Chapter 19
1365 Words
19
The next morning, Samantha woke up with her head hammering from her hangover and her mouth drier than the desert.
“Ugh,” she gagged, reaching for a glass of water on the nightstand.
Nothing.
Right… Melissa was the one to make sure she had a drink for the morning. Used to be the one, Sam corrected herself. She’d have to take care of it herself now.
Disheartened, she just lied still in the bed, any motivation to get up nowhere to be found. What was there to do anyway?
“Arf?”
The sheets tightened around her legs as the hellhound wobbled up from her sleeping spot next to her feet and licked her arm.
“Good morning,” Sam said, her first smile curling around her lips.
The pup stretched lazily, her tail high up in the air. She scratched her ear with her hind leg and looked expectantly at Sam. “Arf!”
“What?”
“Arf!”
Sam rolled her eyes to hide her bemusement. “Alright, alright. I’ll fetch you some food.”
She rolled out of bed, the resistance from a second ago gone, and made her way to the bathroom. With the floor dancing underneath her, she steadied herself on the counter and grabbed some painkillers for her head. A soft thud sounded behind her and small paws tapped on the floor as the hellhound followed her.
“Arf!”
“Yes, yes. Just give me a second.”
“Arf.”
“Needy.”
With the hellhound following her on the heel, she descended to the first floor where she was greeted with the smell of coffee.
Who was making coffee?
It took her a moment to remember that in her drunken stupor, she asked Lilith to stay. With embarrassment burning her cheeks, she lingered at the entrance.
“Morning,” Lilith chirped. She placed a steaming mug of coffee on the kitchen island and gestured to the high chair. “How are you feeling?”
“Dreadful.” She wrapped her hands around the hot mug, the bitter smell aiding some of her headache. She took a sip, welcoming the taste. “Hmm… Good coffee.”
“I used to work at the Drunken Turnip.”
Sam raised her eyebrow. “Really? I didn’t know that. You don’t strike me as the working class type. Hey, my shoes are here.”
“Yeah, you took them off last night. And there’s plenty you don’t know about me.” She gestured to the mug. “Drink up.”
“Thanks. Listen, I want to apologise for yesterday—”
“There’s nothing to apologise for.” Lilith swung her long hair over her shoulder and smoothed her dress. Somehow, she managed to look immaculate despite having stayed over without warning.
“I think… I think I was in denial about my separation. Just seeing the house empty like that… It really drove it home.”
“I understand.” Lilith shot her a sympathetic smile. “It’s normal to be upset, but you’ll find someone else.”
“Sure.” Sam scoffed. “Because a grumpy, nearing-forty, former-detective with a bunch of issues is so desirable. There’s a good reason why Mel is leaving me.”
The two women remained silent for a moment before Lilith shrugged. “The self-loathing is kind of sexy?”
“Oh, shut up.” Despite herself, Sam chuckled. She shot the woman on the other side of the kitchen island a well-intended smile and sighed. “Thanks for staying over. Truly.”
“Not a problem.” Her blue eyes twinkled teasingly. “But now you owe me.”
“I owe you?” Samantha slurped from her coffee and chuckled, welcoming the distraction that was Lilith. “What do you want?”
“I’m sure we can come up with something… satisfactory.”
She could swear there was a flirty undertone to Lilith’s voice, but she wasn’t sure and she didn’t feel like finding out. This was not the right time for that, she decided.
She slapped the island. “Right… I think I need a shower.”
“I see how it is.” Lilith raised one eyebrow. “I assume that’s not an invitation?”
Sam blushed to behind her ears. “Nope.”
“Tease.”
Definitely flirty, Sam concluded. She stared at the beautiful woman in her kitchen, filled with a strange sense of grief and regret. Maybe, in a different life, she could’ve started something with someone like Lilith. But the truth of the matter was that after her divorce, she was in no state to date and surely, she’d bore the other woman to death. At least, Sam was convinced that was her truth.
She broke eye contact and drew her attention to the hellhound lying under her chair. In the absence of food, she’d taken to chewing on the pair of shoes.
“Stop that.” Sam tried to pry the pup away, but she growled softly.
“Arf!”
“Yes, yes. Food, I know.” She slipped off the chair and moved to the designated dog cabinet, making sure to move her head as little as possible. If she kept her head still, the pounding and pinching wasn’t too bad.
The clatter of food hitting the metal bowl made her ears ring, but she couldn’t let the hellhound go without biscuits.
She pushed the bowl towards the pup, braced from the faint sun peeking in through the windows, and returned to her seat on the kitchen island.
“So you and Demon Bite are getting along then?” Lilith asked.
“We are. She’s good company.”
“You’ve stopped correcting her name. Have you accepted that her name is Demon Bite?”
Sam clicked her tongue as she finished her coffee. “Never.”
“I’ll make you change your mind.”
“I doubt it.” She drummed her hand on the kitchen island again. “Right…”
“Are you kicking me out?”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’ll call you a taxi.” She patted herself for her mobile, realising she left it upstairs. Probably. “I just have to find my phone.”
Lilith shook her head, her eyes still twinkling. “No need, I’ll walk.”
“You’re very active for a night creature in the morning,” Sam remarked.
“Like I said, there’s plenty you don’t know about me. Oh, and about Catalina…”
“What about her?”
“Forget about her and her crazy demands. We’ll figure out another way to get my uncle.” The young woman swayed around the kitchen island and blew Sam a kiss. “See you. Bye, Demon Bite!”
Sam was frozen for a moment or two, before she managed to call after Lilith. “Not Demon Bite!”
“Whatever!”
Her footsteps echoed through the hall and Sam heard the door open and thud into its lock. With Lilith gone, the house returned to the eerie sound of loneliness. Only the loud chomping from the hellhound puppy cut through the silence and Sam sighed softly. This was her reality now.
She sat at the kitchen island for a while, not managing to find the courage to start her day. To face that her life no longer included Melissa, despite the fact it hadn’t for a while already. She couldn’t even remember the last time they sat down for dinner or went out for an actual date.
Maybe this was for the best.
She wallowed in her misery for a couple of minutes more, before it annoyed her. She’d never been a wallower and she wasn’t about to start now, she decided.
She’d make herself useful and get Ian back, even if that meant going to see Catalina. She hadn’t planned on exchanging her blood for information, but Lilith had been so kind to her. She needed to pay her back and finding her uncle was just the way to do it.
“What do you think?” she asked the puppy, who stopped for a second.
“Arf!”
“You really think so?”
“Arf-arf!”
“Oh, what do you know. You’re too… hellhoundy to understand.”
The pup flicked her ears and returned to scarfing her biscuits.
“I’m going crazy,” Sam muttered. “I’m talking to myself and to my dog. Crazy.”
With a sigh, she slipped off the high chair and gave her mug a quick rinse. Out of habit, she pulled the fridge open in the hope that it magically refilled itself. The light flickered and the bare shelves taunted her, only reminding her more of Melissa’s departure. She quickly shut the door, committing to pass by the shop or have some groceries delivered later. At least Melissa’s weird expensive yoghurt would no longer take up any space.
Determined to prove she wasn’t a mess, Sam returned upstairs to get dressed. The puppy followed her on the heel, eager for attention Sam didn’t have the energy for. Instead of finding clothes for the day, she crawled back in bed, joined by the hellhound.
“Down,” she tried, but the little thing curled up in the crook of her knees and yawned adorably. Sam softened and sighed. “Alright, you can stay.”
She closed her eyes, hoping to forget. She’d go see Catalina another day.
- Writer
