Oct
It was late when Zephyr woke up the next morning. Her eyes were still swollen and somewhat painful, and she winced when she opened them. The sun was shining brightly, and birds were chirping merrily on a branch outside Tempest’s bedroom window.
Zephyr contemplated finding something to throw through the window to shut the birds up for a moment, but decided it would cost too much to replace the window. Instead, she pulled the pillow over head head and tried to go back to sleep.
Her efforts, however, were in vain. As she reached the point of drifting back to sleep, she could hear her twin walking down the hallway. From the one-sided sound of the conversation, Zephyr guessed he was on the phone. As she listened to the door opening and Tempest’s footsteps stopping next to the bed, she concentrated on pretending to be asleep.
“No, she’s definitely awake,” Tempest said. “She’s trying to fake it, though. Hey, Zee, get the pillow off your head. It’s Rick.”
Zephyr moved the pillow enough to glare at her twin, but made no move to take the phone. “Why did he call your phone if he wants to talk to me?”
“Wow, you look like hell.”
“Gee, thanks. I love you too, Tem. Now answer my question.” Zephyr was obviously not in a mood to tolerate being teased, even by Tempest.
“Because your phone’s still off, genius. Come on.” Tempest held the phone out to his sister.
Zephyr sighed and took the phone from him, muttering profanities as she put it to her ear. “What do you want?”
“To talk to you, obviously.” Rick sounded far too cheerful, and Zephyr had to resist the urge to hang up. She did, however, growl. Rick merely laughed. “OK, I’m also calling because the new editor asked me to call you.”
“The main office did end up replacing that lazy jackass, then?” The thought gave Zephyr that warm glow that only the feeling of being avenged could give.
“In a heartbeat,” Rick confirmed. “Anyway, the new editor asked me to call you, since I know you. She’d like you to come back, to the position you were promised when you started.”
Zephyr froze. “You’re serious?”
“I’m serious.”
“I…” Zephyr looked at her brother. “I’ll have to think about it. I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do anymore, Rick.”
“I hear you,” Rick said. “Think about it and give me a call later, alright?”
“Yeah, sure.” Zephyr hung up the phone and handed it back to Tempest.
“What are you thinking?” Tempest said as he down on the bed next to his sister.
“He told you?”
“Yeah,” Tempest said. “What would you like to do?”
“I hated sitting at a desk all day,” Zephyr admitted. “It wasn’t just the bad atmosphere in the office. It really wasn’t what I expected it to be.”
“It sounds to me like you already have your answer.”
“Maybe.” Zephyr turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. “Would I be stupid for throwing away an opportunity like that?”
“Not if it didn’t suit you to begin with,” Tempest gently reassured her. “You’ve got time to think about it.”
“Yeah. Speaking of time, what time is it, anyway?” Zephyr asked as she struggled to sit upright.
“About 10. I was going to ask if you wanted to go do something, but you really do look like hell. Do you want an icepack or a couple of teabags for your eyes?”
“I think I’ll be ok after I’m up for a bit,” Zephyr said as she pushed the blankets aside and stood up. She yawned, stretched luxuriously, then rubbed at her face. “What do you want to do?”
“Not sure,” Tempest said. “If you’re really up to going out in a few hours, maybe I should go out and get some work done for a while. I have breakfast in the fridge, why don’t you eat and then go through those cookbooks you left out?”
Zephyr nodded in agreement. “Alright. When you get back, we can go get my number changed if Leo hasn’t given up yet. What’s the weather like outside?”
“It’s actually kind of chilly out,” Tempest said. “Surprising, considering it’s summer.”
“How do you feel about going to the park later? Maybe we could ride the carousel.”
“Sure.” Tempest smiled and dropped a kiss on his sister’s cheek. “Go eat your breakfast. I’m going to head out for a while.”
“Yes sir,” Zephyr said, heading for her own bedroom to get the stack of cookbooks off of her bed. She held the books to her side with one arm, pausing at her desk to open the drawer and grab a notebook with her free hand.
Tempest had left by the time Zephyr managed to successfully maneuver the stack of books into the kitchen. She was a bit grateful for that; She felt bad subjecting her twin to the lousy mood she’d woken up in. Zephyr dropped the stack of books onto the kitchen table, sat down, and grabbed a book at random.
By the time Tempest got home, Zephyr had nearly the entire notebook filled with notes. She was oblivious as Tempest walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder.
“Boo.”
Zephyr shrieked and spun around, her forehead colliding with her twin’s nose.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Zephyr exclaimed as she leaped out of her chair. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, it’s not bleeding or anything. Besides, it’s my own fault for scaring you.” He opened the fridge and frowned. “You didn’t eat breakfast.”
“Sorry, I kind of forget,” Zephyr said as Tempest pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and held it against his nose. “Now that you mention it, though, I’m starving.”
Still holding the bottle to his face, Tempest pulled out the plate and handed it to his sister. “Here, go put it in the microwave. Mind if I look at your notes?”
“Go ahead,” Zephyr replied as she started the microwave. When it dinged, she sat at the table with her food and watched her twin’s face as he read the notebook in front of him.
Yeah, I know. This has been written for a while, but things have come up, including my family’s reigning queen (my grandmother) passing away. I still haven’t finished 4.5, but I’ve been understandably not up to it. (When she was alive, my grandmother would’ve smacked me with her cane for using her as an excuse to not write. Now I’m worried she’ll throw lightening bolts at me instead.)
I’ll do my best to finish 4.5 very soon, but I also have a lot of other projects that take priority over this little side story (including re-writing the god-awful were-creature romance I wrote a couple years ago, since I got a bolt of inspiration a few days ago that may make it suck less – if it sucks less, I’ll make it available as an ebook).