A Many Splintered Thing / Day 14: "That went well, don’t you think? I pissed off two different women at once but for entirely different reasons."

I really, really didn't think today would happen. I'm very tired. Not sure why. Just dragging and dragging. But then I sat down to do some words and magically the words came. Even more magically, some of tomorrow's words arrived too. LOL. So below is today's offering. Please read to the bottom for a special message.

Thanks and ❤️
Sommer

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Day 14

The moment the front door snicked shut she shot out of his arms like a wet fish. She put the aviators back on, her black braids swinging indignantly as she marched from the room.
“Was the kiss that bad?” he called, throwing his hands up.
“Asshole!” she said. The front door opened and then slammed.
Caleb ran a hand through his hair and laughed. He sank down on the sofa and untied his boots and took them off. If he had the rest of the day off, he was getting comfortable. In his duffel bag he had a pair of shorts. If he could just muster up the energy to get up and rifle through it.
Alice came over, tail wagging, ears perked. He stretched out on the sofa, overjoyed to the point of near weeping to be lying down on something soft. She put her head on his belly and stared at him.
“I can’t let you up here. Something tells me this is a no-puppies-allowed sofa. But I will scratch your head.” He began to run his fingers up and down her dark snout. Her eyes drifted shut and her tail thumped. “Wow, if only all the females in my life had this wonderful reaction to my attentions.”
She sighed.
“That went well, don’t you think? I pissed off two different women at once but for entirely different reasons. I think that was a hidden talent and now I know about it.” He shut his eyes. He was very tired. Too tired. He hadn’t been so heavy-limbed exhausted in a long, long time.
Alice, the best therapist ever, continued to rest her head on him and allow his loving attention to soothe her. So Caleb kept talking. It felt perfectly natural to unburden himself to a dog. Why hadn’t he gotten one before now?
“And God help me, Al, but I actually thought Harrison wasn’t too much of a huge douche bag. So…I think under different circumstances and maybe in an alternate universe I could like him. But don’t tell anyone.”
She sighed again.
Caleb heard the front door open and he froze. Alice gave a soft rumble that said, What are you doing? Pet me!
“Shh.” She shushed.
He heard boots clacking on the floor and suppressed the initial urge to sit up straight. She was back.She sauntered in holding a bottle.
He smirked at her, he could tell it was his jerk face but was unable to control it. “You came back. I thought you’d left for good.”
She dropped to the armchair and pulled off her boots. Then she took off her short socks, balled them up and tossed them toward the hallway that branched off the living room. “Well, sorry to break it to you, loverboy, but I live here. So I’m not leaving for good any time soon.”
She called the dog and Alice promptly switched her attentions the newcomer, putting her head in Dahlia’s lap.
“Traitor,” Caleb growled.
Dahlia’s laugh was genuine as she patted Alice. Finally, she sighed and picked up the bottle from the table and waved it in Caleb’s general direction. “Interested?”
Caleb rolled to his side. “Well, I’m no wine expert but that doesn’t look like wine. That, my new roomie, looks like whiskey.”
“That’s because it is whiskey. Now, I’m only asking once more. Interested?”
He stretched, hearing his joints creak and something snap. She winced and he grinned. “Sure. But I need to find some food to go with it.” He got to his feet and followed her. He tried very hard to keep his eyes off her ass and failed miserably. To make up for it he said, “Sorry about the kiss.”
“No you’re not.” She entered the kitchen with him on her heels. Her bare feet barely made a sound on the floor.
“No. I’m not. Busted.”
“What do you want?” she asked, opening the fridge. “There’s leftover from the last two nights. The chefs make staff meals. You can have a pork chop or some chili. Or you can raid the freezer. That’s all stuff I bought. I eat like a fourteen year old.”
He opened the freezer. “Yeah, you do. But I’m not one to talk. Where I come from I have a lot of fresh produce in the house. Some pretzels and chips, beer, and then I tend to walk to local places and buy myself meals. Cheap meals, but good local meals.”
“Well, you can have Hot Pockets, soft pretzels, Fudgesicles, Tater Tots…well, you have eyes. You can eat whatever you want until you get to the store to grab stuff you want to stock.” She took down two short glasses and poured them each two fingers. She handed one to him and when he took it their fingers touched briefly.
He recalled the kiss, that instant of surrender, and he had to focus really hard on not letting his dick get hard. But he had a feeling that the lovely, somewhat abrasive, ass kicker Dahlia was going to star in his masturbatory fantasies. And he was fine with that.
He held up his glass. “To new friends and new adventures.” His gaze fell to those scars and he found himself itching to know about them. But that was for another day. Possibly another life.
She clinked but then she said, “We’re not friends. We just met. And you groped me ten minutes in.”
“I call foul on the term ‘groping’. I did kiss you, though. And I have to admit, I’d have been tempted to do it with or without and audience.” He looked her right in the eyes when he said it. He wanted her to know that as cheesy as it might seem, it was sincere.
She looked away.
For some reason, her looking away without a cutting comment felt like a victory. “I changed my mind. I’ll eat something once I shower and change. Seriously, I’m disgusting. You feel free to go spend your day off away from me. I’m going to take a year long shower, steal your pork chop and then pour another of these.” With that, he downed the whiskey and focused on the fierce burn as it traveled down into his belly.
She studied him so intently he almost wished she’d put the damn aviators back on so he couldn’t see it happening. Rarely did someone’s intense attention make him squirm—hers did.
“I can’t get caught away from my beloved.” She betrayed herself by smiling when she said it. He returned the smile. “I’ll take Alice out around the grounds. We’ll be back shortly.” Then she looked down at the dog and said, “Want to go pee on some bougainvillea, girl?”
Alice bounced playfully. Caleb felt pretty good. If the dog liked her, Dahlia was aces in his book. He looked at Alice as a security system at the moment. An early warning asshole detector.
“Yeah, sure. Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate it.”
She gave him one of her patented short nods and muttered, “No problem.” Then she downed her whiskey without a wince or a blink and he felt his dick want to get hard all over again.
photo credit: JonathanCohen via photopin cc

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So THIS is happening and live. Which makes me a little weepy and a lot grateful. This community--my community--has been so wonderful to me and mine over the last year I have no words. It is too big for little words so I'll just say thank you. To Alison Tyler, Selena Kitt / Excessica, the writers who submitted, the writers in the book, the people buying it, the people talking about it. To all of you who had a hand in it, I appreciate it. I appreciate you. I can't even begin to explain what this book means to me and my heart.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Sommer