Erika
“Thank you,” she said around a mouthful of eggs and cheese.
“Well, you certainly had a more eventful night than I did,” Kelly said regretfully. “So, it’s the least I could do in exchange for the story of it all.”
Erika smiled, stabbing a piece of bacon and shoveling it into her mouth. She was ravenous. They’d come home from the ball, but by the time they’d reached their section, Erika had been so tired she had fallen asleep before undressing. Kelly had actually taken the garment off her nearly unconscious friend and put her to bed.
That’s why they were best friends, though it was a relatively new friendship, forged from their own unique but similar circumstances. Erika had then woken the next morning to the smells of a home cooked breakfast. Eggs and cheese, bacon, toast, and best of all, steaming hot coffee. She took a sip now, feeling her nose open just slightly as she inhaled some of the delicious roasted-bean scent.
“You make the best breakfasts,” she said, drooling into her food. “Seriously. I know I can do a mean lunch sandwich, but oh man. My breakfast never tastes this good.”
Kelly smiled. “Stop delaying,” was all she said. “I want to hear about your mystery man!”
Erika thought about teasing her friend some more, but decided to offer her up some information. “His name is Harden,” she said in between bites.
“Harden,” Kelly repeated thoughtfully.
“Yeah. Harden Archer.”
“Well that’s an interesting name. I like it!”
“I’m glad you approve,” she said dryly. “But no, I think you would approve of him. He seems like a good guy.” She paused. “He’s got some pain in his past. Big time, but he seems just really…good. You know?”
“Yeah, I got that vibe from most of the guys last night.” She shrugged. “Must be a shifter thing I guess. Some of them were assholes; one of them tried to lay what I can only describe as a claim of ownership on me. But another guy intervened and told him to beat it.” Kelly sighed. “I guess they have bad apples too. But on the whole, good people here in Cadia.”
Erika nodded. “Exactly. Some bald asshole told me to stay away from Harden too.”
“Bald?” Kelly said. “Did he act like the place all belonged to him? That he was king shit?”
“Yeah,” Erika said slowly. “Why?”
“Did he have big bushy brown eyebrows and eyes? And looked like he was more comfortable sneering than smiling?”
She caught on now. “Yep. Black suit, gray tie?”
“That’s the same fucking asshole that thought I was his property!” Kelly exclaimed.
“What a dick,” she agreed, and the women took turns cutting him up as they continued to eat.
Erika felt more reassured now about her choice to ignore him and continue talking to Harden. Clearly the guy was just a grade-A dick, and the others didn’t seem to really put up with him, which was good.
“So, this Harden guy, things went well?” Kelly asked as they both did the dishes together.
“Yeah,” she said, feeling that schoolgirl excitement come over her, trying to stifle a giggle. “Things went well.”
Kelly instantly picked up on the tone and turned to face her, dirty water running down her hands. “Oh my goodness, did you guys kiss?”
Erika frowned. “How did you not notice that? You called my name pretty much right as he pulled back from kissing me.”
“I missed that!” her friend exclaimed excitedly. “I thought he was just whispering something into your ear maybe. I never thought you would kiss someone! Erika!”
The two of them dissolved into laughter.
“Was it good?” Kelly pried.
“Well,” Erika began, then laughed some more. “Yes. It was actually so good. Like, top three, easy. Possibly best kiss ever.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“Sounds serious. Is he the one?”
“I don’t know!” Erika said, swatting at her friend. “We met once! We only kissed. I’m not going to put the rest of my life on that.” She shrugged. “But it did go really well, Kel. Like, really well. We danced up a storm, oh my goodness. We were one of the last two pairs on the dance floor for the final dance. It was so fun!”
Kelly was staring at her now, just shaking her head.
“What?”
“My friend, you were so against going, I had to drag your ass there. Then you go and find yourself a man, while I struck out seven times!”
“Seven times? Goodness gracious! Maybe you should have let them come to you, Kel. Don’t go looking for them.”
“I dunno,” Kelly said, shrugging. “Maybe. I’ll try that the next time,” she promised with a smile. “So, why did they warn you away from him then? If he’s so good, what’s the catch?”
Erika had hoped to leave it behind, but that was a valid question, and if Kelly was picking up on something, she was going to respect that. Her friend had a nose for things, she’d quickly learned. More often than not it was getting into trouble, but in this case, maybe it would be helping her avoid it.
“Uh, well, it’s weird,” she said. “He didn’t really say anything about Harden. Just that I should avoid him. That I should stay away from “the Kronum shifter.” Then he said that if I didn’t, things might not be good for me. He threatened funds being lost and stuff.” She looked thoughtful. “I guess maybe he meant that he’d do something to remove me from the Cadian support program?”
“That’s a pretty serious threat. Did you mention it to Harden?” Kelly asked, looking concerned.
“No. Not really. I mean, I didn’t tell him about what he’d threatened me with. Or even that he’d threatened me. I just asked him what Kronum was. That’s how I found out he was hiding a lot of pain. Loss.” She looked up at Kelly, wringing her hands. “Something bad happened, Kel. Something really bad. But he didn’t tell me.”
“You need to find out what, before you get too serious. That kind of baggage could be a relationship killer, girl. You don’t want to let yourself fall too hard without knowing what’s up.” Kelly had taken one of her hands now and was speaking in earnest, letting Erika know this wasn’t some joking matter, that she was serious.
“I know,” she agreed. “I will. I promise.” For a moment she contemplated mentioning the darkness she’d seen in Harden when the topic had come up. The part separate from the pain and the anguish.
The one filled with rage. In the end though, she’d declined, keeping that to herself. Harden was allowed to have things that stayed just between them. Though she was going to find out what happened to him, in time. When he was ready.
“So, are you seeing him again?” Kelly asked after a moment.
Erika looked away, but not before she could hide the smile on her face. Kelly made an excited noise.
“You are! When?”
“Today,” she said quietly.
“When?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” she admitted. “We never quite got that far.” Then she frowned. “To be honest, he never actually asked me where I lived either. So, I’m not sure how this is going to work.”
Kelly was laughing. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll find a way.”
She smiled broadly. “Yeah, shifters do sort of have a way of tracking things, don’t they?’
“You’d better go get ready then! What if he shows up soon?”
Erika looked down at her tie-dye pajamas, aghast. “Oh no. I need to go get ready!”
Kelly just laughed as she ran from the kitchen into her bedroom, doffing the garments and preparing to hop in the shower. Last night Harden had seen her all done up. She couldn’t let the second time he came around be while she was lounging in old clothes with ketchup stains from breakfast on them!
No, that wouldn’t do at all.