Next-Door Incubus

I fiddled with Mom’s necklace and scooted into the leather booth across from Kasey at Ollie’s. Her lipstick was almost as bright as the blood red cushion covers. “Just-uh…”

I tried to think of a quick excuse, but what would explain this big, disgusting bruise? Burning myself with the straightening iron? My hair wasn’t even straight, just a big frizzy mess. No one was that stupid.

“I don’t know.” I slumped against the table and gazed out of the windows. People in suits were rushing down the sidewalks, coffees in hand. A woman who looked as if she just walked out of Hell itself—with zombie-like eyes and knotty hair—stumbled down the side of the street. She gazed in my direction, and I sucked in a breath. Her eyes—for a split moment, I swear—were yellow. I blinked once, and the color was gone.

Was I going crazy now? Seeing yellow eyes. Thinking Eros actually gave me a hickey. I needed sleep.

Kasey cocked a sharp brow. “Yes, you do.”

“No, I really don’t. I just woke up with it.”

“You have a suspicion though, don’t you?”

The whole thing was stupid. Eros. My dream. Him actually being in my room. But there was no other explanation for it. “There’s this guy…” And, so I told her about my next-door neighbor—about him stealing my panties, about him constantly flirting with me, about me—possibly—enjoying his attention.

She placed her fingers at the edge of the table, plump lips wrapping around the straw in her smoothie. “You think he’s doing more than just creepily staring at you while you sleep?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“It’s not like that,” I said. But who knew? I wasn’t awake while—if—he was in my room.

The light in the mason jar above us swayed slightly. She leaned back in her seat, inhaling deeply through her nose, and giggled. “I bet he’s just waiting to dig his claws into you.”

“Claws? Jeez, Kasey, he’s not a cat. And, besides, I have a boyfriend anyway.”

Trevon had been my excuse for a few days now, and even that wasn’t doing it for me anymore. If I didn’t get my shit together before I saw Eros again, the past five years would be for nothing. I would hurt a man who had loved me even in my awkward middle school stage that I never seemed to grow out of; I would hurt a man who had helped me through every night that I woke up sobbing while thinking about Mom. I’d be a si

A waitress approached our table, and Kasey looked over. Her dark, natural curls rested around her glowing brown face. She pulled her pen from her pocket, cheeks flushing. “What can I get you ladies?”

“Eggs and bacon, please,” I said.

Kasey smiled at the waitress, fingers grazing against her forearm. “Can I have a strudel?” She leaned forward, her breasts pressing into the table, and brushed her fingers against the waitress’s name tag on her pink uniform top. “And, Mycah, make sure it’s extra creamy inside.”

The waitress blushed harder, her dimples appearing on her round cheeks. “I’ll put it right in.” Kasey’s gaze followed her until she disappeared behind the kitchen door. When she looked back at me, she pushed my hair away from the bruise, examining it further. “Speaking of your boyfriend, has he seen what your boy-toy did to you?”

“No.” And he wasn’t going to because it might’ve never even happened. I could be one of those people that gets unexplainable bruises on their body. Anything was possible… right?

The bell on the diner’s door chimed, and Kasey gazed behind me. “Is your boyfriend a bit muscular, dark eyes, has a blue baseball cap?”

Oh, God. He was here, wasn’t he? He would see my neck. He would ask about last night. He would find out—everything.

My heart thumped against my chest, but I took a deep breath. Damn it, Dani, you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Kasey leaned across the table and pulled my hair in front of my neck. “Don’t move and you should be fine,” she said.

“Dani!” Trevon called from across the diner.

I gripped the edge of the table harder. I could just imagine him walking down the aisle toward us, arms swaying front to back, with a huge grin on his face. After moments of waiting in pure agony, he finally approached the table. “Where have you been?” He placed his baseball cap on the table between us. “I’ve been looking for you all morning.” He turned to Kasey. “And who is…”

Kasey wrinkled her nose and pulled her hands away from my hair. “I’m Kasey.”

“You haven’t told me about her, Babe.” He sat next to me.

Of course, I hadn’t. He hadn’t given me much of a chance to tell him anything since Sunday.

Grabbing my hand above the table, he interlocked our fingers. “I wanted to ask what time you’ll be at the Halloween party on Friday.”

“Halloween Party?” Kasey asked.

“My bar holds a Halloween Party every year,” Trevon said. “It’s the biggest one in the city.”

I tensed and pulled my hand away from his. “Don’t you remember what happened last time?” I asked. “I can’t do that aga—”

He pushed some stray strands of my hair behind my ear. “You promi—”

“We’ll both be there,” Kasey said, grabbing my hand from his. “But we’re having a girls’ day right now, so you have to leave.”

Trevon placed a kiss on my cheek. “I have to work tonight, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When he left the diner, I gave him a half-smile through the window.

Kasey glared at him. “What an asshole.” She gripped her smoothie in her hand tightly, bringing the straw between her red-painted lips.

“Why is he an asshole?”

“I don’t like him.”

“Any particular reason?”

She shook her head, jaw clenched. “No.”

A few moments later, Mycah appeared with a plate of eggs and bacon in one hand and Kasey’s strudel which was oozing cream in the other. I grabbed my fork. “Well, I’m not going to the Halloween Party.”

“If I’m going, so are you.” She smiled, eyes lighting up. “And I know the perfect costume for you.”

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CHAPTER 8

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Dani

“Dani!” Maria yelled from the living room. I groaned and rolled onto my side, gazing at the city lights glowing in the darkness. It was Thursday night, and all I wanted to do was figure out an excuse for missing Trevon’s Halloween party tomorrow night. There was no way that I was going. There was also no way that Kasey would let me stay at home. So, my excuse needed to be believable.

So far, I had come up with ru

“What?” I shouted back. When she didn’t answer, I got up and stuck my head out the door. The bathroom light was on. “What, Maria?”

“Do you wa

“No.”

“Awh, come on, Eros will be there!”

“Maria, I have a boyfriend.” For the fiftieth time. What didn’t she get about that? It’s not like I had ever been single for the past three years we’ve lived together.

She walked out of the bathroom, blue mascara stick in her hand. “There’s no harm in some i

None of the flirting that we’ve done was i

“I’m not going.” I shut my door.

“Your loss! I guess I will get to toy with him for the night.”

I pressed my lips together, peeled off my striped blouse, and hurled it into the hamper. She got to flirt with him? Is that what she did when I wasn’t around? I inhaled the scent of my candle and rubbed Mom’s necklace. It didn’t matter what they did. I didn’t care.

A few moments later, the front door closed, and I dug my fingernails into my palms.

Damn her.