The Longing by Bridget Essex

Author:Bridget Essex [Essex, Bridget]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-26T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Max was happy to see them return. After ruffling the fur behind his ears, Sydney led Caroline into her apartment. “Mind Max,” she warned her, smiling. “He likes to trip you up.”

Caroline reached out, found Max’s head, and pet him. “He’s taller than I remember.” She chuckled.

There was some rummaging around in the dark until Caroline produced her phone from her purse and held it aloft as they found the candles and the lighter in the bag.

The gas station had only had one pack of tealights for sale, and they were dusty, having been tucked back behind the car fluids on the shelf. Sydney didn’t know how Caroline had spotted them before, but when she flicked the lighter, when the apartment was bathed in the soft, warm glow of that first tealight, Sydney had to hold back a gasp.

She looked at the woman smiling down at the little flame and wondered, just for a heartbeat, if Caroline was made of magic.

It was a silly thought. There was, after all, no such thing as magic. But there was something about Caroline, something so profoundly enchanting, that Sydney decided, if there were such a thing as magic, and only a few rare, lovely people had the talent to bring the miraculous into the mundane, Caroline would be one of them.

Caroline lit another tealight and handed it to Sydney. “Here, let’s put these around your apartment. We’ll be able to see better.”

Sydney complied, and soon the entire pack of tealights had been lit, and Sydney’s apartment was transformed.

She never thought the space could look so lovely.

Candlelight hides a host of sins, and a place you might not look at twice in the daylight appears inviting at night by a candle's glow. That’s how it was with Sydney’s apartment. Sydney didn’t have much furniture; what she did have had been garbage-picked, pieces that other people were throwing away, that were usable but not especially aesthetically pleasing.

With the candles flickering on the little tables and the windowsills, though, what was a drab and gray space had become a warm sanctuary. True, the apartment was Sydney's refuge from the outside world, but it had never been beautiful before.

Sydney felt her heart rising, and when she looked back at Caroline…

Oh...

The woman was sitting on the floor, Max sprawled by her side. The great bulk of his back was flush with her hip, and her long fingers were curled into the fur of his stomach. Her skirt was spread over her legs and knees, and she was smiling at the big dog, tucking an errant curl behind her ear.

Drawing in a deep breath, Sydney joined Caroline on the floor. The candlelight made her feel as if she were in a new, sacred space.

She gazed at Caroline, and she longed for her.

Sydney had felt a lot in her young years. Much of what she’d felt had been painful, all-consuming fear that she wouldn’t wish on anyone, even the people who had hurt her. Good feelings, happiness, hope, peace—they were concepts that were hard for her to understand within herself, or recognize.

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