8. Chapter 8 Sabrina
Chapter 8: Sabrina
I t might be painful to admit, but Freddy was right. Even the shower was enough to make Sabrina feel more human again. She’d been reveling in the clean steam and fresh scent of her skin as she dried off and dressed when she noticed which t-shirt Freddy had given her.
Worn thin in places and faded to a light olive green, the soft cotton was his favorite. Around other people, he’d howl, “Scooby, dooby, doo,” like an idiot. When it was just the two of them, he’d pointed out the way Shaggy had one hand on Velma’s shoulder and the other around Scooby’s neck as they all faced the danger together. None of the rest of the gang offered each other comfort like that, but Shaggy did–even though he was the most scared of all.
The sleep pants were tight around her hips and obviously designed for a man, but they were just as soft as the t-shirt. Together, they felt like the hug Sabrina desperately needed but would never dare to ask for. It was enough for her to crawl under the covers and escape into oblivion.
She woke with a start. She didn’t remember dreaming, but something yanked her from sleep. Looking at the clock, Sabrina saw she’d been out cold for almost four hours.
Somewhere in another room, a cabinet door slammed. Coffee. Freddy understood how important coffee was. Surely that’s why he was banging around. Twitching her nose and sniffing the air, she couldn’t smell it yet, but maybe he was just starting a fresh pot.
When she came down the hall, though, it wasn’t Freddy in the kitchen. This wasn’t good. Sabrina did not care to have a conversation with Mrs. Taylor while wearing her son’s favorite shirt and no bra. She turned around to sneak back down the hall to the spare room and came face-to-face with the man she’d expected to find in the kitchen.
“Too late to run away now,” he rumbled sleepily. “You make coffee while I find an excuse to get her out of here.”
Looking back and forth between her options, Sabrina debated ignoring him and hiding under the covers.
“If you hide, there won’t be coffee,” he threatened.
“You’re so mean,” she said.
He looked her up and down and sighed. “Hang on. I can’t let you talk to her like that. I’ll never hear the fucking end of it. Let’s grab you a newer shirt.”
Sabrina wasn’t sure what he meant exactly until she followed him into his bedroom and caught a glimpse of herself in his dresser mirror. One of the thinnest spots on the tee landed right over her heart, revealing the darker shade of her left nipple. Holy shit, Freddy saw her nipple. Heat crept up her face, but Freddy kept his back to her as he tossed a plain black t-shirt onto the end of the bed for her.
“You change, but if you aren’t out there with me in three minutes, I’m sending my mother to come find you. Here. In my bedroom,” he warned without facing her.
“I’m coming for the coffee, so I’ll be right behind you.” She waited for him to close his bedroom door behind himself and whipped off the Scooby shirt to replace it with the black one. It didn’t have the same worn, softness that only came with love, but it hid her breasts.
Walking down the hall, she could hear Freddy and Katrina talking.
“Mom, I’m thirty-four. I can get my own groceries and do my own laundry. Please go home.”
“You have a moldy Tupperware of beef stew, three cans of soda, and some green slime that I think might have been salad at some point,” Katrina answered.
“I just got home. Sabrina and I will run into town together. She needs clothes, and I need food.” Sabrina recognized Freddy’s false cheer, even as he fake-whispered, “What if you’d caught us naked?” His pretend gasp was loud enough to hear where she stood in the hallway, and she could picture him covering his face with false modesty.
“Oh, stop it,” Katrina teased her son. “I know you two are just friends.”
Ouch. The comment reminded Sabrina of the way she’d stupidly kissed Freddy that morning. It was time to break up their chat before this turned embarrassing. “Point me to the coffee, please,” she said as she ducked past where they were standing in the living room and into the kitchen.
When she returned, mug in hand, Freddy’s mom said, “Sabrina, why don’t you make a list for me, and I’ll go into town and handle the shopping. Then the two of you can relax here and work on other stuff.” Katrina’s offer was sincere. Sabrina knew from experience the woman would arrange everything, purchase more than she requested, and refuse any repayment. The woman would mother the trees in the forest if she could figure out how. Still, it was so different from the way her own mother worked that Sabrina could never feel comfortable with Mrs. Taylor. Knowing how much it smothered Freddy didn’t help.
“That’s so nice of you, but I’m looking forward to it and have another appointment in town anyway. I appreciate it, though.” She looked behind Katrina to where Freddy made praying hands and mouthed thank you repeatedly.
“How about I clean up here while you two are gone, then. I’m sure Freddy has laundry that needs done, and it looks like the bookcases in the living room could use a good dusting.”
Behind her, Freddy mimed his horror, and Sabrina laughed without thinking.
Thankfully, she turned to find Freddy looking calm, with no hint that he’d just been making exaggerated gagging motions.
“We’re good, Mom,” he told her. “Seriously, I think both of us need the day to sort ourselves out. Didn’t Dad say he wanted to start organizing the attic?”
“It’s almost ninety degrees. That attic’s got to be sweltering. There’s no way that man can go up there today,” Katrina said.
“You might want to spend the day at home to keep an eye on him.” Freddy kept his eyes on his coffee while he spoke. His nonchalance impressed Sabrina, but then, she was always surprised by how well he played his part amongst his family.
Katrina sighed, “I suppose you’re right. You’ll call if you need anything?”
“Of course, Mom.”
Mrs. Taylor turned to Sabrina.
“Absolutely,” she agreed.
“I guess I’ll head home, then.” She looked around the house as if she were searching for something else to keep her there, but before she could find anything, Freddy set down his mug and offered to walk her out.
