22. Myer
M yer~
While I couldn’t say that I appreciated Calista sneaking out of my bed while I’d been sleeping, I also knew where to find her, so I wasn’t too worried.
It just would have been nice to wake up with her in my arms, something that I could admit that I missed.
There was just something about waking up to someone that cared about you that started your morning off on a good note.
The problem was that it was already a little past seven, and I needed to eat and check my mail from yesterday.
I had let the day get away from me, and while that wasn’t a complaint, I still had shit to check on, and with any luck, I could be asleep again by ten.
I had also let yesterday get away from me as well, Calista just flipping my entire life upside down just as sweet as you please.
So, walking out to my mailbox, I was thankful that the neighborhood had the lighting that it did.
It made the area feel safer, even if it was just an illusion.
After all, we had Louise across the street, and she was turning out to be more disturbed than your average residential burglar, and that went double for the company that she kept.
Choosing to ignore everything that was wrong with my neighbor, I opened my mailbox to see what I had neglected yesterday, and nothing could have prepared me for the picture of a voodoo doll that was lying on top of my stack of mail.
What the hell?
As I plucked it off the stack and studied it, it was plain to see that the doll resembled me, and if it wasn’t enough that Louise had already placed a hex on Calista, now I had to deal with the woman having a goddamn voodoo doll in my liking.
When I looked over at Calista’s house, I saw a faint glow of lighting coming from one of the windows, and so I decided to go check on her. While I was sure that she was fine, I’d just found a picture of a voodoo doll, so it wouldn’t hurt to see if she was doing okay.
As soon as I approached her door, I knocked, then immediately wondered if I was coming off as a stalker boyfriend already.
I mean, with her living right next door, it was easy access to invading her every waking moment, and I knew enough to know that smothering her wasn’t a good look.
However, when I heard the door lock disengaging, it was too late.
Once Calista swung the door open, I blurted, “I found a picture of a voodoo doll that looks like me in my mailbox.” I waved it in her face for emphasis.
Her hazel gaze narrowed slightly. “Is that all?”
My brows shot upward at her lack of shock. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Well, she said that you were going to get a special curse, and so far, I’m not seeing it,” she said as she stepped back to let me in, which I considered a very good thing.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that she left me a picture, too,” she said, letting out one of those long-day sighs. “But mine was in the middle of a pentagram with salt sprinkled around it.”
“Wait, what?”
She nodded. “When I came home, there was a pentagram drawn with white chalk on my doorstep, and it had the picture and salt with it.”
“Okay, that’s it,” I told her. “We’re calling the police and filing a complaint.”
“Myer-”
“No, Calista,” I said, interrupting her. “It’s one thing to...to try to convince us to join her little cult, it’s another to come on your property and do this way out shit.”
“Look, I already planned on speaking with someone-”
“No, this shit stops now,” I stated firmly. “And I know that you have cameras, so that’ll help prove that she’s fucking crazy.”
“Well, considering that it’s not an emergency, can it wait until tomorrow?” she asked. “It’s been a long day, Myer.”
“Are you sore?”
Her eyes narrowed again. “Why are you asking?”
I let out a laugh as I reached for her, then yanked her towards me. “I’m asking because I care how you’re feeling, Calista. I’m also trying to be a good boyfriend.”
“So, you are my boyfriend?”
My brows shot upward again. “Because three times wasn’t enough to convince you of that?”
“I didn’t want to be too presumptuous,” she muttered.
“Yeah, no,” I snorted. “I’m your boyfriend, baby. No doubt about it.”
“Well, in that case, my sister is going to want to meet you soon,” she informed me. “I kind of told her...uh, everything already.”
“That works out beautifully since my brother’s going to want to meet you as soon as possible,” I returned. “He likes it when it’s my love life that has our mother’s attention.”
Calista let out a heavy sigh, and that’s when I realized just how tired she was. As I leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead, she wrapped her arms around my waist, and it felt so fucking good to be standing with her like this.
“Tired, baby?”
“Tomorrow’s Monday,” she grumbled. “Enough said.”
“What time do you normally get home from work?”
“It depends,” she answered, keeping her face pressed against my chest. “If I have facilities to visit, I can get home as late as six. If not, maybe around five, four if I’m lucky.”
“Do you have any facilities to visit tomorrow?”
“No,” she sighed again. “Just lots of paperwork to catch up on.”
“Okay, well...I get home around five most days,” I told her. “So, we’ll meet here at five tomorrow, call the police, let them know that Louise is batshit crazy, then I’ll cook you dinner.”
“Or we can just let Abrielle go over there and kick Louise’s ass,” she replied. “I mean, she did offer.”
“While that was very kind of her, we’re going with my plan first,” I informed her, vetoing the assault charge. “I mean, didn’t you tell me last night that she was busy planning a wedding anyway?”
“Abrielle’s a good twin,” she remarked absently. “She always makes time for me.”
“Again, while that’s very sweet, we’ll save that option as a last resort.”
“Fine,” she grumbled.
After a few seconds of still standing wrapped in each other’s arms, I asked. “Have you eaten?”
“I have,” she answered quietly. “I came home, took a shower, then made something to eat.”
“Calista?”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you sneak out of my bed?”
“Well, what you call sneaking, I call being considerate,” she retorted. “You were sound asleep, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
I wrapped my arms around her tighter. “In the future, I want you to disturb me, baby. I’d rather my sleep be interrupted than wake up not knowing where you are.”
“Afraid I was snooping through your medicine cabinet?” she quipped.
“Calista, you can go over to my house and tear it apart if you want to,” I told her, meaning every single word. “I’m not hiding anything.”
“Maybe we save that for when you do something suspicious,” she suggested, and I was pretty sure that she was serious.
Letting out a low chuckle, I said, “Not a problem.”
Finally pulling out of my arms, Calista looked up at me tiredly. “I need to end my day, and you being here isn’t going to help me with that.”
That got a laugh out of me. “Are you kicking me out of your house?”
“I am,” she answered, honest as the day was long.
I kissed her on the top of her head before saying, “Fine, but we’re calling the police tomorrow and reporting Louise. Okay?”
She shot me a look but still nodded. “Okay.”
“Alright,” I said, kissing the top of her head again. “I’ll let you get to ending your day.”
Before she could come back with something Calista-like, I took her face in my hands, then kissed her lips, wanting to kiss her goodnight every day. However, even I knew that we shouldn’t rush this, especially when we had a crazy lady to get off our backs.
When I finally pulled back from the kiss, Calista opened her eyes, looked up at me, and when she smiled like life was perfect, my knees almost weakened, and it was on the tip of my tongue to beg her to let me spend the night.
However, instead, I stepped back, giving her a wink before turning to leave.
After all, I didn’t need to act like a complete pussy.