Gl!tch.OS: Exactly. So let’s just forget about it. Okay?
WiseWave620: Fine.
Gl!tch.OS: Fine.
WiseWave620: I’m going to sleep now.
Gl!tch.OS: Way to shoot for normal.
WiseWave620: Yup.
Gl!tch.OS: Night.
WiseWave620: Yeah.
Gl!tch.OS: You’re supposed to say “good night” back.
WiseWave620: If you say so.
…
WiseWave620: I apologize. That was rude. I do hope you have a good night.
* * *
Rose staredup at the white ceiling of the house she and Oscar were currently occupying. It belonged to a couple who put an ad up for a house sitter while they were on an extended vacation abroad. Rose had intercepted the communication with the actual house sitter and posed as the homeowner, canceling their services. As far as the homeowners were concerned, Rose was Meredith Grayson, a twenty-three year old student looking to make a few extra dollars while on sabbatical from school. Personally, Rose thought the name was very unoriginal of Meredith’s parents, but then she’d been named after the most popular flower on the planet, so she really had no room to judge.
She was such a fucking idiot. Of course the small town wouldn’t be running a charity auction with such large bids! She hadn’t even looked until later what the others were being bid on. Hell, the starting bid had only been fifty dollars! And instead ofdoing a hundred, just to give back to charity, she’d literally done a thousand times the starting amount!
Idiot.
Stupid.
No wonder Keys had been confused. She really couldn’t blame the guy. She’d already transferred the money, too. She didn’t want Keys to feel obligated to or to flake on such a large amount. Itwasfor charity, after all.
Moron.
And he’d askedherif she was still up? Of course she was! Her brain would fixate on this as her latest embarrassing moment, playing it over and over and over and over in her head, criticizingeverythingand making her feel even more foolish than she already did. There would be no fixing this.
She’d taken a perfectly good friendship, probably the most honest one she’d ever been a part of, and she’d stomped on it with shit-covered boots.
Imbecile.
Well, she wasn’t going to sleep any time soon, that was for damn sure. Getting up, she was careful not to disturb Oscar. After her embarrassing debacle in a town thousands of miles away, they’d worked on a finger painting project that had resulted in a bath to get the colors out ofbothof their hair.
Leaving the bedroom door open so she could hear Oscar if he woke up, Rose headed across the hall to the spare bedroom where she had her current system set up. If the homeowners checked their security feeds, they would see a single woman walking around their house. She’d written a code to override the storage images so Oscar wasn’t recorded. It was a handy bit of script she’d borrowed from Keys.
Fuck! She winced at his name, her mind automatically brought back to the afternoon before. She needed a true distraction. She’d never get to sleep at this rate if she kept fixating on her latest stupidest action.
After checking on Poison and theNon Cras, all of whom were asleep in the motel they were crashing at for the night, Rose logged into herWorld of Warcraftaccount. Too bad Aelindra the Night Elf couldn’t solve all of Rose’s real world problems, but at least raiding a dungeon in the Icecrown Citadel would keep her from dwelling on it too much.
* * *
Thornveil: [leans arms against the bar counter] So what’s a Resto Druid doing in a place like this?
Aelindra: [sigh] How’d you find me?
Thornveil: [takes a seat on barstool] You’re the one who’s drinking moonberry juice in a warlock hangout. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were the one searching for me.
