She pushed her way through the storm of paper. “Julie!”
From in front of her, she heard Julie say, “Believe.”
Mandaline blindly headed toward her voice and found herself in the closet again, falling out into the attic. As she stumbled and headed for the attic floor, she awoke gasping for breath, her pulse racing.
Above her, rain pattered down on the roof.
She sat up in bed and found the remote control. It was 4:39 in the morning, and the radar showed the remnants of a tropical low-pressure system that was ripped apart going through Cuba drifting over them.
It would likely rain all day.
She sighed. “Great.” She curled up in bed with Pers tucked against her side and tried to go back to sleep. The shop didn’t normally open on Sundays in summer. Not unless one of the teachers had a scheduled class, which today, no one did.
She tried to go back to sleep, but found herself stuck in the dream again with similar results. This time when she awoke, grey light struggled to fight its way through the rain despite it being after seven in the morning.
She knew further sleep was futile. After getting the coffee started, she hunted up Pers’ little raincoat Julie kept for him and took him and her mug of coffee on a slow morning walk. She opted not to take an umbrella or her raincoat. She still needed a shower anyway, so it wasn’t like getting wet was a big deal, and walking through the rain might be the thing she needed to help soothe her aching soul a little. Rain pattered on her head and trickled down her arms as Pers took his sweet time sniffing around.
They walked all the way down to the library, where she let Pers sniff around the base of Julie’s tree.
“That’s Momma’s tree,” she wistfully told him. “That’s for her.”
He looked up at her and wagged, making her smile. By the vet’s best guess when Julie found him, Pers was now close to three years old. Julie, single and childless, had treated him like her baby.
And now, he was Mandaline’s baby.
Once he finished his business, she bagged it and tossed it in a nearby garbage can before scooping him up with one arm. “I’m taking pity on you, rugrat,” she teased him. “Your short little legs, you’re liable to drown in a puddle on me.”
He wagged his tail and licked her on the nose.
She was back at the apartment and had toweled Pers dry when her phone rang a little after eight. Libbie.
“Hey, cookie,” Mandaline said. “I don’t know about you, but I might need to build an ark.”
She heard the pain Libbie tried to hide in her laugh. “Might need to at that. You feel like coming over for breakfast? I wanted to make some pancakes but I didn’t want to eat alone.”
Mandaline couldn’t contain her smile. “I’ll be over as soon as I have a shower. I’ve got fruit salad to contribute.”
“Perfect. I’ll leave the downstairs door unlocked.”
She hung up and refilled her coffee. At least she wouldn’t have to keep looking at the remnants of the fruit salad in her fridge from dinner the other night. Libbie probably needed the company as much as she did.
Normally, Mandaline and Julie had brunch together on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday, she’d turned down Libbie’s offer, wanting to do nothing but curl up in bed and cry.
I need to return to the land of the living.
Brad awoke with a start on the attic couch. He wasn’t sure what awoke him at first, only that the light looked grey and weird.
Then Ellis knocked again. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. His lips felt thick, dry, a scuzzy film coating his tongue and cheeks. He licked his lips and tried again as he sat up. “I’m good.” Except his throat felt sore.
“Did you take your medicine this morning?”
He let out a yawn. “Not yet. What time is it?”
Ellis opened the attic door and stuck his head in, concern painted on his face. “It’s after eleven. Are you all right?”
Was he? He wasn’t sure. He also felt a dull throbbing in his head. Maybe I’m coming down with something. “Just overslept is all.”
Ellis studied him for a moment. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
Instead of leaving him alone, Ellis opened the door all the way and stepped in. “Is there anything you’re not telling me?”
Brad didn’t want to have this conversation when he wasn’t even awake yet. “You know better than to ask me stuff you might not want answers to.” He desperately didn’t want to tell him about Julie’s voice in his brain.
“Did something else happen between you and Mandaline that you haven’t told me about?”
Relief and guilt warred for supremacy, but better to spill this truth than the other. “Yes.”
Ellis stared at him. Brad knew his friend was trying to decide if he wanted to pull that trigger or not.
Brad was tired of keeping it a secret. “When you came home the other day, we’d already had two of those whatevers,” he said. “The visions. We were up here in the attic when we thought a third happened, only it went all the way.”
“What?”
Brad realized he really needed to use the bathroom. He tried to push his way past Ellis, but the other man stuck his arm out, barring the way. “Don’t make me tell it if you can’t handle it,” he said to Ellis.
“Just tell me.”
“She gave me a blow job, all right? We thought it was another of those fantasies or hallucinations. Until you walked in downstairs and we heard the door close, we thought it was happening in our minds.”
Ellis dropped his arm. Brad beat feet downstairs to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He heard Ellis walk downstairs and stand outside the door.
“So that’s why you were both acting so flustered?” he said from outside the door.
Brad inwardly groaned. “Yes. There, happy?”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Oh, yeah. There’s a great idea. ‘Hey, dude, she accidentally blew me.’ Like I was really going to tell you that. You freaked out when you had the vision of kissing her. I suspected it wouldn’t have gone over well.” He finished and washed his hands. When he opened the door, Ellis still stood there, a dark scowl on his face. “So does it make you happier knowing that now?”
“Do you think she’s going to give me another chance?”
“I don’t know. Frankly, right now, I don’t know what end’s up. I’m in a foul mood and I’m starving and need to take my meds.”
He tried to push past Ellis, but Ellis caught his arm—
And then they were back in Mandaline’s bed, together, with her naked between them. Ellis lay on his back on the bed. Brad knew Mandaline was impaled on Ellis’ cock, too, because he could feel every stroke with his own cock buried in her ass. She let out a cry as her orgasm started and her muscles clamped down on both of them—
Ellis ripped his hand free of Brad’s arm and held it as if burned. He backed away, cradling his hand and fear on his face.
Brad advanced on him, tired of these games. He pinned Ellis against the wall on the other side of the hall and placed his hands on either side of his head. “Quit fighting it,” he said, anger rushing through him. “Quit being afraid of it or you’re going to screw this up for both of us. She needs us the way we need her.”
“We don’t need a woman. Want, yes, but we don’t need to share—”
Brad pounded both hands against the wall on either side of his head. “Stop it! You’re like a child who thinks he saw Santa in the changing room and doesn’t want to believe he’s not real!” He grabbed Ellis’ collar and yanked him close. “Do not fuck this up for us,” he rumbled dangerously. “She’s perfect for us whether you want to see it or not.” He slammed Ellis against the wall before releasing him and heading downstairs.