Free Vein Fire by Lucia Adams Page B

number.”
    “Hannah?”
    “Err…yes,” she hesitated.
    “Hannah! Hey! This is Jared—remember? We met yesterday at Matt’s house.”
    “Oh, hey.” The enthusiasm was completely absent from her voice. “How did you get my number?”
    “I stopped by Matt’s this morning and he said I should give you a call.”
    “He did?”
    “Yeah. I wanted to see if maybe I could come over and watch a movie like you suggested.”
    “Um…”
    “I mean, it’s Sunday and Matt said he’d be busy so maybe I should drop by and keep you occupied until he’s done with whatever he’s doing.”
    “He said that?”
    “Yeah, so, what do you think?”
    “I—I guess. I just got out of the shower, so I need some time.”
    “Cool. How about in an hour? I’ll walk over.”
    “You know where I live?”
    “Yeah—remember? You told me yesterday.”
    “I guess I forgot.”
    “Sure—well, I’ll be over in an hour.”
    “Okay.”
    “Later.”
    “Bye.” Hannah hung up after he did.
    She thought about calling Matt, but stopped herself. Maybe he realized he was wrong about Jared and would be coming over after awhile. She rushed to dry her hair and to get dressed.
    The knots in her hair wouldn’t rip out, so she cut them out. Her hair stopped at the middle of her back and losing a few strands wouldn’t make much of a difference. She wondered how her hair had knotted so badly. She felt well-rested and didn’t think she had tossed and turned much on the couch.
    Hannah needed to process the distance Matt kept from her as his way to give her time to get used to him. She couldn’t see him as the Matt from before, or before that. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore—well, at least no more than she was afraid of everyone else. She was sore and she knew he had fucked her two nights in a row. She hesitated to call it rape because she knew she wanted it—to be wanted, to be fucked. She pulled her calendar off of the wall and took out a red pen. She put a red x on the day before, and the day before that. Each x stood for each time Matt had fucked her. She only knew of twice, but put a small x on the line that separated the two days because she imagined he had fucked her more than once on at least one of the nights. She could give herself that—one extra x because it was more of a likely x than a hopeful x.
    A knock at the door startled her, and she dropped the calendar. She quickly hung it back up and ran down her steps. She opened her door and Jared stood holding a buff-colored puppy.
    “Oh! Look how cute! Come in. Is that your dog?”
    “No, silly rabbit, she’s your dog.”
    “What?”
    “Yeah, I hope you can keep her. My sister’s friend was giving them away and they couldn’t find a home for the runt, so they were going to kill her. I thought you might be able to take her.”
    “What? They were going to kill her?”
    “Yeah, just put her in a bag and toss her into the river.”
    Hannah stood, horrified, and took the dog from Jared. She held the dog to her face, inhaled its fur, pet it, and kissed it. “I’d love to keep her. You said it’s a girl?” She held the dog up and tried to look to see what sex it was.
    “Yeah, I’m sure it’s a girl. I was thinking of you and hoping you’d like her and be willing to save her.”
    “I love her! Thank you, that was so kind of you.”
    “You’re welcome. My sister was calling her Skye, but you can rename her.”
    “Skye? Aww, that’s so cute. It’s perfect. I adore her.”
    “So you can keep her?”
    “Yes! And I love her little pink collar. I’ll have to get a leash and some dog food today.” Hannah carried Skye into the kitchen, chose a bowl, and filled it with water. She set the bowl on the floor and placed Skye in front of it. “Oh, she’s thirsty. And look at her cute little tongue.”
    “So I did good?”
    “Yes! She’ll keep me company and you saved her.”
    “Can I get a hug then?”
    Hannah hesitated. “Sure!” She moved forward and hugged him,