that’s all assuming he wasn’t full of shit in the first place.
After running back to her place and showering for approximately an hour to clean off any shred of self-loathing she could manage to scrub with a bar of nice soap and a luffa. With a strong sense of purpose, she scrubbed and scrubbed, and before she knew it, she’d actually started feeling better. Or at least, she felt cleaner, and she didn’t have any more burrs in her hair, so that was a start.
When she got back to bed, and saw there were two hours left before she had to be at the library, she figured she could either spend the time sleeping for no real reason, or she could go to work playing detective on this guy who would be her mate.
She managed to type “RIP BL” into the Google bar on her phone before her arm went limp, her eyes dropped, and she enjoyed about an hour and a quarter of deep, blessed sleep.
“You’re fine, Laney,” she said as she rolled out of bed and climbed to her feet. The squish of her leopard-print area rug gave her a little comfort, as it centered her in a way that she couldn’t quite explain. “It was just a flash in the pan thing that you’re better off without.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling though. Maybe this time, she really had gone off too quickly. Maybe this time was the one she should have taken a chance on; this was the one she should have gambled with being hurt over.
She shook her head, staring into the mirror. Thoughtlessly, she stuffed the tail of her shirt into her jeans, buttoned them, and exhaled the pants-buttoning suck-in. The buzzing phone on her nightstand jolted her out of the brief exercise in self-doubt. “Hello?” she asked. Elaine clicked her teeth. “Okay, yeah, yeah,” Laney said before her friend could talk. “I’ll be there in a few, bad morning. Just...I’ll be there in a few.”
Kiddie Time didn’t start for another half-hour still, and even if Laney should have been there at half-past eight, she knew it didn’t matter enough to get stressed out over. But her cheeks were flushed and burning. Her ears prickled and she couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on or why the hell she couldn’t concentrate on anything.
But, there wasn’t a choice. She had a vague hope that maybe being distracted by a bunch of screeching cubs would keep her mind off of whether or not she’d just made a life-wrecking mistake. On the other hand, she couldn’t imagine how she had screwed everything up, just by not going out with some guy.
After all, it was just a date. It was just a guy. Even if he was God’s gift to lionesses, she didn’t need anyone like that. She didn’t need any ego-driven politician... even if he wasn’t really a politician.
That’s what stuck in her head. What was he? And why did it bother her so much that she couldn’t figure it out? She’d never been the sort who needed to stick people in a box and categorize them to keep herself sane. But here she was, confused and irritated and desperately needing to get her ass out the door, but couldn’t quite manage, not just yet.
She flipped through a few screens on her phone and opened up her browser. The headlines came fast and hard when she hit search, but it was hard for her to make much sense of any of them.
RIP BLACK VANISHES, LEAVES NO TRACE , one of them, from a seedy-looking gossip site read. RIP BLACK ON THE RUN FROM THE LAW reported another. A third claimed that Rip had faked his own death and the last one she bothered to read informed Laney that the man she’d previously been flirting in the woods with was a DANGEROUS TERRORIST who would stop at nothing to DESTROY EVERYTHING .
None of it made any sense.
The Rip she knew wasn’t some kind of dangerous dissident. Hell, he wasn’t even slightly intimidating. He tripped over a damn tree root, after all. “I don’t even know him,” she announced to her own reflection in the mirror when she looked back up and stuck a barrette in her hair to hold
After running back to her place and showering for approximately an hour to clean off any shred of self-loathing she could manage to scrub with a bar of nice soap and a luffa. With a strong sense of purpose, she scrubbed and scrubbed, and before she knew it, she’d actually started feeling better. Or at least, she felt cleaner, and she didn’t have any more burrs in her hair, so that was a start.
When she got back to bed, and saw there were two hours left before she had to be at the library, she figured she could either spend the time sleeping for no real reason, or she could go to work playing detective on this guy who would be her mate.
She managed to type “RIP BL” into the Google bar on her phone before her arm went limp, her eyes dropped, and she enjoyed about an hour and a quarter of deep, blessed sleep.
“You’re fine, Laney,” she said as she rolled out of bed and climbed to her feet. The squish of her leopard-print area rug gave her a little comfort, as it centered her in a way that she couldn’t quite explain. “It was just a flash in the pan thing that you’re better off without.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling though. Maybe this time, she really had gone off too quickly. Maybe this time was the one she should have taken a chance on; this was the one she should have gambled with being hurt over.
She shook her head, staring into the mirror. Thoughtlessly, she stuffed the tail of her shirt into her jeans, buttoned them, and exhaled the pants-buttoning suck-in. The buzzing phone on her nightstand jolted her out of the brief exercise in self-doubt. “Hello?” she asked. Elaine clicked her teeth. “Okay, yeah, yeah,” Laney said before her friend could talk. “I’ll be there in a few, bad morning. Just...I’ll be there in a few.”
Kiddie Time didn’t start for another half-hour still, and even if Laney should have been there at half-past eight, she knew it didn’t matter enough to get stressed out over. But her cheeks were flushed and burning. Her ears prickled and she couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on or why the hell she couldn’t concentrate on anything.
But, there wasn’t a choice. She had a vague hope that maybe being distracted by a bunch of screeching cubs would keep her mind off of whether or not she’d just made a life-wrecking mistake. On the other hand, she couldn’t imagine how she had screwed everything up, just by not going out with some guy.
After all, it was just a date. It was just a guy. Even if he was God’s gift to lionesses, she didn’t need anyone like that. She didn’t need any ego-driven politician... even if he wasn’t really a politician.
That’s what stuck in her head. What was he? And why did it bother her so much that she couldn’t figure it out? She’d never been the sort who needed to stick people in a box and categorize them to keep herself sane. But here she was, confused and irritated and desperately needing to get her ass out the door, but couldn’t quite manage, not just yet.
She flipped through a few screens on her phone and opened up her browser. The headlines came fast and hard when she hit search, but it was hard for her to make much sense of any of them.
RIP BLACK VANISHES, LEAVES NO TRACE , one of them, from a seedy-looking gossip site read. RIP BLACK ON THE RUN FROM THE LAW reported another. A third claimed that Rip had faked his own death and the last one she bothered to read informed Laney that the man she’d previously been flirting in the woods with was a DANGEROUS TERRORIST who would stop at nothing to DESTROY EVERYTHING .
None of it made any sense.
The Rip she knew wasn’t some kind of dangerous dissident. Hell, he wasn’t even slightly intimidating. He tripped over a damn tree root, after all. “I don’t even know him,” she announced to her own reflection in the mirror when she looked back up and stuck a barrette in her hair to hold
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