Page 24 of The Teddy Bear's Prize

“I wouldn’t speak so freely of the fae folk, even demons know not to mess with them.”

“Gotcha. Demons are afraid of fairies.” There’s a teasing lilt to her voice that makes me want to pin her against the counter.

I glare at her, “Demons respect the fae.”

Mia smirks and leans back against the counter, takinganother drink of her coffee. Her eyes catch on something behind me and she curses under her breath.

“I have to go log on,” she reaches out and touches my shoulder. “I’m going to be kind of busy today, but you’re free to watch whatever movies or read anything I have. Okay?”

“Alright.”

I follow Mia into the living room, watching her walk down the hall and disappearing into her office.

Without her by my side, every moment lurches forward, one after the other. I spend so much of my time bound to the rules of dreams that I wasn’t prepared for how slow and deliberate a mortal life could be. I like it.

How could I possibly leave her?

Mia’s living room is filled with her favorite books and movies. There are so many options ahead of me, I don’t know where to start. I just know that I want to learn more about how she sees the world. I want to know her hopes and dreams that I might fashion my own.

She spoke of getting a cat. I wonder where I could buy one.

I walk around the room, my attention flitting across the items on her shelf, when I notice the white mask hanging on the far end of the wall next to a large movie poster. I carefully take it down.

It’s solid, heavy, and seems to be made of wood. Along with the two large eyes, here are other holes cut out along the edge and across the jaw and brow.

There is no way for me to repay Mia for setting me free, but maybe I can start by making a few of her dreams come true.

THIRTEEN

Mia

Over the nextfew days we settle into a rhythm, Tobias is with me in the kitchen when I make breakfast before work, then he fills his day with movies and television shows. I take my lunch break to catch up and we spend the evening together watching movies as I introduce him to a new food.

As it turns out, he has strong opinions on olives as a pizza topping, but not on his sub. He isn’t a fan of Nightmare on Elm Street, which is to be expected since he has experienced dream walking. He prefers Jason and Ghostface, which makes me feel a little proud.

I have also done my best not to ask him to sleep next to me each night. Mostly because I know how much it’s going to hurt when he’s gone, but I have also failed. Every. Single. Time. I fall asleep beside him and wake up on his chest or warm in his arms.

Sometimes he wakes me with a kiss to my forehead before my alarm goes off. Sometimes that kiss turnsinto something more and ends with him grinding against me while I’m wrapped up in his shadows.

The feature roll-out went off without a hitch, but opened up more opportunities for us to add various calls to action to the site, so that is my current task. Taking what the UX/UI department has sent us and breaking it into usable elements with my team.

I’m putting the finishing touches on the code to add a particular item to favorites so the user will get an alert when it’s on sale or back in stock.

I finally peel my attention away long enough to glance at the time.

Great. It’s nearly seven. I just lost two hours of my Friday night. I was going to order Greek food and to think about it, Tobias usually pops his head in to check on me if I work late.

After saving and closing out of all my apps, I hover the cursor over my personal email. I hold my breath as I open the site.

I scroll over the newsletters and sales, searching for something from the library, but there’s nothing. The book hasn’t been returned yet, so that means I get at least one more day with Tobias without guilt.

I take out my earbuds to hear rain hissing against the metal roof. There’s only darkness beyond the sheer white curtains and the distant rumble of thunder. I look closer, jumping as lightning arcs across the sky and a large shadow crosses in front of the window.

“Tobias?!”

The rest of the house is dark, the only light coming from the cracks of lightning and silent beneath the storm. All I can hear is my footfalls soon on the carpet as I pad out towards the living room.

Usually, I’d find Tobias loungingon the couch watching something on tv or with my tablet clutched in his gray hand, though lately for some reason he’s been more interested in befriending the stray cats in the neighborhood. They want nothing to do with him without food involved.

---