obviously made as they had giant fire-breathing dragons on them, shorts, and a Simply Crafty T-shirt. While I was sleepy enough to nap, Micah didn’t appear to be. So I suggested something else to keep him busy.
“Maybe you can work on those shade things and I can help? Give us both something to focus on?”
“Sure,” he agreed and led me back to the cubes and the section he had set aside of decorator fabric. “You choose the fabric.” He went to a particular section and opened it, pulling out stacks of designs, some neutral, some wild. I chose a neutral one because I didn’t think we’d be changing them all that often. Micah took the stack to the cutting table. Then dug out a measuring tape and disappeared into the loft for a minute, coming back with a piece of paper, and notes written on it. Measurements, I thought.
“Tell me what to do to help,” I said.
He glanced at the futon. “Can you hang out while I work?”
I thought about it. “Is that what you need?”
“Your presence while I sort things out in my head, yes,” he agreed.
I smiled and went up to the loft to retrieve my new quilt. That thing was going with me everywhere from now on. I brought it down to the futon, wrapped myself up in the quilt, and curled up on the futon to watch him.
“Craft away,” I said. “Let me know when you need help to hang them.”
He nodded and began to work.
I watched him for a while. After about an hour of watching him cut and sew, I got up and made us food. Throwing together some wonton chicken tacos and rice. He ate absently while he worked on some cord that wrapped the pieces for movement. Whatever this pattern was made little sense to me. But I cleaned up and he finished the batch of them, then dug through a drawer in the kitchen until he pulled out some small plant hooks.
“I’m ready to hang them if you’re still willing,” he said.
“On it,” I agreed. I took the hooks and helped him carry up the shades. Hanging them was easier than I thought. Since it wasn’t a full standing loft, reaching the top area where the hooks went was easy. Micah measured and marked a spot, I screwed in the hook. The curtains went up. He showed me how they pulled open and how each small section of cord could be tucked away to keep Jet from playing with them. The guy was brilliant.
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
“Hmm,” he said, noncommittal. Humble and more than a little self-conscious as well, I thought.
“Do you still have those dreamcatchers I bought?” I asked him, remembering the shop I’d gotten them from and the original plan I’d had for them.
“Yes.” He headed downstairs for a moment and when he returned it was with the bag of stuff as if he’d never unpacked it. I didn’t comment on that, leaving him with whatever motive that was. The dreamcatchers went up beside the shades, centered on each, some on the inside of the loft, some on the outside. The largest one I’d bought, over two feet in diameter, I hung over the head of the bed.
“This should be some protection against bad dreams, right?” I prodded him.
He gave me a humoring smile. “Sure.”
“You’re such a skeptic for all you’ve seen,” I said.
He shrugged, then grabbed my shirt and pulled me close for a kiss. I sighed into his lips. “This okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” I promised, the thought of having him wrapped around me, instantly making me hard. “Well, hey, that still works.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Good.” He tugged at my shirt. “Get naked, I wanna sex you up.”
And fuck did I need that, but nowIwas the one feeling a little self-conscious. “I’m pretty skinny.”
“So?”
“And I have no idea where I’ve been.”
“I have condoms. I’m on PrEP.” He reached back to one of the drawers in the cube to retrieve a pack of condoms and a bottle of lube. He dropped them on the bed beside the pillows. “The hospital ran a bunch of tests.”
Always prepared. “I doubt STDs were on the top of their list.”