“Yes, I do.” Day squirted out the lotion in his hands and then rubbed them together to warm it. “I broke you. I must fix you.”
“I’m not broken. Just, you know…” Goldie paused. “Okay, maybe alittlebroken.”
“Where does it hurt?”
“Below my right shoulder blade. It just keeps twitchin’. I have some other muscle relaxers somewhere, but damn, they really dope me up.”
“I’ll get them if you want. Let me try this first.” Day placed both hands where Goldie had indicated, and he rubbed there gently. He went back and forth with firm sweeps, gradually building pressure as he dropped his weight into the heels of his hands.
“Mmm… oh, God.” Goldie groaned happily. “Oh, that’s good, baby.”
Day kept rubbing, moving around the area in slow circles. He figured out pretty quickly the exact spot that was bothering Goldie, and he focused his attention there. After working on it for a few minutes, he got more lotion and massaged the rest of Goldie’s back. He rubbed his neck, his shoulders, and then eventually returned to rub the offending muscles again.
Goldie didn’t know how he hadn’t fallen asleep yet, but he was right there on the brink.
Day’s hands felt so good and warm, and even the smell of the lotion was soothing. It was lavender, and Goldie loved the relaxing scent. His thoughts were fuzzy, and he could finally feel himself drifting off to sleep…
Fuck.
Alvarez.
“Baby,” Goldie mumbled, “can you get my phone?”
“Your phone?” Day asked.
“Yeah. I need to text Detective Alvarez.”
Day snorted. “Why do you need to do that?”
“To tell him about what happened today.”
Day’s fingers dug in a little hard.
“Ow. Easy, baby.”
“I’m sorry.” Day resumed his gentler massaging. “I thought you were going to trust me.”
“I do trust you, baby, but hey, I’m supposed to help take care of you too, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, just as you take care of me, your fleshy husband, I’m supposed to take care of you too. And I’m not just talking about me doing whatever you tell me to, but doing stuff for you to help you.”
“You do help me,” Day protested. “You feed me, you teach me things—”
“Yes, but I can help in other ways too. Like letting Alvarez know what’s going on. If he can identify those guys from my description, he could arrest them or whatever before they ever become a bigger problem.”
“How is that helpful?”
“Because you wouldn’t have to kill them,” Goldie replied bluntly.
“But dispatching sinners is not a problem.”
“It’s kind of a problem.”
“Why?” Day honestly sounded confused.
“It…” Goldie tried to think up a reason that Day couldn’t refute. “It takes time away from being with me.”
