Chapter Five
(Sabrina)
Holy Shit. Holy shit.
Sabrina watched Cesare walk out the front door and make his way up the street. She shifted where she stood, trying to soothe the ache in her core, only to give a soft groan as the friction made her realize how wet she’d become. Her panties were ruined.
“Please tell me you’re going to do something fun with that.” Marie’s Nashville accent startled Sabrina’s reverie as the other Barista returned to the shop front.
Sabrina looked at Marie, almost dazed. “What?”
“The hundred that Mr. GQ just dropped on you. You’re going to use it for something fun, right?”
Sabrina blinked, held the cash up, and looked back at Marie. “We really need a new immersion suit. The last one we had was torn a few months ago, towards the end of spring. In a few months temperatures will start dropping again and we’ll need a new one to do anything in the water.”
Marie looked at the money, looked up at Sabrina, and sighed. “If it brings you joy.” She shrugged.
“It does.” Sabrina nodded, pocketing the money.
“How much more do you need?” Marie asked.
“Six hundred.” Sabrina gave a rueful shrug. “It’ll come together. It always does.”
Marie nodded, then gave a slight chuckle. “I think you just found a baby daddy for your baby seals.”
“I think you meant to say sugar daddy.” Sabrina snorted. “And I’m not sharing.”
“Sugar daddies?” Marie quirked a brow; as her amusement grew, so did the Tennessee accent.
“I’m not sharing my baby seals with the sugar daddy.” Sabrina retorted, crossing her arms
Marie’s laughter echoed off the walls of Society.
“And I don’t have a sugar daddy.” Sabrina shook her head with a blush on her cheeks.
“You’re right.” Marie nodded, Nashville drawl fully in force. “He’s just a man who walks like sex on a stick, dropping hundreds like they’re handkerchiefs.”
“Marie!” Sabrina gasped.
“Tell me I’m wrong.” Marie demanded, putting a hand on her hip. Turquoise blue feathered earrings danced against the backdrop of her black hair as she tilted her head.
Sabrina gave her friend a rueful look before walking towards the storeroom to refill counter supplies. “I plead the Fifth.” She muttered with a poorly concealed smile on her mouth.
Sabrina did her best not to think about the card or the money burning a hole in her pocket throughout the day.
She was partially successful. The two friends left Society shortly after three o’clock and parted ways for the rest of the day.
Sabrina walked down Main Street, towards what looked like a large cedar shaker house on the far edge of the marina.
The Maine Marine Rescue had been renovated from an old waterfront home when Sabrina was three years old. Most of her life had unfolded within its walls.
Sabrina had painted on the walls with her mother and held a leveler for her father, as they and their closest friends grouted and tiled the floors.
She had finished almost every homework assignment in school amidst the flurry of recovering animals, responders, and volunteers.
Her little sister, Brooke, had taken her first steps in the dog run just outside.
Both sisters’ yearly measurements were scrawled in Sharpie marker going up the doorframe of the back office.
Sabrina walked into a decontamination area with a walk-in shower and an old sink and washed her hands.
She changed into a pair of bright purple Converse, only worn inside the sanctuary.
It prevented outside germs from harming any furry or feathered friends.
She walked into the main holding room and let out a relieved sigh; the type of sigh one usually makes when they’re finally home.
The familiar smells of woodchips, algae, salt water, and coffee all blended together.
She approached a large habitat with a myriad of lizards, turtles, and a blue veined crab.
A small seal swam in a pool within an enclosure in the far corner of the holding room, and a very young fox in the next pen over was asleep in a cozy warming box he loved to burrow into.
Sabrina fed all the animals, crustaceans, and feathered friends one by one, humming an Irish folk song and promising each of her friends everything would be okay.
She would find a way to pay the bills piling up out of sight on the medical exam-room counter.
She would find a way to buy the food, equipment, and medical supplies that needed replacing.
More than anything, she promised them they were safe; they could stay as long as they needed, and nobody was going to make them go anywhere before they were ready.
As she repeated these promises, she idly wondered if she was speaking more to her wild little friends, or to herself.