Shadow

Two more months.She sank into the old leather couch.  Soothing piano notes floated from her little speaker onto the stale air’s unclaimed molecules, lifting the dim house’s oppression.  Turning, she brushed back the flimsy curtains to let the light in, only to notice goopy bodies of dried paint around the window.  Tiny holes in the walls glared like beady black eyes.  She looked down at the floor she’d installed while pregnant and the gaps at the bottom of the walls where preterm labor prevented her from laying quarter round.  Leaves curled up dead there, blown in from the open space under the front door.  My daughter plays here.Defeat sat heavy on her shoulders.The single pane windows Ankara escort shook as the train up the road screamed by, warring and winning against her little speaker.  She lived in an imploding bomb.  There wasn’t enough in her savings account to get out.  Not yet.But so close.Taking a deep breath, she looked at the clock.  11am.  One more hour until she’d have to pick up her daughter at daycare.  Four more until her boyfriend Tevon came home from work to scream at her again, tell her she was a lazy bitch with no discipline… or maybe he’d switch up the verbal abuse this time from the morning’s tirade.Keep it together.  “Okay,” she whispered. Dishes Ankara escort bayan and laundry were almost done.  Dinner done, meals packed for work tomorrow and her daughter’s lunch and dinner.  She’d exercised and showered.  Check, check, check.Windows rattled again.  A car driving by.Sighing, she closed her eyes.  “I really need to caulk those.”Maybe when Olivia was napping later.  What now?Everything felt empty.  Like a cardboard set for a play.  Odd that this life didn’t tear her up.  With her mood history, it would make sense.  It was simply disappointing, she realized.  Why?  Focusing on the future for her daughter, no matter what she Escort Ankara had to endure, absolutely.  But…Him.Tense muscles softening, she felt herself smile.  Warmth infected her as she remembered a gentle love, stronger than anything she’d thought possible.  It had always lingered, protecting her from succumbing to her boyfriend’s near-constant verbal abuse and negativity.  When she exhaled, she smiled at the memory of Him in her apartment, the day they opened her kink drawer. She giggled and immediately stopped, the light, musical sound jarring in the empty house.  Then suddenly became very aware of how long it’d been since she last orgasmed. I have less than an hour… Enough time for a quickie.Her flip flops thunked her heels as she walked into the bedroom and into the closet.  She smiled down at the black trunk she’d owned for decades, then kneeled on the forest green carpet before it.  Thumbed open the latches, lifted the lid, and pulled out the pink and white box.