The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series) (3 page)

While sipping my beer, some decent music finally came on and I felt like I wasn’t just sitting in the middle of a hot crowded room for no reason. I turned to face Christian, his soft yet clean masculine scent drifting into my nose as I got close enough to him to ask if he wanted to dance. “Just how drunk are you right now?” I shouted into his ear over the noise.

“I’m not drunk enough to dance, if that is what your next question is,” he laughed as he replied. I smiled. 'Ok then' I thought to myself.

”How about a couple shots then? My treat,” I said as I passed him a twenty dollar bill, while pouring myself another beer out of the pitcher on the table. I watched Christian walk away to the bar, apparently unaware I was still smiling. John just smirked at me, and I took the bait. “What?” I asked.

He shook his head, “Oh nothing. Just wondering which one of you will finally get the nerve to make the first move is all. I mean, it’s only been like fourteen years in the making now, right?” he said rolling his eyes. Was it that obvious? John turned back around and continued talking with his buddies as I sat there pondering his comment.

I smiled at Christian as he worked his way through the crowd with four shots in his big hands. I’d wanted nothing more in the world than to be with him, but I didn’t want to lose that friendship we’d had for years. We were both twenty-eight years old, and had a great history. But I couldn’t honestly say if he were to make the first move I would deny him. He was just way too shy to ever be that guy who would make the first move. As long as I had known him he had been single, and for no reason that I could tell other than he was shy. He had never had more than a handful of dates with women over the years. He was so handsome it hurt, he could be a model if he wanted to be, but he had no clue he was so good looking apparently. He finally made his way over to me, handing me two of the shots.

“Bottoms up?” he said grinning.

“Down the hatch!” I replied and I slammed the first shot down.

Out of the corner of my eye I swore I saw a shadow move quickly in the far side of the pub. The lighting was dim on the top floor and my mind could have been playing tricks on me. But any small bit of fun I may have begun having, faded away as I scanned the room looking for my dark hero. Christian broke me out of my trance, “Everything ok? You see someone you know?” he asked. I shook my head, smiled and raised my second shot up in the air.

“Nope, just a little out of it, this should help. Down the hatch!” I tilted my head back and let the spicy elixir work its way down. Fortunately for me, two shots and a couple beers made me feel a lot better, and one of my favorite songs came on the jukebox which was played over the loudspeakers. “Did you play this?” I yelled out to Christian. He shrugged an innocent yet guilty shrug and pulled me out onto what made for a dance floor. I guess the two shots were just what it took to put him in a state he would actually get out onto a dance floor. We danced, laughed, and had a great time, he had picked out a bunch of songs I loved on the jukebox which kept me entertained.

The last song that came on was slow, and one of my all-time favorites, he knew me too well. He put his hands around the lower part of my waist and drew me in close to him. “May I have this dance?” he said while chuckling. I nodded and curtsied to him. We stood there swaying slowly together, close and content. Once the song was over, it was close to closing time, and we made our way over to say our goodbyes to John and his friends. “I’ll call a cab for us, is it ok if we just crash at your place tonight, it’ll be cheaper than two cab rides, and you can just drop me off at home tomorrow?” Christian asked. I nodded my head in approval.

As the cab pulled up into my driveway I got nervous all over again. What if the dark hero left me a reply? I sure didn’t want Christian to see it. So as he was paying off the cab driver, I made my way as fast as my tipsy legs could carry me up to the porch. The tea light was long burnt out, but my envelope was gone! I hoped that a raccoon didn’t make off with it, but I was way too tipsy to even worry about that right now.

Christian came up behind me as the cab drove away, putting his key into the door and opening it. Cupcake was especially surprised to see him come through the door along with me. I threw my keys, purse and coat onto the floor in the foyer. “I need to wash my face, I’ll be back in a few!” I said while giggling. I was definitely feeling good, and usually got the giggles when I was tipsy.

“I’m going to put Cupcake outside, you want some frozen pizza?” he called as I was stumbling up the stairs.

