“I share a loft with my boyfriend downtown. He’s a chef at Le Grand Concours.”
I lifted my eyebrows. Le Grand Concours was a sweet gig, if you could get it. “Nice.” Not to mention, proof that most of the good ones were batting for the other team.
“Here, give me your phone,” Len said, gesturing.
“Okay.” I pulled my phone out of my bag and unlocked it, then handed it over.
“This is my phone number, all right?” He got to the contacts and entered his number. “If you ever need anything, let me know. And hey, I only live a few blocks from AJ’s. So I can walk you to the bus stop anytime.”
My smile widened. “Thanks, Len.”
The bus arrived at my stop, which was only a couple of blocks from my house. The street I lived on was quiet, so the walk home wouldn’t be too terrifying.
“I mean it,” Len reiterated. “If you need anything, give me a call.”
I nodded as I stood to get off the bus. “I will. Thanks for making a shitty day less shitty, Len. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I got off and waved at him as it drove away from my stop.
The two-block walk home was blissfully uneventful, and I made it without any other incident. As I stepped onto my front porch, my phone dinged. It was Len, checking up on me. I smiled as I texted back that I was walking in the front door and locking it behind me. Then I told him to tell his boyfriend from me that he was one lucky dude.
The lock clicked behind me. Home.
I sat on my couch and for the first time all day, I could breathe.
What a terrible day. After all that, I desperately needed a drink. And a bath. I could still feel that guy’s bad mojo crawling over me, like spiders. After balancing my need to relax against the damage that a glass or two of hard cider would do to my already shaky health, I said fuck it and poured some for myself. I took a few sips and wandered into the bathroom to fill the tub. When it was steaming, I stripped and tiptoed in, cider by my side and soft music playing in the background.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The mountains of bubbles over hot water went some way toward washing off the invisible layer of grime left by my interactions with that horrible man, as well as soothing my sore, tired muscles.
Still, nine o’clock tomorrow morning would come sooner than I wanted it to, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t relax completely. When the water started to cool, I got out and spent some time looking up Guthrie Leonides on my phone. He seemed to be a pretty big deal in business circles—bigger than I would have guessed based on his straightforward, laid-back demeanor. I jotted down a few notes, and tried a search for his name and Rans together. No results.
That avenue exhausted, I killed the rest of the evening mentally organizing my arguments for the meeting with the auditor in the morning. I dared to hope that it wouldn’t be nearly as big a deal as Daisy seemed to think. I’d gone over the material listed in the email thoroughly, and I was confident that I was in the right.
After a late dinner and an hour or so spent trying to slow my racing mind with a thoroughly forgettable romance novel, I popped another handful of painkillers and headed off to bed. Predictably, my aches and pains combined with unsettling images from the day to leave me tossing and turning for a long time before I finally slipped into to a restless sleep.
My recurring dream came shortly thereafter.
* * *
It was hot outside, and the sun was summer-bright. It illuminated the colorful banners and bunting hanging around the stage. Red. White. Blue. The crowd was happy, cheering. At first, I could only see legs, like tree trunks in the forest where Mommy and Daddy took me camping sometimes.
Then, Daddy lifted me and I had the best view ever, sitting on his shoulders. His strong hands steadied me as both of us watched Mommy talking on stage. Mommy was going to be a Senator. I didn’t know what that was exactly, but it was a real important job. She was gonna help loads of people, and be famous, like a movie star.
That made sense, because she was already pretty like a movie star. Daddy and me were so proud of her.
She was talking now, lifting a hand when people around us started cheering again. But behind us, someone yelled. It wasn’t a happy noise like the others. I tried to twist around and look, not liking how that yell made me feel. Now other people were yelling, screaming, and Daddy whirled around. Then he was grabbing me... pulling me down from his shoulders... wrapping his body around me.
I saw Mommy for a moment before I was surrounded by Daddy’s body, jostled by people running past us. Mommy was frowning, her eyes wide as she met mine. I saw her mouth open before I lost sight of her.
A loud noise like fireworks hurt my ears, and more people were screaming, running, crying. I started crying, too. Mommy said we’d watch fireworks later, but why was everyone so scared? Why were the fireworks starting now, when it was light out and Mommy was trying to talk?
“Oh, god,” Daddy was saying. “Oh god—no, no, no.”
He hoisted me up, holding me against his hip, and then he was running, too. Shoving against the crowd that was trying to run the other way.
“Sasha! Sasha!” He was screaming Mommy’s name, and I sobbed louder, afraid because I didn’t know what was happening.
“Mommy!” I cried, the noise eaten by the louder noises all around me.
Daddy climbed up on the stage, dragging me with him. His hands hurt where they were gripping me too hard. Mommy was lying on
