Page 40 of Solanum

"Night." I slid from the bed and gave Marley's hip a pat. "Night, good girl. Thanks for the fun."

"I love your new room." She smiled at me from her place on Samirah's shoulder. "Can we play again?"

"You know it." I winked at her, then closed the door before heading off down the hall.

My chaotic insides settled knowing Samirah hung around that night. I ditched my clothes and climbed into bed with the ache of emptiness in my gut. While I enjoyed myself and the welcome distraction, the coldness returned to me within no time.

I found my phone with three missed calls, forty emails, and half a dozen texts when I finally settled down to look at it. The emails belonged to work, as always, and most of the texts. The missed calls, however, were from Nora.

My brow furrowed and I glanced at the time. Despite the late hour, one of her calls was from only half an hour ago, and so I returned her call via text as to not wake her.

You okay? I asked. Saw your missed calls.

When she didn't answer right away, I assumed she was asleep. I turned off the light and rolled over while thumbing through news articles, particularly the coverage on the decapitated bodies we kept finding. Nothing new stood out, only continued reports on what we already knew.

I'm okay, Nora's text arrived when I made it to the third article.

Why are you up so late?

I was asleep, but woke up anxious.

Sorry. Anything I can do?

Can I call you?

Sure.

My phone rang a few seconds later, but not the regular sound of my ringtone. The video request came up and I accepted it after fixing the blanket around myself.

"Hey," I said when Nora's sleepy face appeared on the screen.

My stomach sank at the sight of her, curled up on her side in bed. She smiled and the twinkle returned to her eyes.

"Hi," she said, her voice soft. "Are you naked?"

"Yeah. It's the middle of the night."

"I wanted to tell you that I know what I want for my birthday…" She bit her lip, her cheeks flushing immediately before she even finished her sentence.

"Let me guess." I pretended to think about it for a moment then said, "A limited edition Matchbox car set with the looping ramp. Am I right?"

"No." She huffed and puffed as if I offended her very existence. "Caroline."

I laughed at her, my belly jumping all around with the intensity of it. "The look on your face right now."

"You're so mean," she whined, her bottom lip poking out in a pout.

"I love pissing you off so much." I grinned while watching her mini tantrum.

"I'm hanging up on you."

"Fine. You're the one who wanted to talk."

Her eyes narrowed when she lifted her index finger, but the call never ended.

"Can't do it, can you?"

"No." She continued to frown at me, rolling on to her back and holding the phone above her face. "That's not what I want."

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