“Sure!” I replied. In my bathroom I tied my hair back as best I could and looked at myself in the mirror. My normally aqua colored eyes were looking a bit heavy, but washing my face made me feel slightly better and more alert. As I was drying my face off I heard Christian and Cupcake padding up the stairs.

“Coming up, you dressed?” he called out.

“Yeah I’m dressed, well sort of!” I replied as I giggled and sat on the edge of the tub. I had taken off my sweater and was dressed in a camisole and my jeans still. He’d seen me like this many times, we had our fair share of partying back in our college days. He lifted me up off the edge of the tub in one quick swoop under my arms and stood me on my feet.

“Let’s get you downstairs, the pizza should be done in a minute or two,” he said as he guided me out into my bedroom. I grabbed some socks out of my dresser and sat on the bed to put them on. As I stood up and turned around to walk out, Christian just stood there, staring at me, then moved closer to me and placed his hands softly on my hips.

I knew, even while tipsy, that this could end up bad. So I quickly maneuvered my way out of his grasp and stumbled out of the bedroom into the hallway. He followed behind me closely probably waiting for me to tumble headfirst down the stairs. I sat down on the couch while Christian took the pizza out of the oven and sliced it up. We sat mostly in silence while we ate watching a rerun of "The Office" on the TV. I was getting past the giggly point now and just wanted to go to bed.

“I’m gonna hit the sack I think,” I said to Christian. He nodded.

“I’ll help you into bed,” he replied as he stood up to help me off the couch. He navigated me up the stairs and into my bedroom.

Without thinking I unlatched my bra from behind and pulled it out from under my camisole right in front of him. Christian was just staring at me, and it was uncomfortable. “Oh crud, I forgot my bottle of water downstairs, could you go grab it for me?” I asked him nicely. Cupcake was already snuggled up at the foot of my king size bed. The only light in the room now was coming from the cute little butterfly lights I had hanging on my headboard. I stripped off my jeans while Christian was downstairs and was looking for my sleep shorts to no avail. I heard him coming back up the stairs and hopped under the covers without them. He set the water down on my bedside table.

“I had a lot of fun tonight, I’m glad you finally came out,” he said.

“Me too, I promise we’ll do it more often from now on.” I yawned sleepily, eyes already shutting.

“Goodnight, I’m stealing one of your pillows by the way,” Christian said as he snatched a pillow and softly closed my bedroom door.

The next morning I woke up with a heavy head from the festivities the night before. Throwing on my bathrobe, I made my way downstairs to let Cupcake out and brew some coffee. To my surprise Christian was still sound asleep on my couch. He was usually up early no matter what happened, and at 11:30 a.m. this was not like him. Cupcake ran over and started licking his arm which woke him up.

“Hey sweetie, good morning.” He reached over to pet her and she jumped up on top of him licking him all over.

“Cupcake! Come on now, let's go outside, leave Christian alone he’s a sleepyhead!”

“What time is it?” he asked followed by a big yawn.

“A little after 11:30. I was wondering if you were dead actually, I’ve never seen you sleep this late before.”

I opened the patio door and let Cupcake outside. Turning on the coffee pot, I decided since Christian was still here I may as well make some kind of breakfast for us. “Eggs, bacon, toast?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

He grinned and sat up with a big stretch. “You don’t have to ask me twice!”

“I thought you might be interested,” I smiled back at him.

As we sat at the table eating breakfast, I noticed Christian staring at me an awful lot. He’d been doing that quite a bit lately. “Take a picture it’ll last longer,” I joked, breaking the silence. I could see him start to blush, turning his lightly tanned skin a pale shade of pink.

“You got any plans for today?” he asked.

“No, nothing as of yet,” I answered.

"I was thinking about going to the mall, do some shopping. You know how I love that. I need some new shoes and some slacks for work. You interested?” Christian asked, looking hopeful.

“Sure, let me just take a quick shower and we can head out. You’ve got dish duty!” I said as I got up from the kitchen table. I just wanted to distract him so I could peek outside to see if there were any new letters from my dark hero. “I’ll be down in a little bit, feel free to use the bathroom downstairs to shower if you need to.” I walked to the front door and opened it, the sunlight assaulting my hung over eyes. There, in the corner under the tea light was another letter.

