Temporary Fix | 18+

21

My limbs felt heavy as I stretched myself across black silk sheets. There was no question where I was as the man's scent seemed to be etched into every crevice of his home. It was quite comforting.

My eyes opened to take in the room. Outside held a dark orange hue, telling me the sun was going down and I'd slept all day. My cheek was still stinging, a reminder that what happened was in fact reality and not a dream, but thankfully the bruise wasn't major because of Niccolò insisting I see a doctor. He refused to listen when I said I could handle it. My mother was a doctor after all and she hoped I'd one day follow in her steps.

I still didn't want to think about it. It was the men were hired, but by who? I had no known enemies and I certainly didn't have anything belonging to someone else. It was just weird; the entire situation.

Scratching at the door grabbed my attention and brought a a smile to my face. Zuko no doubt. His soft whine finally had me rising from the bed to let him in. The door was barely cracked before he bore his weight through and jumped on me.

He followed me to the bed but stopped once I climbed in and I frowned. "Come on, boy." I patted the space beside me but he stayed in his spot. He looked back out into the hall and I smiled knowing he was just scared of Niccolò.

"It's okay babe. Come, up!" His poor tail was about to fall off from all the wagging but still, he didn't move. "Um," I thought about the small selection of Italian vocabulary I knew, "saltare Zuko."

Saying jump did the trick and I grinned as he plopped himself across my lap. "Good boy." He pushed his snout into my hand as I rubbed his head. Zuko and I laid for a while but I couldn't stop my eyes from scanning the door every five seconds. "Where's your dad Zuko?"

His eyes scanned over me for a second before he went back to tucking his head into his body. Unsatisfied with his answer, surprise, surprise, I rose from the bed once again, this time to go looking for Niccolò.

Before I did, I found his bathroom pleased to see the new toothbrush and oddly, quite a few of my hair products. I ignored the products, instead brushing my teeth carefully since my cheek was still hurting slightly.

My reflection was not the prettiest sight. Somewhere in the mix of everything my bonnet had disappeared and my curly hair was a mess. I grimaced knowing I had a long day of detangling in my near future. Maybe I could just call Lorie.

I splashed some water on my face to try and rid myself of tiredness before I continued my journey to find Niccolò. When I walked into the living room I didn't expect to see boxes sitting all over.

Curiosity got the best of me and I opened the first box and the contents had my eyes widening. More of my stuff. My clothes. That led me to more boxes, which revealed more clothes and my confusion grew.

It was more reason for me to find the man, only it seemed he was nowhere to be found. It didn't help that I had no idea where my phone was and so I had no way of communicating with him. I heard shuffling and moved hesitantly to the sound even though I tried to convince myself that I was safe.

Relief flooded me at the sight of Valeria. "Oh, hey Val."

Her eyes found me at the sound of my voice and a smile broke out across her perfect features. "Quinn! Hey," she struggled through the door which proved a bit of a challenge when the one-hundred-pound rottweiler came into the mix. "Zuko, figlio di puttana! Back the hell up!" [Son of a bitch!]

Zuko paid no attention to her words and I rushed over to haul him away and grab the bags barely hanging off her fingers. Once she set the box down near the rest, she heaved a breath pushing strands of her hair away from her face.