Chains by Zahra Girard

Author:Zahra Girard [Girard, Zahra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Chains

When I wake up, my first thought is that I need to go back to sleep. Because I’ve never slept so deep, so this sense of being rested, must be a lie. But the longer my consciousness stirs, the more I realize I actually slept well. Which blows my fucking mind, because I’m on a fucking metal cot with nothing but canvas to support my back and a blanket so thin it’s practically see-through.

Still, crappy conditions or not, I wake up smiling.

It’s early. The sun’s not even up all the way yet, which is perfect.

I sit up in bed, groaning, and notice she’s not beside me. She’s already dressed, standing in the back of her shop, looking at a door leading to the alley.

“Morning,” I call out. “Something going on back there?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing. Thought I might’ve heard a stray earlier. Turned out to be a rat.”

“A rat? You got out of bed because you heard a rat?”

“You know the ruckus twenty dogs would make if they smelled a rat? Besides, what are you doing up so early? You were sleeping so deeply.”

“I was. But I need to get home.”

“So soon?”

There’s disappointment in her voice. Hell, there’s disappointment in my heart, but as I look out the windows and see the growing light, I know I have little time before I have to go.

“Charlotte could wake up soon. Look, she likes you, she knows I like you, she knows I was coming by the store last night to pay you a visit, but I am not ready to have that conversation with her.”

“About sex?”

I nod. “We would if she asked. I’d tell her the truth, in an age appropriate way. Even looked up some stuff online about how to say it, depending on how old they are.” I clear my throat at that point. Even now, five years in to raising a kid on my own, it feels fucking strange to have to check the internet for help. But I didn’t get any help growing up — except in lessons on what not to do — and I want to do better for Charlotte than my parents did for me. “But if I can put that off for a little longer, until things are a little more real and a little less complicated between us, that’d be best.”

“Things are complicated?” She crosses her arms. “What’s complicated? Everything seemed pretty simple last night.”

Last night runs through me and I can’t stifle a low moan. My body aches in the best way and I’m so drained it may take me another day to recover.

“It was. It was fucking perfect. But you’re starting a business, and I got my business and a daughter just starting school. And, unlike your business, mine hasn’t been going so great. There’ve been no other clients after fixing up your store, except I fixed the screen doors at some old lady’s house and Hammer and Bones literally got a cat out of some lady’s tree. That was it.

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