Darkest Desire

Chapter 8

Glaiza: Are you busy?
Me: Always busy. What's up?
Glaiza: I need your help. Won't take long.
Me: Be there in thirty.

I should have given myself one hour rather than thirty because I haven't had a shower today. After a ten-hour shift last night, I'm sure I need one.

If I knew she was home, a shower would have been my top priority but I thought she wasn't due back until tomorrow.

I pulled my hair up into a loose bun and changed from my pajama bottoms into a pair of jeans. It's not quite noon yet but I'm embarrassed to admit I was still in bed.

She yelled for me to come in after I knocked on her door so I pushed it open. She's standing on a chair next to one of the living-room windows. She glanced down at me then nodded her head towards a chair.

"Grab that chair and push it right there." She said, pointing to a spot a few feet away from her. "I'm trying to measure these but I've never bought curtains before. I don't know if I'm supposed to measure the outside frame or the actual window itself."

Well, I'll be damned. She's buying curtains.

I scooted the chair to the other side of the window and climbed up onto it. She handed me one end of the measuring tape and began to pull.

"It all depends on what kind of curtains you want so I'd get measurements for both." I suggested.

She's dressed casually again in a pair of distressed denim and a torn gray muscle tee that revealed her entire sides and came extremely close to accidentally giving me a nip slip. Somehow the gray in her shirt make her eyes look less dark. It made them look clear. See-through almost but I know that's impossible. Her eyes are anything but see-through with that wall she kept up behind them.

She entered the measurement into her phone and them we took a second measurement. Once she's got both entered into her phone, we step down and pushed the chairs back under the table.

"What about a rug?" She asked, staring at the floor beneath the table. "You think I should get a rug?"

I shrugged. "Depends on what you like."

She nodded her head slowly, still staring down at the bare floor.

"i don't know what I like anymore." She said quietly. She tossed the tape measure onto the couch and looked at me. "You want to come?"

I refrained from immediately nodding. "Where to?"

She brushed her hair off her forehead and reached for her jacket tossed over the back of her couch. "Wherever people buy curtain."

I should say no. Picking up curtains is something couples do. Picking out curtains is something friends do. Picking out curtains is not something Glaiza and Rhian should do if they want to stick to their rules but I absolutely, positively, most definitely don't want to do anything else.

I shrugged to made my answer appear much more casual than it is. "Sure."

***

"What's your favorite color?" I asked her once we're on the elevator. I'm trying to stay focused on the task at hand but I can't deny the desire I have for her to reached out and touched me. A kiss, a hug.. anything. We're standing on opposite sides of the elevator though. We haven't touched since the night we had sex. We haven't even spoken or texted since then either.

"Black?" She said, unsure of her own answer. "I like black."

I shook my head. "You can't decorate with black curtains. You need color. Maybe something close to black but not black."