The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 19: Therapy (Bree)

I don't have a meaningful life.

Not anymore.

We already knew this, it's not a shock, but it's still jarring to discern.

Hades told me his shift finishes at midnight.

From the moment he left my apartment, I've been preparing and waiting for him—it's very sad.

My kitchen is spotless.

My living room is tidy.

My bedroom is perfect...even though he won't be seeing it.

Once I've finished cleaning, I sit on my armchair and stare at my birdhouse clock.

I stare at it for hours whilst Acorn sits on my lap and I pat him.

I try to read, but my brain can't focus.

I can't do anything but stare at that clock until my eyes burn.

When he finally knocks on my door thirty minutes past midnight, I'm so tense I wish I never asked him back.

Acorn has abandoned me to curl up in his basket so I don't even have his support.

I open the door for Hades and he's holding a giant pizza box.

"I got cheese, because that's vegetarian, yeah?" He says.

"Yeah."

"Good." He grins.

My heart drops.

Loneliness hurts more at night and that means my inhibitions will be lower.

I may say or do something I'll regret in the morning.

"This pizza place is good, I know the other one got shut down because they fed people rats and cockroaches...but this one is safe."

Rats?

Cockroaches?

I didn't know about that.

I wish I didn't know about that.

"You want to hear something funny?" I say randomly.

What I'm about to say will not be funny.

He nods.

"One time Rowan bought me cupcakes and poisoned them with rat sack and I had to spend three days in the ER."

Hades narrows his eyes.

"He told me the supermarket had a conspiracy against customers and I believed him." I continue.

Looking back it's absurd to think I ever trusted a word he said.

"I didn't poison this babe," he says. "I promise."

To prove it, he picks up a random slice and eats it in one bite.

"See?"

I have never seen someone wolf down their food like that.

"I see."

Pizza is one of the most delectable morsels of food, I adore it to no end.

Even though my appetite is gone lately, I still take a piece for myself.

"How was work?" I ask, nibbling on the end.

I'm turning into a housewife by the second.

"Yeah, it was alright, a couple wanted to have a threesome with me."

Oh.

"Did you do it?"

"No." He says, sounding highly offended.