BAMBI

XXV

I laughed as Prince pulled me along, running through the unfamiliar hallways mazed along the first floor. The building seemed to have quickly lost its occupants since my arrival.

Closing in on the large double doors that lead to the kitchen, the sound of metal clanging together and large objects being dragged across the tile grew louder and louder. We stopped at the door, looking at each other with confusion wondering what was going on in there.

Following closely behind Prince, he pushed on one of the doors, revealing a war zone. Every appliance was pushed away from walls towards the center of the kitchen, while a crew of about five workers stood in the various voids throughout the space with rags and spray bottles in hand.

Once one of the workers saw Prince standing there, he stopped, "Oh... hello sir." That only alerted the other workers to drop what they were doing and stand at attention, fear filling the eyes of the grown men that stood before us.

"What's going on in here?" Prince questioned with the most intimidating voice I'd ever heard him project.

"Uh... we were just cleaning behind the appliances. We do it once a month. But we can put it all back if you'd like, sir."

My hand nudged his thigh, "Let's just go to your house." I whispered, not wanting to interrupt the work going on.

Prince stepped back into the hallway, closing the door to the kitchen. "I don't have any food at my house. What about yours?"

"You don't have any food at your house? And you're gonna cook for me?" I laughed.

"Hey, watch it." Prince swung his arm around, smacking my ass.

"Ok, ok!"

Prince pushed the door open once more and directed the workers to continue what they were doing then turned around, "I'll drive."

After retrieving my things from his office, we walked out of a back door into an expansive parking garage. His yellow BMW was kept inside this time, probably to keep it safe from the blustery elements.

Soon enough, we pulled into my driveway. The lonely porch light that illuminated my stoop flickered on and off, the strong winds threatening a power outage.

From the car, we scurried into my house. "Oh my god, it's so cold outside." I said, taking off my wool coat, draping it over a vacant hook on the coat hanger.

"Do you have any wood? I'll start a fi- Oh, there it is." He answered his own question. Walking over to the pile of wood next to my fireplace, he began loading the firebox. I grabbed the junk mail that I'd gotten the day before and handed it to him.

Prince studied the three pieces of wood that sat on the log grate while crumpling up a grocery store advertisement. My eyes followed his every move, strategically placing the pieces of paper in between the logs. The muscles in his forearm shifting each time he crumpled another piece. "Are you even hungry?" I asked, suddenly feeling a warm sensation between my legs.

"Yeah, aren't you?" He returned, only turning around briefly to look at me.

"I can eat, but I'm not starving or anything."

"Here, let me start this then I'll fix something."

"Ok."