Page 17 of Serenity
“Faith?” I hollered as I stormed through the house looking for her since there was no sign of her in the living room. It looked exactly as it had when I’d walked through it the dayI’dleft.
My heart was pounding as I began to consider the possibility that she wasn’t here. I hadn’t returned any of her text messages or missed calls, and she hadn’t answered when I’d tried calling her repeatedly on the way over here. I figured she was ignoring me the way I had her, but I never considered the possibility something could have happened to heruntilnow.
I felt a momentary sense of relief when I walked into the kitchen and spotted pizza boxes and Chinese take-out cartons on the counter. She had to have been home at some point since none of it had been there when I left. The kitchen was usually spotless since Faith was the kind of person who never went to bed without cleaning up the mess fromdinner.
As I turned to leave the kitchen and head upstairs, I noticed that the wine refrigerator was empty. It held thirty-two bottles in the thing and had been half-full when I left. Considering the fact that Faith could barely drink one glass of wine without getting tipsy, I wasn’t sure what to think about the possibility of her drinking that many bottles in the time I’dbeengone.
By the time I made it up to our room, my heart was pounding in fear at what I’d find. And then there she was—laying in our bed with the covers pulled over her head. Empty wine bottles were piled on the floor and mounds of balled up tissues and toilet papersurroundedthem.
My concern only grew because she didn’t move as I approached the bed. When I pulled the covers back, I found her sound asleep. She was dressed in an old shirt of mine that was hiked up and a pair of my boxers. Curled up in a ball, she was clutching my pillow in her arms so tightly. It was as though she was afraid it mightdisappear.
“What have I done to you?” I muttered under my breath, afraid to wake her now that I had an idea of how badly she’d taken the time I’dbeenaway.
