Page 30 of After 5
“For the love of all things sanitary, please don’t suck that out of the can,” Gertie said as she filled the sink up with hot, soapy water.
“What are you doing?” I asked, then replaced the top on the can of whipped cream and returned it to the fridge.
“The dishwasher is broken,” she said as she submerged the first dish in the water.
“Did you call my dad?” My parents were our landlords, and my dad doubled as the handyman. He lived an hour away in a hoity toity over-fifty community, but he still worked at his feed store in Sunnyside during the week.
“No. I didn’t want to bother him on the weekend.”
I grabbed a can of vegetable soup from the pantry and dumped it into a bowl, then set the microwave for three minutes.
“I’ll call him tomorrow,” I said, taking a dish from her and drying it with a towel. I stacked each dish on the counter.
The microwave signaled my soup was done cooking. I left the dirty glasses for Gertie, retrieved my soup, and sat down at the table to eat.
A gurgle and a crack sounded outside, and Brodie’s bathtub materialized in my backyard.
Gertie squealed a little noise of delight as she dried her hands and met him coming in the door. He pulled Gertie in for a giant hug followed by a deep kiss. When they came up for air, he noticed me.
“Hey Jen, I heard ya had a second travel.”
News travels fast at the WTF. “Mortas took a late jump. Ace went with me.” I scanned his face. “We saw Caiyan.”
He paused. If Caiyan was communicating with Brodie it didn’t show on his face. I corrected myself. “It wasn’t Caiyan, but a younger version of him.”
“Did he see ya?” Brodie asked me.
“No, he didn’t make us.”
“Good.”
I filled Brodie in on the details of my travel, but he didn’t know anything about Caiyan’s trip or the sword.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Gertie asked, her arms securely wrapped around Brodie’s waist.
“Yep. Positive,” I said, envying the couple. “I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”
Gertie grabbed her Hobo bag and chose two bottles of beer from the fridge and two boxes of candy from the pantry to sneak into the movie.
“That’s my girl,” Brodie said as he watched her dump the items into the bag. “Always saving me coin.”
“I’m not paying those high prices,” Gertie said. “We’re on a budget.”
“Ooh, can we stop and get some of them lime chips?” Brodie asked. “They’re bloody good with the chocolate covered raisins.”
I smiled at the two of them. They were so cute. The couple left a few minutes later, leaving me in peace. I finished my soup, washed my bowl in the sink, and placed it on the dish cloth next to the plates to dry.
After watching an episode ofOutlander—ha time traveling through the stones, that girl had it easy—I wandered into the kitchen.
A bottle of nighttime cold medicine promising a good night’s sleep sat next to the dish rack. I could take some and be out for the count. A long, restful night’s sleep sounded perfect.
I took the recommended dosage of the green cold medicine and added an extra capful for good measure. I wanted the stuff to knock me out and make me forget how much I missed Caiyan. The bigLword hovered on the edge of my vocabulary.
As I set the bottle down, a fifth of whiskey next to the coffee pot beckoned me. Mamma Bea always told me two fingers of whiskey would do a body good. There were lots of promises coming from my kitchen. I took a shot from the bottle, enjoyed the burn, and followed it with a drink of water.
Attack cat meowed below me. I dumped a few treats onto the Corian countertop, and he jumped up next to me. I didn’t stroke his fur because that normally resulted in a swat from him and blood drawn on my part. The gray tabby preferred to be touched by the select few.
He licked his paw while I put away the cold medicine, indifferent to my presence.
