Chapter Four
Sookie's POV
"Sookie."
"Hmm?"
"Wake up."
My eyes pop open immediately and I find myself staring into a set of gorgeous baby blues. Oh shit, Eric!
"I'm so sorry," I say, sitting suddenly. "I can't believe I fell asleep!"
"No problem," he says, giving me a smile. "But you really should have locked the door. Why don't you take a few minutes to wake up while I get the food ready?" He stands from where he was crouched at the side of the couch. His warm hand slides off my thigh. I hadn't even realized it was there. I look after him dumbly has he walks to the kitchen carrying two paper bags. I can't believe I feel asleep! I'd sat down for just a minute and promised myself I wouldn't nap. Looking out the window into the near darkness I can see that I did indeed nap. Whether I like it or not, I've just slept away at least four hours.
I scramble from my place on the couch and rush to the bathroom. There was so much I was hoping to do before Eric came over! Now I won't even get a chance to change out of my cleaning and moving clothes. I pull the hair tie from my hair and run a brush through it. Despite the brush, my hair is majorly creased from being up all day. Well crap. I don't have time to do anything with it, so rather than leaving it down I pull it up into a messy bun. Not the best but it'll have to do. Anyway, I'm pretty sure messy is in now. After splashing some water on my face and swishing a bit of mouthwash, I leave the solitude of the bathroom and go out to face Eric. I find him in the kitchen taking small white boxes out of one of the bags. One breath tells me that he's brought me Chinese. My stomach grumbles hungrily.
"Thanks so much for brining dinner over, everything smells wonderful," I say, working on digging some plates and flatware out of a box. "Sorry things are still a mess. I hoped to get everything unpacked before you came over but it didn't really work out that way."
"Don't worry about it," he says with a laugh, "I have seen much worse. I trust you rested well?"
"I did. I guess moving takes more energy than I thought it would. I really had no plans to take a nap." I finally liberate the plates from the box and turn to Eric with a smile. "Plates, as promised. Now where do you want to eat? I'm afraid I didn't have time to clear the table."
"Let's go outside, it's a nice night. We can use my deck."
I follow Eric to my back door with the plates in my hand. He slides the door open and steps onto the deck. I step out after him and relish in the feeling of the night air. It's almost completely dark now but the light from the apartment casts just the right amount of light across the decks. Before I can close the door behind me, his long legs are straddling the railing. "Come on. I'll help you over."
I figure it would probably be easier to walk around through his apartment but keep those thoughts to myself. I set the plates on the chair and walk over to the railing. I place my hands on Eric's shoulders and feel a shiver run through me as he slides his hands down my sides before settling them at my waist. "Jump," he says. My body reacts before my mind thinks it through and next thing I know, I jump. With Eric's help my bottom lands squarely on the railing with my legs on my side of the deck. I swing one leg over so I'm straddling the railing and take a moment to relish the feeling of Eric's chest against my back. A short moment later I lift my other leg over and drop down onto Eric's deck.
"Go ahead and have a seat," he says, "I'll be right back." I settle into the closest chair as I watch him grab the plates and walk through my sliding door. The door clicks shut behind him and a chill washes through me. Even though I'm less than ten steps from two apartments I feel isolated and vulnerable out here alone. A noise in the woods attracts my attention and I turn my gaze that way. My eyes light upon something at the tree line but I can't tell quite what it is in the darkening light. I focus on it with all of my might, straining to see movement or anything that could identify the object. I can tell it's bigger than a raccoon but can't discern a specific shape. A wave of uneasiness crashes over me and I feel my skin crawl. I feel like someone is watching me.
A noise on the deck behind me startles me and I spin in my chair. I'm surprised to see Eric walking out his door with the food and plates in his hands. The tension breaks instantly. I turn back to the spot in the woods, but can't see anything in the darkness. I breathe out uneasily, trying to calm my nerves. I'm willing to chock this one up to my imagination but can't seem to stop my heart from racing.
"You took the easy way over," I comment with a laugh, trying to make conversation as much as lighten the mood. The laugh sounds forced and nervous to my ears.
"I don't think so. You had the advantage. All you had to worry about was you. I was the one who had to bring the food."
I watch as he gently places the plates on the table, followed by the bags of food and a couple of wine glasses. He takes a bottle of red wine from the first bag before emptying the second of it's boxes. He pours our wine and surprises me by pulling a couple of tea light candles from his back pocket. He situates them well away from the boxes before lighting them. I smile as he settles into the chair next to me. "This is nice," I say. "I'll bet you do this for all your neighbors."
"Not likely," he says with a laugh, reaching over to pop open the boxes.
I rise from my chair to see what he's brought and am shocked to discover pretty much anything I could want. "Looks like you bought out the place," I say, not hesitating to reach out of for the closest box.
"Not quite. But I did order the left half of the menu."
It takes me a minute and a look into his eyes to realize he's joking, and I laugh while I fill my plate. Settling back in my chair, I place a napkin in my lap and pass over the fork for chopsticks. Nothing says Chinese like trying to pick up slippery noodles and tiny rice pieces with two wooden sticks. After a moment of concentrated effort, I manage to get some lo mien into my mouth and moan out my satisfaction. I haven't eaten since my toast at breakfast, and I have a feeling that anything would taste heavenly now. After a few more bites I realize that I'm the only one eating and glance over at Eric. He's sitting back in his chair easily, long legs stretched out in front of him. His hands are folded together with his tented forefingers resting on his lips. With his handsome looks and a gentle breeze to ruffle his hair, he could be a model. All except that slightly constipated look on his face. The laughter bubbles up before I can stop it.
