“Your favorite?”
“Yes. I spend way too much money here. Well, other people probably think it’s too much. I think it’s the exact right amount. Come on. Let’s find some things for your apartment. My bet is, you’re still functioning with the bare bones.”
She’s right that I haven’t added much, but anything after the crude dwellings of the colony is the high life.
“Here. Snack first. Get a good sugar high going.” Esme reaches into the bag I forgot about and pulls out the pastry, drizzled with frosting and sprinkled with sliced almonds. She splits it down the middle. “Half for me. Half for you.” After passing the larger piece to me, Esme takes an impressive bite of hers. “You know”—she speaks with a full mouth, as if she were running out of time—“dis wast?—”
The harpy did the same thing in high school, and I’d always cover her mouth and say, “Bite, chew, swallow, speak.”
“After that?” she’d mumble against my hand, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Make out with me,” I’d growl.
Then, she’d smile and chewreallyslow just to drive me wild.
The memory has my chest clenching with longing, and I have to do something.
I set my hand on hers, stopping the harpy mid-sentence. “Chew. Don’t choke,” I chide her.
Her nose wrinkles with a puffed-cheek smile, but she listens, swallowing before going on. “I was saying, this was made by a bear shifter. The other owner of Coffee & Claws. He’s kind of a grump, but a nice grump, you know? Anyway, I think you’re going to like it in Folk Haven. At least, I hope you do.” Then, her eyes drop pointedly to the untouched pastry in my hand.
I eat the bear claw in more respectable-sized bites, enjoying the treat. “Good,” I tell her, and Esme beams.
Beautiful.
As we enter the store, she bounces on the balls of her feet, pushing a cart in front of her. Within the first aisle, she flits off, and I’m able to claim cart duty, following behind as the harpy adds random items to her haul.
A table lamp.
An orange omelet pan.
A fluffy bath mat.
My attention catches on a wall full of pillows. They’re all stuffed to bursting and look so soft. I pick up one with a purple checkered pattern and cautiously press the cushion against my chest, not sure why I’m so wary of the object.
Maybe I just don’t trust soft things anymore.
“Those are on sale! Let’s get four.” Esme tosses the matching pillows into the cart, and I like seeing them there. Knowing they’re coming home with me.
“Towels next. I always leave them for last because they’re myfavorite.” She strolls into a section with towels in every color a person could hope for. “I just really love terry cloth. There’s something about it, especially the plush stuff.” Her fingers stroke the stacks, coming to land on a royal-blue set. “I want to drape myself in terry cloth. And, yes”—she grins over her shoulder at me—“I know I have a problem.”
My fingers automatically check that my glasses are still on my face, blocking the telltale glow of strong emotion. All I canthink about is her stepping out of a shower, dripping wet, slowly blotting away the droplets with one of her precious towels.
I wish I were made of terry cloth.
6
In the Past
I needtwo things to escape. Two seemingly impossible things.
But with decades in the colony stretching before me, I have nothing else to fill my time than trying to achieve the impossible.
My first taste of hope comes from Hotaru Watanabe, one of the elders in the colony. She finds me when I am living feral on the outskirts, attacking any who approach. She, more powerful than any dragon I’ve ever met, presses her thoughts into my mind and shows me there is a way to regain my human form earlier than the normal time span.
“Trust me,”her voice hisses in my skull.“Trust me enough to teach you.”
I can have what I want if only I put in the time. If I train. If I want it bad enough.
