Red

CHAPTER 1.

One year later...

Soft wet tongue glided across my cheek, his cold nose pinned point on my lips with soft breaths waking me up out of the deep sleep I was in. Fluttering my eyes open, I glared down at the black Doberman puppy who only whimpered in return to my stare.

What a joyous way to wake up...

I huffed and breathe out a sigh as Salt lower his upper body on my chest and wagged his tail, he bark at me and moved from side to side with his chest still pressed on mine, his way of communicating to me that he was hungry.

"Salt come on buddy, mommy is beat." I whined as he began to drag the sheets from under my chin, growling softly at me.

I chuckled at his cuteness and decided to listen to him even though I shouldn't, seeing that today was my day off from the office and I was planning on staying in bed with The Flash running in the background on Netflix.

Tossing away the sheets, I swing my legs to the cold floor and chuckled as Salt tilt his head to the side while looking at me then decided to run out of my room barking.

"Okay buddy, I hear you give me five minutes until I make you breakfast!"

As if he understood what I meant, he barked three times and I shook my head making my way into the bathroom for a shower.

When I felt the cold water spewing out from the shower head, I sighed as the tightness in my shoulder's relax from the pain there. I closed my eyes, trying to clear the upcoming thoughts about River.

It has been one full year since his death, was I over it? No I wasn't, how could I. River was the love of my life and to make matter's worst I felt like fucking crap seeing that I couldn't find it within myself to visit his grave.

Maybe that's why I still went to bed with his forest sad eyes seeping into my soul.

Haunting me because I wasn't strong enough to come to terms with his death.

My heart clenched as the sadness overtook my state, I quickly shut off the shower, not wanting to spend another minute in here.

I found a towel resting by the counter and wrap it around my body, I quickly brush my teeth and enter through my bedroom, moving across the space as I searched for undergarments and a simple light dress to wear around the house.

I sighed as my fingers brush across River's hospital badge that was laying on the dresser, his dark forest eyes reflecting the radiant of warmth that I've been missing, the dark tattoos around his neck against tanned skin allowed the emotion that I tired to buried so deep within myself to pour out and before I know it, the tears flowed down my cheeks silently.

My lips were concealed as I refuse to conform to the weakness. A soft brush of Salt's hair on my legs have me wiping the tears away, I stared down at Salt, his puppy eyes twinkling up at me as he continued to wiggle his tail.

"Salt..." I warned as I took note of the white substance covering his mouth and nose.

I bend toward his level. "Don't tell me that you stole some of the coffee mate again!"

He huffed and then licked his lips, barking up at me and made a bold move by gripping the edge of my dress and proceeded to pull me forward to the door.

Laughing, I stood and shook my head at him. "Fine, I'm coming, I'm coming."

I followed behind him into the kitchen and decided to whipped up French toast and fruits for breakfast. I fed Salt his morning eat and then took out the eggs and bread.

When everything was through, I went to the couch and begin to eat. My eyes scan the amount of completed documents that I needed to bring in to the chief. I felt my phone vibrated among them files.