Five Shadows

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I made a point to get to work one minute late the next day, so Little Cut was already in a meeting. I spent the rest of the day making sure I was on the phone every time he was available and trying to call me into his office. I begged off on Carol five minutes early to escape without talking to him at all. He tried to call after me as I blew past his office. I pretended not to hear and motored home.

Food. When I had a problem to work through in school, the human Barbara would tell me to cook it out. Marnie had the same advice. I'd make lemon ricotta pancakes. Lemon was a problem-solving food. It cut to the chase, was honest in its wisdom, if too brutally honest. I supposed that's what I needed. Dad was out of jail in three and a half weeks. I didn't have time for gentle, ambiguous advice. This definitely called for some lemon.

They were heavenly. I think human Barbara would have been proud. Dog Barbara certainly seemed impressed. She begged the entire time I ate. "Sorry, no more human food for you ever again," I scolded. But I gave her a carrot to appease her. The ricotta softened the lemon just enough that I accidentally got advice on another problem altogether. As I cut a small bit and closed my eyes to better taste the sour inside the sweet softness, I saw Little Cut. I was in love with Ryan Cutter.

"Well, shoot," I told Barbara. "That wasn't the information I was looking for at all. As if the lemon summoned him, there was a knock on the door. Part of me wanted to pretend I wasn't home. I knew it was Ryan. "How did you do that?" I whispered to my pancake. But there was no hiding from a lemon summoned human. So I got up and answered the door like a responsible adult. A shaky, panicky adult. I took my time opening the door as though it would give me time to think of something to say to the man I loved who was my boss. The door was fully open and my brain raced to catch up to my eyes.

"Eric!!"