For her part, she was unable to keep her thoughts off Khash. She wondered if she should have woken him up after all; wondered if they would have had that awkward parting, he might not still be keeping up the charade of acting the perfect gentleman.Best to ignore him, block his number. Just put the whole weekend out of mind.Good advice, solid advice, that she knew she ought to follow. She managed to listen to herself for a few miles more before thumbing open the phone.
I will
Have a good week
Her eyes burned at the memory of the fireworks, of his heartbeat, nearly in sync with hers underneath the wide, starlit sky.
I’m glad I came this weekend too
♥♥♥
Part 04
♥ The Real World ♥
The beef tip was bright red, faintly marbled with white and glistening. Lurielle watched in detached fascination as her boss lifted the absurdly small cocktail fork to his mouth, pointed teeth seizing the raw meat with a snap of his jaws. When he stirred the fork through the container, coating the next piece with blood from the bottom before lifting it to his lips, she shuddered.
It had been an endless week. Her team was being prepped on a new hydroponic contract the company had recently bid on, and there had been the typical posturing and in-fighting between several of the usual suspects on who would run lead, plus half a dozen meetings and conference calls, covering information which could have been easily communicated via email. She had been glad for the distraction at first. Now though, several days back from their weekend trip, she was tired and cranky and more than ready for the weekend.
She was startled from her horrified observation of her boss’s lunch by the unexpected buzz of her phone.
Happy humpday, Bluebell
This week has already lasted a hundred years
Why did we come back?
Lurielle stared at the screen, unable to blink for several long moments.
She’d cried out her sadness once her front door had closed behind her on Sunday night, and then again the night following—her regret over the way she'd left, her unshakeable certainty that she’d never meet someone as warm and funny as him in her everyday life, someone who made her feel beautiful and fearless—sobbed out on her sofa, under the spray of her shower, whimpered beneath the covers of her bed...and then she'd put her feelings away. It was a meaningless fling to which she'd assigned too much emotion, and she needed to let it go. Now she felt numb...and he was texting her.
Nearly an hour passed before she broke down and responded, unable to help herself once again.
It really has. Do you think we’ve fallen into some sort of time hole?
She wondered why she was indulging this, knowing it would hurt worse the longer she let things dangle.
I think you're right.
Was Lilypiddles very happy to see you Sunday night?
Lurielle felt all of the emotion she’d been tamping back rise up to the surface in a rush, and she leapt from the break room table, keeping her head down until the door to the ladies’ room swung shut behind her. What was he doing? She was home, back to reality and work, sweating through aerobics and planting flowers in her yard on the weekend—there wasn’t room for a make-believe relationship there. She wasn’t interested in being someone he kept available for casual hookups, and she had no need for a text pal.
She enjoyed terrorizing my neighbor’s cat all weekend
But she was very happy to sleep in her own bed
Lurielle bit her lip, hesitating as the stall next to her creaked open, the sound of the sink and hand dryer filling the tight space as she swallowed and typed.
Did Ordo enjoy being a hunting hound?
Khash had shared that he usually brought his big mastiff when he enjoyed pantsless time at his cabin, but that weekend Ordo had been pressed into service by one of Khash’s brothers, who had wanted to take the big dog with him as he hunted in the mountains.
He did not
My brother said he was a big lazy baby
I reminded him that Ordo lives in a high-rise apartment and goes to a fancy groomer every month