Suddenly I lost all interest in going to the mall with Christian. I darted up the stairs and closed my bedroom door. Turning the shower on to warm up, I sat down on the foot of my bed and unfolded the letter.

Dearest Skyy,

Please, do not thank me for protecting you. I would never see any harm come to you. I have never encountered someone like you before, and you have me very much intrigued as well. Against my better judgment, I am contacting you again. I know that you must have many questions, and perhaps in time I might feel comfortable enough to answer them, but for now I’d like to keep it simple.

You did look happy last night at the pub. For now I will keep my distance in the shadows, don’t be afraid to visit your grandfather at night, it’s there where you look the most peaceful.

I had chills up and down my spine. I didn’t know what to think now. What was this being that I had met? A ghost? A demon? So many thoughts were running through my mind. I have read far too many fantasy and horror novels over the span of my lifetime, but most of it was fiction. I didn’t know what would actually happen if this thing was a true demon, or some spawn of the underworld. I didn’t disbelieve in God per say, but I didn’t base my life around the Bible either. I was always sure that there were things in this world that no one could explain. But the most believable to me were ghosts, and as far as I knew, ghosts couldn’t write letters or carry humans.

Seeing the steam from the shower wafting out of the bathroom, I snapped out of my daze. Christian would be ready to go soon, so I placed the letter in a drawer in my computer desk and hopped into the shower. As I soaped up my hair I secretly wished that Christian had left before I woke up. All I wanted to do was write a letter back to my new found pen pal. I was being incredibly stupid, and should have told Christian about all of this. What if it was some kind of poltergeist or incubus? But still in the back of my mind I felt nothing but good from this being. And it knew where I was, it saw me last night in the pub, it wasn’t my imagination. It could hurt me any time it wanted to, but it hadn’t yet.

Christian and I spent the afternoon browsing the mall. I helped him pick out some new work shoes and slacks, his fashion sense still being as bad as it was in high school. How was it possible that someone so handsome could be so horrible at style? We had a snack at the food court before making our way back to the car. The drive home was fairly quiet, which I only noticed once we were almost to my house. Christian was usually a big talker, but he barely spoke a few words on the way home. I glanced over at him in the passenger seat.

“You ok? You seem pretty quiet over there,” I inquired.

He grinned at me and shook his head, “Yeah I’m fine, just a little hazy still from last night. Thinking about doing it all over again tonight. What do you think? John and the guys are heading to a new pub that just opened up. Two for one shots all night long.”

I sighed and went quiet for a while. I knew the look Christian was giving me all too well. His puppy dog ‘please, please, please’ look. As much as I just wanted to spend a quiet night at home, I
had
just bought a new skirt and pair of shoes. This would be the perfect excuse to wear them.

“Sounds like fun, can’t wait to talk strippers again with your buddies,” I said sarcastically.

“You know they are all talk, John especially. He is a romantic at heart. Big talker, living life vicariously through his friends. His Dad would kill him if he messed up the business, you know that," Christian said, defending John.

“You don’t have to defend him, I was only kidding. I’ve got some new shoes I wouldn’t mind testing out tonight, so count me in,” I replied as I gave him a sideways glance and smiled.

We ordered Chinese food while getting ready to head out to meet John and his friends. Finally satisfied with my ensemble, a black skirt that came to mid-thigh, a black cashmere turtleneck sweater, and my new knee length black leather high heel boots, I shrugged on my black velvet trench coat and made my way downstairs as I heard the cab we had called beep its horn.

Christian drew in his breath and let out a whistle in appreciation. “Wow! You look…well you look fantastic. I should ask you out more often!” he said, grinning that huge infectious grin of his. My heart couldn’t help but skip a beat as he said it.

“Well thank you, sir. Does my chariot await?” I joked, holding my arm out for him to take. We walked out onto the porch and I glanced over into the corner, looking for another letter, but instead seeing nothing but the burnt out tea light.

My cell phone rang about halfway to the pub. It was my cousin Cate, and I smiled while answering the call. “My most favorite cousin ever!” I said happily.