I Hate the Way...

Part 33: "You're A Good Wife"

Josie's eyes flutter open, the bright light from the sun shining through the windows of the living room and hitting her harshly as she squints her eyes closed again.

She groans, stretching out her limbs. She feels a warm body beside her legs on the couch, but it's not the same body she fell asleep against.

She glances down to see Peaches, already awake, lifting her head from Josie's hip and excitedly wagging her tail when she sees her human is awake.

"Peaches, where's Hope?" The dog only sits up, whining excitedly at her other human's name.

Josie glances around the room. She's just now noticed that she's covered up by a soft blanket, which wasn't there last night.

She sees Hope's crutch is still here.

She thinks back to the night before.

She kissed Hope. And Hope kissed her.

She knows they were a bit emotional and worked up after the break in and after Hope had to administer an emergency dose of her injections, but still...they kissed.

And not for anyone else, not to prove their marriage isn't fake, not for a wedding ceremony, or a one night stand in a honeymoon suite. It was simply for them, right in the moment.

Josie's let's out a confused huff of air, reaching up absentmindedly and touching her bottom lip, remembering the feeling of Hope softly tugging it between her own lips before releasing all together.

She furrows her eyebrows as she sits up, looking around some more, "Hope?"

No response.

She looks down and sees Hope's cell phone still on the coffee table.

She peers out one of the windows. Her car is still here, plus she isn't even cleared to drive yet, anyway.

Where the hell is she?

Josie starts to get worried. Especially after last night...Meaning the break in, not the kiss, the kiss wouldn't possibly make her worry more about her wife, it was just a one—two time thing, if she were to be technical.

But that's it. It has no effect on her, she thinks.

She springs up from the couch quickly, and the dog follows, as she checks their bedroom. Empty.

She runs up the stairs. Maybe Hope managed to get up the staircase? Maybe she wanted to paint more of those strange faceless blurry portraits that Josie plans to never speak with her about?

Nothing.

Nobody in the loft at all.

She runs back downstairs, full panic mode now, but she pauses as the dog lets out a bark and runs toward the back door facing the beach.

The glass door opens, and Hope steps inside, a towel scrunching some excess water from her hair.

Josie let's out a sigh of relief but storms over to her, and Hope looks up after petting the dog, "Woah, what's wrong Jo?"

Josie scoffs and shoves Hope's shoulders lightly, "What's wrong?! Where the hell were you?"

"I went for a walk down at the beach. Sorry, I forgot my phone," Hope says simply, her tone upturned a bit in question as she raises an eyebrow at Josie.

"Well, don't do that again! You scared me to death, and you're not even supposed to be without your crutch anyway!...And why is your hair wet?"

Hope furrows her eyebrows, still confused by the amount of interrogation, "I went for a swim," When Josie's eyes widen, Hope clarifies, "Well, more like stood in the water. What are you so worked up about, Jo? I'm fine."