Page 6 of A Taste Of Darkness
3
TOO SWEET FOR TARTARUS
Milo Marucci
The boutique was empty.
It didn’t look like someone came back while Sterlie was gone, or at least she didn’t think so. Surely if she noticed something else missing, she would’ve mentioned that.
Well, we’d only been back here for two minutes, so I wasn’t sure she even noticed something missing. Her first priority was finding that dog she left behind to save her own life.
She’d been crying the whole way over, already blaming herself if something happened to Soup. Sterlie thought she should’ve taken Soup and then ran, and when I told her that her fight-or-flight reflex was more concerned about herself than her dog, she cried even more.
“Is any money missing?” I asked when Sterlie finally came back from the backroom, a white Pomeranian in her arms.
Sterlie pressed her lips to the top of Soup’s head over and over again, whispered a million apologies to her like that dog understood every word. When she could spare me a second, Sterlie looked up from Soup. “Maybe, I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t care either. I’m just glad the clothes aren’t gone.”
“Do you have moving boxes here?” I looked around the room, then my eyes fell to the broken window. If she wanted to keep those clothes, she needed to pack them up and move them elsewhere until someone exchanged the window.
“No, I threw the last ones I had out just this morning,” she replied, and then her eyes fell to the window. “Oh… that’s new. I think.”
“The broken window?” I looked around the room, looking for other objects that were broken.
“Uh-huh.” Suddenly, she gasped out loud. “I don’t have to spend the night in here, do I?!”
My body whipped around, facing her. “Why would you?”
“Because…” Tears swelled in her eyes again. “I can’t possibly leave when my boutique looks like this. Anyone could ‘break in’ and take whatever they want. So someone will have to stay here and make sure?—”
“Cuore mio, I already notified my people who’ll pack up the items and move them somewhere safe, clean up, and replace everything that’s broken. We’ll just have to wait until they arrive and then I’ll take you home.”
Her head shook at lightning speed. “I don’t want to go home.”
“Why not?” She mentioned she needed to find a place, but why wouldn’t she just go to her own place?
“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” she mumbled.
Ah, okay, that made sense.
This could’ve been my moment, offer her shelter, offer my company… but I couldn’t possibly have done that. The second I invited her into my life, even just for a night in my penthouse so she didn’t have to be alone, I knew I would’ve never been able to let her walk away from me again. And while I loved the idea of her by my side, loved the potentiality that tonight could’ve changed everything, brought us a little closer, if not anywhere near relationship-worthy, but friends-worthy, I just couldn’t risk it.
“I know this is a lot to ask, but…” Sterlie stepped closer to me, her blue eyes focused on mine. “Would you mind if Soup and I stayed with you tonight? Only one night, I promise. I just really don’t want to be alone.”
I stayed silent and repeated her words in my head.
There was no way she just asked that.
“Never mind,” she said, embarrassed. “God, I’m so stupid. Of course, you would mind. I mean, you don’t even know me. Flora might be your best friend, but I’m nothing. It’s fine, just forget I asked.”
She tried to walk away, but my words stopped her.
“I don’t have a guest bedroom,” I forced out.
That wasn’t a lie. The original penthouse floor plans initially had three bedrooms. However, I turned the unnecessary ones into a movie room, with cinema seats, a popcorn machine, and stuff like that, and an extra dressing room. I never had guests anyway.
“That’s alright. I can sleep in the living room.” Her cheeks reddened. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t assume you were offering your couch. This is probably your way of saying?—”
“You can stay as long as you want, cuore mio. I just don’t have a guest room.”