This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

Daniel was smirking at him. “What are we talking about?”

“Audry needs a moment to decide where she wants to go from here,” Rick said from the doorway. Audry noticed he had stepped back into the doorway as if he were inclined to flee the area. She could feel that he did not like Hogan, but he was being polite and respecting her space. It was funny. Despite being an outspoken carnivore, he did respect her space. She also noticed he was rubbing something in his hoodie pocket, she wasn’t sure what. His face looked a little flushed.

“I think we all need to give her space,” Daniel said, grabbing Tom’s arm and pulling him back towards the door.

Tom let go of Audry.

Surprisingly, Daniel also grabbed Hogan by the arm with the same intent. Hogan was about to pull away when he caught the sharp looking Daniel’s gaze—the kind of look that said, ‘I will gut you if you interfere with this’. Audry had seen Daniel look at other people that way before, but never at her for some reason. It gave her another reason to like Silvia’s brother.

Bobo went out also, and he closed the door behind them.

Alone in her apartment, Audry took only one second to realize where she really wanted to go. She went into her room where she quickly picked through all her books and equipment and then stared at all her clothes which Selena had folded rather neatly and was putting into boxes. She searched out her laptop and collected up all her photographs off her bookshelf. After a bit, she could hear the others coming back in, keeping their voices to whispers. Apparently Daniel had explained more to Hogan who showed up in her bedroom doorway.

He reached out to her.

Audry walked over to him for a hug.

Wrapped in his arms, Hogan whispered, “I think the sooner we get married, the sooner you’ll get away from this craziness.”

She lifted her head off his shoulder, puzzled at his word choice. “That sounds like something Rick would say.”

Blushing, Hogan cringed. “It was something he kept saying to me. And he reminded me that he wants an invitation to our wedding, by the way.”

Of course he did. Audry closed her eyes, thinking of it. Rick needed the closure. But it felt bittersweet. Like a piece of chocolate with a bit of pepper in it, really. It left a lingering taste in her mouth.

“I’m going to get us some lunch. We’ll have a picnic somewhere in Central Park once you are moved in, and we can exchange that ring for one you want,” Hogan said, kissing her on the cheek.

“You’re not coming to the new apartment?” Audry asked.

Rolling his eyes, Hogan replied, “Silvia’s brother—Daniel—said it would… uh, how did he put it? Um… ‘ruin the spell’. If I got involved.”

“Is he saying you can’t come there at all?” Audry’s voice rose, already feeling that would make life more difficult.

“I’m not saying that at all.” Daniel had stuck his head into the room. “But for the spell to work, you—Audry—need to be focused on being the Shadow. And he is a distraction. Rick is not invited either, and neither is Tom or Selena. It will be just you, me, and Silvia.”

Audry nodded.

“This is really creepy…” Hogan whispered near her ear.

Nodding to him also, Audry however was still going to go through with it.

After a bit of clothes-packing and stuffing things into boxes, Hogan went off to get the picnic lunch for the pair of them. Once he was gone, Selena also decided to go. Selena had things to do, and she honestly had no desire to hang around her two exes, especially with Tom still in an off mood. Audry could feel he still felt hurt after being dumped.

Rick stuck his head into the room not long after, looking a bit like a naughty pet searching for his master’s forgiveness. His eyes took in the boxes, including the ones with the rolled-up posters and tee-shirts she still needed to sell. “Is this everything?”

Audry looked around. Most of it was packed.

“That’s quite a library you’ve got there,” Rick said, stepping further into the room. He picked up a couple books, reading the spines before his eyes rested on one particular volume and set the others down. He took it up and read the title out loud. “My Family and Other Animals? Really? Did you always have this one, or did you pick it up to spite me?”

Coloring, Audry took that book from him and put it into a near box. “I’ve always had it. I just never mentioned that I’d read it when…” She went silent. The book had been mention when Daisy had visited her booth nearly a year ago at that conference. It was something that had drawn Rick to her—Daisy’s so-called interest in veterinarian medicine. Audry lifted it out of the box, holding it out to him. “Do you want it?”

Holding up his hand, he said, “No.”

Chuckling, Audry put it back into the box. Yet she said with a sigh, “I just think this is proof that everyone has got something they’re embarrassed about. It’s nice to see it on paper.”

Rick nodded. Then he peeked to her. “Maybe I should read it, then.”

Taking it out of the box, Audry handed over the book. When he took it, it nearly felt electrical, the shiver that ran between them. They stared at once another in silence for a moment, until Rick awkwardly backed out of the room with the book in his careful hands. “I’ll uh, have Bobo bring you to the apartment when you are ready. And though I don’t like the idea of you getting involved in witchcraft, you are really brave doing this.”

Audry stared at him, softly nodding.

“Silvia is really lucky to have you as a friend,” he said, and stepped out the door.

His absence made the room feel emptier somehow. She felt as if she had just lost something, though she did not know what.