When he returned, he wouldn’t meet Sabrina’s gaze as he asked, “What are your thoughts now that you’ve slept?”
“We need to check in with Patrick about the updates. If he needs the new operation manual today, we should take care of that first. Then I need to run into town–” Sabrina stopped as she considered how she’d get there without a key for her car.
Freddy cocked his head in thought. “What if I stay here and rearrange things for our new office space while you run into town. You can take my car. If you don’t mind grabbing groceries while you’re there, I can have our office set up by the time you get back.”
It was a good plan, but Sabrina had a few concerns. “I’m not okay with your mom just coming and going.”
“That would be an issue if you stayed up at HQ, too.”
“Yeah, but there I’d have a lock on my door that kept her out of my personal space.” She wouldn’t have pushed it if she didn’t know it bugged Freddy just as much as it did her. Neither of them like other people touching their stuff or invading their space. Mutual respect and boundaries were part of why they got along so well.
Shifting his weight and staring at his feet, Freddy didn’t respond right away. When he did look up, Sabrina could tell he’d made a decision, but he still didn’t answer her.
Instead, he pulled out his phone, tapped on a contact, and set it to speakerphone, so Sabrina could hear the other end of the call ringing.
“This is Nathan Taylor,” Freddy’s dad answered.
“Hey, Dad. Mom should be pulling up any minute, but I need to talk to you.”
“What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, but I need to make some changes.”
Even through the phone line, Sabrina heard Mr. Taylor’s sharp inhale. Did Freddy really want her to hear this conversation? She felt like an intruder, but when she looked at him, Freddy’s gaze was locked on her, holding her in place.
“What kind of changes?” Nathan asked.
“I need my own place to live,” Freddy told him.
“You have your own place.” Confusion laced Mr. Taylor’s words.
“Not really. I have a house that Mom considers part of her domain. She decorated it, has a key, and is always handling maintenance, cleaning, and upkeep.”
Sabrina knew that was the polite version of how Freddy felt and wondered if his family ever got the unfiltered version of him. When his guard was down, his voice was deeper, half of what he said was sarcastic, and the other half reached philosophical depths that always surprised her.
“What are you thinking about doing?” his dad asked hesitantly.
“That depends on how this conversation goes. I either need new locks and boundaries, or I’m looking at buying my own place. I need a place that’s my own, where my mother doesn’t have free access to come and go without an invitation.” Freddy pulled his bottom lip to the side and nibbled on the corner of it the way he did whenever he was nervous.
“Your mother just walked in. Let me discuss it with her. We’ll talk about it more at family dinner tomorrow night.”
Sabrina could tell by Freddy’s grimace that he’d either forgotten about dinner the following evening, or he hadn’t been planning to attend. He didn’t let any of his reaction bleed into his response, though.
“Okay. Thanks.”
“I love you,” his dad said.
“Love you too.” Freddy ended the call. “Roommates?” he asked.
“Sure,” Sabrina agreed. “But I pay rent, utilities, and help with groceries.”
Freddy narrowed his eyes at her. “You pay rent and cover your own groceries. I’ve got utilities since I’ve been using your utilities for all my work for several years now.”
Rolling her eyes, Sabrina decided it wasn’t worth the argument, especially since she was about to buy a ton of crap to replace the stuff that had been destroyed.
She looked around Freddy’s house and considered their set up. He had an eat-in kitchen with a small dining table, so the sounds of one of them cooking wouldn’t interrupt the other working in the living room. The windows that made up almost an entire wall would make setting up both their desks challenging, especially with the built-in bookcases along another wall.
“What’s your plan for our office set-up?” she asked him.
Freddy gave her an odd look. “I figured we’d set it up the same as it was at your place. I’ll do a closed network between our computers with everything wired the same as it was, just here instead of there. I know you like the cords to be neatly bundled, and that’ll take some time, but I should still have it done by the time you get back from town.”
“Um, what about desks?” Sabrina asked.
“Damn, we really don’t spend any time here, do we?” Freddy asked with a laugh. “I guess sponging off of you was just too tempting for me to resist.”
Sabrina flipped him off. “Tables are turned now, and I plan to leach as much from you as I can.” They both knew it wasn’t true. It was the same shit they gave each other while playing video games together.
“I’ve got a loft above the garage. That’s where the office is. It’s got a built-in L-shaped desk similar to our set-up at your place. Come on, I’ll show you.” Freddy led them into the small laundry room behind the kitchen.
Sabrina had never had a reason to come back here before, so this was her first look at the steps they climbed. At the top, the room opened up to one big space with angled ceilings that obviously followed the line of the roof. Despite being above the garage in the heat of summer, the room was as cool as the rest of the house had been.
When she commented on the temperature, Freddy explained, “My dad had them put in extra insulation and a mini-split unit just for this space to supplement the house AC and heat.”
“Genius,” Sabrina observed.
“That’s my dad.” The tiniest hint of bitterness crept into Freddy’s voice.
“You really don’t mind me staying here? What if you end up deciding to move and buy your own place?” she asked.
Freddy waved off her concern. “I’ll just drive you out to the middle of the national forest and abandon you there. No worries.”
“Oh really, and then you’ll come back and write your own tech manuals, huh?”
“Fuck no,” he said with mock horror. “Never mind abandoning you in the woods, I’ll pick a new place with a barn or a shed, or a basement, or somewhere like that for you.”
“Okay. While you sort that out, I’m going to steal your car and drive away.”
“As long as you bring back–” Freddy’s eyes widened, and he turned back down the steps shouting, “Shit! I forgot the stuff in the car.”