Waking up in the morning you look over to see the spot next to you empty. You stretch and sit up because this is nothing new. Sam always likes to take his runs early in the morning. You laugh to yourself a little because you remember the days when he tried to get you to take an early morning run with him. How “disappointed” he was with every try but you’d just roll over and fall back asleep.
Your feet hit the ground and you begin your day. Moving around your place your routine is well on its way. You had the day off from work so you got to catch up on things. Actually getting to read emails and replying to friends and family with more care than a usual work day is allotted. You water the plants and fix yourself a delicious breakfast. Just as you take a bite the door swings open. A very sweaty and panting Sam comes in.
“Good run?”
He turns to you and removes the other ear bud, “wasn’t bad, just lonely.”
You point your food at him, “don’t give me that, you know I’m not a morning runner.”
“Maybe if someone was chasing you…”
You stare at that look he’s giving you, “you aren’t a threat so why would I run from you?”
He takes a couple steps closer, “how do you know I’m not a threat?”
You take another bite, “because I know you Sam. You wouldn’t be a threat to me.”
“You bet?” With one move he grabs the plate with the last bite on it and takes off.
“Not today!” You jump up and give chase.
He runs around the living room and you jump over the couch and spring up from the cushions to jump on his back. Knocking the plate from his hand you don’t see any food on it, “is it in your mouth” you accusingly yell at him. He can’t talk back because his mouth is full. You make your move when he gets close enough to the wall. You kick off from it and unbalance him, knocking him to the ground. He tries to crawl away but you are all over him. “Don’t choke,” you keep whispering to yourself as you turn him over. He smiles big and opens his mouth.
“Was it good?”
Those child like eyes look up at you and nods in approval.
“Come on,” you hit his arm playfully, “help me clean up.”
He reaches out and runs his fingers through your hair and around your ear. You look at him and there is a flash of when you first saw him. Nothing much has changed, just slightly longer hair but he’s still the same smart man. He pulls you down to his lips and just as you begin to close your eyes he smears the last bit of food on your face. You sit up in horror and all he is doing is laughing.
“Now… you die,” you pull out an old wrestling move and just as you are to land on him he moves. You hit the floor then spring back up after him.
Later that night you were at the store getting some food for dinner and lunches for work for the next few days. Once satisfied with your choices you pay and make your way home. Once you put stuff away and warm up the oven for dinner it hits you to run a quick load of work clothes. So grabbing up the dirty clothes you toss them in the washer and hit the button after putting the soap in. Then back to the kitchen to throw dinner in the oven.
Once its out you look at the clock, “he should be home by now.” Then the drier goes off so you get the clothes out and put them away. As you do you notice a little speck of glitter in a couple of spots. “I haven’t used glitter since I was in middle school,” you thought to yourself. Dusting them off you put them away and that’s when you hear the door open.
“Whatever it is it smells delicious,”
You smile and come into the room, “and you don’t have to chase me for any.”
He gives you a little wink then moves into the kitchen. You dish up a piece of lasagna and slide it over for him. He sits at the table and you join shortly. “Hey do we have any red?” You look before going back to the table.
“Sorry, we are out. It wasn’t on my list for the store so I didn’t pick any up.”
He stands up, “I’ll go get a bottle real quick.”
“No babe you don’t have to.”
But he is already out the door by the time you finish. “Guess he wanted a bottle bad. Must have been a bad day at the office.”
You sit down and wait for him. His phone goes off at the table and you wouldn’t look at it but it went off again shortly after. You glanced at the screen while it was on and it was a notice from the bank. You tapped on it and the notification said the newest deposit has been made. After unlocking his phone, easiest pin ever, you open the app to see the account but no new deposit. So backing out it says, “account 2.” Clicking on that your jaw drops as the balance is a little over twelve thousand dollars.
The door opens and you back out and place his phone back on the table. He smiles when he sees you waiting for him. He sets the bottle on the table, “I’ll get the opener.” You look back at his phone then him, “hey Sam?”
“Yeah,” he finds the opener and looks at you.
“What kind did you get?”
He says something that sounded fancy but he hasn’t been wrong about wine choices before so you let him continue pouring. He handed you the glass and sat down at the table with you. Clinking glasses you ate dinner and didn’t bring up what you saw. Not the right time.
A few days passed and you had forgotten to bring it up but you began to think maybe he was saving for a surprise. He’d been hinting at a getaway or something. Your mind went into all kinds of scenarios. Then one night you noticed a different smell on his pillow and a couple specks of glitter. Your mind went into overdrive now. He’d been coming home later. He comes in and goes right for a shower. He always wakes up before you get up and it takes him longer to answer your messages.