 

“Hey, Dan, something weird has been going on lately,” Rick said as the two of them were heading out to his car. They were going on ahead of Audry and Bobo, making sure the moving truck arrived at the correct place and all the doors were open for a swift move-in. “I’ve been getting these weird packages recently at school, all of them sent to my dorm room at Brown as sort of sympathy cards and such for what happened in Germany. Do you know some way to trace them? They were all anonymous.”

“A tracking number?” Daniel suggested.

Rick rolled his eyes, wishing Daniel would not joke. “No. I mean, someone has been dropping them off at my dorm room and in some of my classes. No tag. No nothing. But they have a familiar sweet scent.”

Daniel perked up.

“It’s been driving me crazy,” Rick said.

“Are you saying you have a secret admirer?” Daniel laughed, peeking back once at Audry’s apartment.

“Well, considering the whole witch thing here,” Rick said with bite, trying to get some seriousness from his friend. “It could be connected. Can I have Silvia scry to find out if it is someone from the coven messing with me?”

Serious now, Daniel nodded. “Yeah. We can ask her.”

“Thanks,” Rick smiled. 

Truthfully, Daniel was hoping Rick would get over this newest loss… that these secret condolence letters were a possible sign Rick could recover from yet another disappointment, because Daniel too had shipped Breacon. He had thought they would have been the perfect couple. He liked Audry and her wry sense of humor. It reminded him of Rick’s own tongue-in-cheek way of speaking when he was in a more balanced mind. But Hogan had put a ring on it, so Audry was officially off the market. And Daniel could tell Rick was fleeing the scene. Of course he knew Rick never really believed that he had a chance with Audry. His own insistence to stay away from her so she could ‘have a life’ had defeated that possibility, which Daniel thought was a shame. Rick needed something to give him hope, as he seemed to be languishing these days, acting only out of duty. And Audry was a spark of feisty life, the perfect antidote for Rick’s lingering pessimism.

 

*

They took the subway. Audry and Bobo walked the distance to her nice new two bedroom apartment where the truck was already pulling up to the curb. Rick was already there talking with the workers while Tom was sitting atop an old mailbox like a vulture. How he hopped up there and why he was sitting on it were both a mystery. He looked strange doing it in his nice suit, and he gave her the impression of little devil playing at being human—but a harmless one.

Bobo urged her to go into the apartment to tell people where to take things.

The apartment was on the top floor. It wasn’t a very tall building. But it did have roof access via the fire escape, and inside was a loft space, so it felt like a bigger place.

“My gosh… how much money was this place?” Audry asked, roaming around the open floor. The floor was wood paneling, and the furniture, thankfully was all textile. She could tell Rick had a huge say over what actually went into the apartment, as all things were set up for an eco-friendly inhabitant. She would have taken such lengths as mockery of her lifestyle, but she now understood he had done it because he had respected her choices in life. He wanted her to be happy.  

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth,” Daniel said, peering up at the ceiling.

She glanced to him. “But I feel like I now owe him—”

“He owes you,” Daniel said, his eyes still raking over the light fixtures as if asking how they were going to change the light bulbs if one blew.

“And how is that possible?” Audry said, eying him.

Lowering his gaze, Daniel shrugged. “I’m just interpreting.”

She rolled her eyes and walked into the rest of the apartment, exploring it. Her bed was being taken up to the loft. Silvia’s was being set up in the lower side room. Both were decent rooms, but Audry had the feeling she had gotten the better room. She wondered if she ought to talk with Silvia about that, as it really did not seem fair.

“Do you like it?” Silvia asked, walking into that room.

Audry turned around. She could see Silvia had managed to wash her face and bush her hair, but she was still the same clothes as the day before. “It’s a bit much for just the two of us,” Audry said.

Chuckling painfully, Silvia nodded. Looking around, she murmured, “It would have been a great apartment for parties. Too bad this space is really only for just us.”

As soon as the movers had set down their last box, leaving them for Audry and Silvia to unpack, Daniel came in and joined them in their work.

“Were you followed in anyway?” Daniel asked as he lifted all the wrapped plates from the box onto the kitchen counter for them to put into the cupboards.

Silvia shook her head. “No. They took the bait and followed the things I had tagged. When they find out I set decoys, though, they are going to go ballistic.”

“So we need to do this fast,” Daniel said, rising from his box. He stopped handing them dishes, though there were plenty left in the cardboard carton.

Nodding, Silvia peeked to Audry. “OK. I need you to suspend some disbelief and—”

“I get it,” Audry said, nodding with hands raised. “I am to stand as a shield for you.”

Silvia shook her head, wrapping her arms around Audry in a hug. “No. Though I am very glad you would be willing to do that for me. I am asking you to sit still and let me do my work. Clear your head of doubt and focus on the purist thing you believe in, be it God or a person you trust with