Beautiful
Rosalie
I stood in bra and panties, leaning over thebasin in my new bathroom, staring at my face in the mirror.
The bruising down either side of my inner eyes was now justshadows.Except for the pad prints of Beck’s fingers, all the discoloration onmy neck was gone.Sometime since yesterday, the final stitches had fallen outof the gash in my brow and the one on my jaw, leaving only red marks I hopedwould recede.And the tape was coming off my nose tomorrow at my finalfollow-up with my doctor.
Lifting my chin so I could see them both, I stared at thered marks.
Rainmanhad opened up my brow.When it happened, I felt it tearing.He always wore heavy rings and made itclear in heinous ways that he felt like continuing to be accessorized duringthe festivities.
Those rings had skulls on them.
And some had crosses.
So he’d opened me up with what amounted to a crucifix,marking me maybe forever, reminding me every time I looked at myself orsomeone’s eyes drifted that way of my time spent in that warehouse.
Every time any brother of Chaos looked at me, they’d bereminded too.
And most of all, Snapper would too.
I lifted my hands, rubbed them through the wet hair I’dcombed back after my shower and moved to the closet, doing an inventory andfinding out where all my stuff was.
I tugged on jeans, went back to the bathroom, sprayed ondeodorant and perfume, then back to the drawers in the closet to grab a creamcami-shell.I pulled it on, then snatched out a thin,nearly see-through, dusky-blue, five-button thermal that didn’t even pretend tobe about keeping me warm.
The buttons undone (like they were then, like I always worethem) showed some cleavage.The material clearly displayed the shell.It was afull torso, subtly sexy peek-a-boo worn by a scarred, beaten, disposed-of bikerold lady.
“Okay, damn, where is my head at today?”I snapped, forcingmyself to pull it together.
I had to call Colombo’s and tell them I was good to go onthe next schedule.I had to unpack the bags that were filled with stuff Mom hadrun to my old place to grab while I was in the hospital because we both knew Iwouldn’t be going back there until I could face it before we knew I wasn’tgoing to go back there at all.I needed to familiarize myself with where theChaos old ladies had put my stuff and move anything if they’d done it the way Ididn’t want it.
And I needed to think about what I wanted to get out of theconversation that night with Snapper because I’d let stupid, dreamer, happyRosalie get the better of me last night and I’d used him to cuddle with andsleep with and make myself feel safe.
But now I needed to decide where my head was at because hedidn’t deserve me playing with his heart.
I went to the bedroom, made the bed, padded down the stairsand inspected the kitchen, doing the minimal cleanup of the donuts Snap and Ihad dragged on last night’s clothes and went out to get, that we’d brought backand eaten standing up at the counter before he took off.This being crunchingup the donut bag and tossing it into the built-in trash drawer.
I poured myself another cup of coffee and sipped at it,opening and closing cupboards, finding the women had done me right in more waysthan I already knew.They set me up perfectly.
I took the coffee with me as I wandered and found, throughthe other door on the wall down from the powder room, there was a nicelyoutfitted laundry room with washer and dryer, soaking sink, shelves andwall-mounted dryer racks.
I mean, seriously.
I could live here the rest of my life and be happy.
Though it wouldn’t fit anyTravisesorNashes.
OrHermiones.
Just me.
A man and me.
I heard my phone ring and I moved out of the laundry room tothe table by the door where it was sitting, deciding next up was the goodness Iknew I’d discover digging through the Sephora bag that was still there.
I set my coffee down and picked up my phone.
The screen saidSnapand seeing it my heart felthappy that he could finally be displayed on my phone for anyone to see that hewas in my life and thus belonged in my phone.
