Primal Books

“Cynnie’s disappeared while I’ve shut up shop. So has Ty, without even giving me a hug. He’s getting a dozen noogies for that the next time I see him. I lock up, checking and double-checking my security. On the way back from checking the manual lock on the fire escape door, I find the dress Cynnie was wearing draped across the foot of the staircase up into the loft like a fallen flower petal.
“Baby?”
Her wild giggle answers me.
Grinning, I scoop up the dress and carry it up the stairs.
I expect her to be n*ked in the bed, but she’s not. There’s no sign of her.
“Baby, where are you?”
Another wild giggle. With the open plan of my apartment, the stairwell, and the screen of trees in the loft, the acoustics can be weird. I was sure the first giggle came from upstairs. Now, it sounds like her giggle is coming from downstairs.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are, bumble baby,” I call.
Insane giggles. I spin around in place on the landing, trying to locate the source of those irresistible giggles.
“When I find you, I’m going to b*te my bumble very hard on her b*ttom,” I growl.
“I sting you!”
That was definitely from my bedroom. I tear through the doorway and look around. No naughty bumble in my bed. I yank open the closet doors. No naughty bumble in my closets. There aren’t many hiding places in my bedroom. There’s no way she could fit between the trees.
Then I spot the black rectangle half-hidden in the rumpled bedding. A phone. She’s put it on speaker and dimmed the screen. That sneaky little bee.
I grab the phone and growl into it. “I’m going to find you.”
“I fly away!”
“You’ll never get away from me, little girl. And when I catch you, I’m going to eat you up.” I grip the phone, so turned on my hand shakes, muscles bunching. I pant into the phone. “I’m going to find you, wherever you are, and rail you into the ground.”
She squees. There’s a very faint echo, and I realize where she is.
Game on.”
― E.J. Frost, Max's Bumble