Before you go accusing him you call on your best friend to help. You describe whats been happening down to finding the glitter even on his pillow. She takes all the information in and takes a minute before saying anything.
“Please Sarah, I’ve been over the worst scenarios in my head. Just say what you are thinking because I’ve been there first. I just need your opinion.”
She takes a deep sigh before answering, “there is nothing I can say that will make anything better. You’d just better talk to him because I can tell its eating at you. Just do me a favor and talk to him. This is Sam.”
“I know its Sam but that is the reason it has me worried. He always comes to me for things and we can talk anything out. But he hasn’t been lately and that’s what worries me.”
“He’ll come to you when he feels he can’t handle it by himself anymore, you know that right?”
“I do. But he can come to me sooner. Has he said anything to you?”
“Please talk to him.”
You both get caught up with other things but at the end of the conversation she keeps denying anything. Talk to him was the only thing she kept saying. This made me think she knew something but swore to him she wouldn’t say anything. Not a huge relief when you hung up the phone but at least you got more information.
When he came home late that night you decided to do something about it. You thought about it all night so you devised a plan. So when he woke up that morning and got out your plan was in place. You jumped up and got ready. Looking out the window you couldn’t see much but you could see him leave. So you grabbed your phone and threw some things in your pocket. Putting on a hat you ventured outside. Noticing he wasn’t wearing any running gear you kept following him.
He went into a couple places in the alley and one storefront but was quickly turned away. When he’d glace back and look around you disappeared so he wouldn’t see you were following him. “What are you up to Sam?” He went down another alleyway and knocked on a door. You hid to the side of a dumpster but they were far away so you couldn’t hear words but you could see a little body language. The other guy kept pointing to Sam and nodding then gave him a thumbs up.
Sam turned around and you felt a cold draft as the man kept staring at him. You left the alley when it was safe but doing so lost your tracking on him. You spent some time looking for him but he was gone. The only thing you could do was go back to the door and look for clues. The thing on the door was a no trespassing sign but you knocked anyway.
“Password,” the man behind the door said.
“Oh, uh. There was a man here earlier-“
He cut you off, “show starts in an hour. Come back then.”
You stood there for a few moments in baffled silence. “What show,” you kept thinking to yourself. Walking away you were trying to make sense of what was happening. Pulling out your phone you stared at Sarah’s number for a while but you could already hear her. “Did you ask him? What did he say? Oh you didn’t talk to him? You are out there following him?” Putting your phone away you decide to try and retrace his steps for an hour. You finally caught him leaving a gym. This time he was carrying a small duffel bag with him.
“That’s new,” you said while you straightened your hat out and followed. Since it was almost time he went back to that door he knocked on earlier. You watched as he went into the building. Looking at the time you had five minutes till the hour. So you made your way to the door. Knocking you were greeted by the same voice but this time the little slot in the door slid open.
“I’m here for-“
“The show? Come on in, stay to the right and find a table. Your waitress will be with you shortly.”
You walk through the door and stay to the right like he said to. You sat at a table out of the middle and not up front but you could still see the stage. After a minute the waitress came over.
“Your first time?”
You looked up at her, “how could you tell?”
“You have that curious look about you. What will you have?”
You think about ordering just a water but might need something a little stronger, “a whiskey sour please.”
“Coming right up!”
You scan the room and try to prepare for whats about to happen. You look at other women as they enter, some with the biggest smiles on their faces.
“Here you go,” she sets the glass in front of you on top of a coaster.
“What is this place?”
The waitress just gives you a big smile. “It’s a place to forget your troubles.” She walks away while you think over the encrypted thing she just said.
A few more minutes and the lights begin to dim, “ladies are you ready to be entertained?”
Cheering from the room fills the air while spotlights dart across the stage.
“Well get ready and try not to drool all over our floors and cause a slipping hazard. Back once again lets give it up for Lucifer!!!”
You nearly spit out some whiskey as you see Sam take the stage. No shirt, very revealing shorts and is that? Yep, glitter. The mystery of where the glitter was coming from was solved but not the why. Watching your man command the stage as he moved in ways you didn’t know possible. Or at least couldn’t see from your vantage. He was moving his hips and glanced in your direction. With that whiskey in front of you all you could think about was how thirsty you were.
At the end of this eye-opening performance, you both locked eyes. He didn’t look at you in horror for discovering his secret but in relief. After he took a bow on stage and disappeared in the back the waitress handed you a note. “Meet me outside.” You didn’t need to see who wrote it because you knew you were getting answers. Paying for your drink you go outside to see him waiting for you.
“So Lucifer huh?”
He lets out a half laugh, “thought it would be better for tips.”
You crossed your arms, “why?”
He got down on one knee and pulled his hands out of his hoodie.
“So I could do this.”
THE END