The Empty Space Next to Me

Chapter 8

Steve has been in Louisiana for a month. He has naturally fallen into a pleasant routine and the guesthouse has begun to feel more and more homely.

This morning he is woken up by wet kisses on his neck. Long, slobbery kisses.

He cracks his eyelids open and groans slightly, gently pushing away the affectionate lady in the bed with him.

"Riley, how did you get in?" he mumbles and the Golden Retriever's tongue runs across his face. He chuckles and tilts his head away before propping himself up on his elbows. Riley is wagging her tail with an open mouth smile. He strokes the back of her ears and her head shakes approvingly. "You gotta stop doing that," he says.

He sits up and Riley hops off the bed. He makes his way to the en-suite bathroom, showers and gets dressed.

When he comes down to the living room for breakfast, he finds the other two ladies in the house chatting across the table, with a mug of coffee in their hands.

Eliza and Kat greet him with a smile.

He smiles back and goes to pour himself coffee from the warm glass jar. He then sits down next to Katherine and helps himself to one of the freshly-made French toasts lying in the plate.

"Tomorrow night the Donovans are hosting their annual party and all the locals are invited," Eliza begins.

Kat leans closer and nudges him gently with a smile. "You should come," she says.

"Are you going?" he asks.

"Carol would resent me and take it to her grave if I didn't," she laughs. "It's quite nice. It's just people coming together and drinking a lot. This year should be even more special being the first one since the Second Snap. And you now belong to our community too, so."

Katherine smiles. She seems enthusiastic about it.

"Then I guess I'm in," he says.

In the early evening before going to the party, Steve quickly stands in front of his bedroom mirror to have a look. He has put on a casual — albeit visibly more elegant— white shirt, sleeves rolled up, with dark jeans. He is a little nervous although Eliza assured him his presence would go unnoticed and that it was very unlikely any of the guests would recognize him. "They're just a bunch of either old people with undiagnosed cataract or rubes. Or both," she told him.

When he comes downstairs, he finds her waiting by the doorstep in a long floral dress with a light grey cardigan over her shoulders. She is wearing a necklace and has a bit of mascara.

"You look fantastic," he tells her.

"Does it mean you are officially my plus one, then?" she jokes.

"I intended to be your plus one all along," he answers walking up to her.

She holds her arm out and he gently slips his under to stand by her side.

Eliza smiles. She tugs her short hair behind her ear and shows her pearl earrings. "Robert bought me those to celebrate our 35th anniversary."

Steve smiles. "A man with great taste."

The sound of footsteps rings out upstairs. Katherine's black high-heeled appear at the top of the staircase. Steve looks up and watches as she comes down.

She is wearing an elegant and slinky, knee-length black dress flowing gracefully. The sleeves are short and fall over her shoulders. Her red hair is down and styled in natural-looking but full waves. She goes to the coatrack and turns, revealing a slightly glamorous but elegant back cleavage. She picks a dark red shawl and throws it over her arm.