"You'd better get at it, I can't eat all this by myself," I say, gesturing toward the boxes with my chopsticks.
"I know," he says, looking at me intensely. "You're very beautiful in the candlelight."
I nearly inhale a noodle at the suddenness of his comment and grab for my wine. After a long sip I smile over at him. "Thank you," I say, "That's so sweet."
He looks at me for a moment more before giving himself a small shake and leaning forward to grab an egg roll. Taking a big bite he says, "There. I'm eating. Are you happy?"
I nod a bit as I laugh. "Very much, thank you. So Eric, why don't you tell me about yourself?"
"Sure," he says, grabbing his plate and piling it with food. "There's really not much to tell. I live here, of course. I like Chinese food. I'm pretty tall, as you can see, and women generally tell me I'm attractive." He grins and wiggles his eye brows at me while I roll my eyes in his direction. He picks up his own set of chopsticks and starts in on his food. I can't help but notice he's much more adept at using his than I am at using mine.
"That's not what I meant! What do you do, where are you from, what are your hobbies, that kind of thing."
"Oh. Well I own a bar downtown, Glasir. That's where I've been spending most of my time these days."
"Glasir. Is that new? I don't think I've heard of it."
"I guess you could say it's new. We've only been open for three months but things are going well. Business has been good so far."
"Is there any chance you're hiring?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I've worked as a waitress at Merlotte's in Bon Temps for the last few years. My boss is a good friend of mine, and he's letting me stay on there till I find work here in Shreveport. Since I'm starting at LSU next week and Merlotte's is a long drive, I'm not going to have much time during the week to work. Sam's letting me do double shifts on weekends and every other Friday, which is really nice of him, but double shifts are the worst so I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up that schedule for long. I'm really trying to find something in the area that I can do more regularly during the week but so far I haven't been having much luck."
He looks at me for a long moment, his eyes searching my face as if he's looking for something specific. "No, we're not hiring. Tell me more about this Bon Temps. This is the reason I was able to access your apartment so easily this evening?"
I hide my disappointed look quickly. "Well yeah, it's a small town. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and everyone is in everyone's business. We don't really need to worry about locking our doors there. I've lived there pretty much my whole life and still have a house there. I'm planning on renting it out as soon as I clean it up and find someone wanting to live there. I should just sell it and be done with it, but I can't. It was my gran's house. She passed away four months ago."
"Tell me about your gran."
I push my plate away from me, suddenly not so hungry. I haven't talked about Gran much since the funeral but something about Eric feels safe and brooks no argument. My hand immediately rises to the necklace hiding under my t-shirt and I look out into the darkness toward the place that held my attention earlier.
"My parents died when I was a girl and Gran was the one who raised me. She use to say that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle and she really seemed to take that to heart. That had to be hard on her, taking in a little girl and her brother, when she was so old. But Gran did it all with a smile on her face, even though Jason could be a nightmare and I'm sure I wasn't an angel. Sometimes I would catch her watching us with a strange look on her face and got the feeling that maybe we were doing her as much good as she was doing us.
She used to love flowers and used to get outside every chance she got to dig in the dirt a little. When I was young and she was working, she would go out before the sun came up to tend to her gardens since she didn't have any other time to do it. I remember that I used to stand at the back door just as the sun was coming up and call out for her. She would stop what she was doing and come to me. She wouldn't even both to finish what she was doing or put away her tools, she would just come to the door. She would hug me to her chest and tell me not to be scared because Gran was there and wouldn't leave me. She smelled of dew and dirt and roses and that was the best smell in the world to me. It smelled organic and beautiful and made me feel safe. I never told her, but I was wasn't scared. I knew she was just right outside the door. I just wanted her to hug me so I could smell her before she washed away the dirt.
My gran was everything to me. She was my mother and my father and I would have done anything for her. When Jason grew up, he moved away, but I stayed with Gran. She took care of me when I couldn't care for myself and I wanted to do the same for her. She always denied whole-heartedly that she was getting old but I could see in on her. The number days when she would garden and come in smelling like roses got to be less and less . . . until finally she was gone."
I feel something hit my shirt and look down at the small wet spot. Now where did that come from? I blink my eyes at the spot in surprise only to shower myself with several more tears. I hear Eric push his chair back with a scrape and rise. Crap. Why did I have to talk about this now? Why couldn't I have just told him I didn't want to talk about it?
"I'm sorry," I mumble, wiping at my face roughly, "I didn't mean to do this. I'll go." I push back from the table and stand, only to find myself face to chest with Eric. His arms come up around me and he draws me to him.
"Shhh, it's okay" he croons, rubbing small circles on my back. I can feel myself losing control and breathe deeply in an attempt to reel in my emotions. Eric sits back in his chair, pulling me into his lap and caressing my back. Though he doesn't smell like roses and dirt, he smells masculine and safe. I bury my face in his chest and give up my fight against the tears. I cry in his arms until the candles go out and I've soaked his shirt through.
"Better now?" he asks when my sobs quiet, tilting my face to his with a finger under my chin. I nod sheepishly as I look into his eyes. I'm sure I look a mess and I know I've wrecked his shirt. He cups my cheek with his hand, giving me another one of those searching looks. Before I can apologize for ruining his shirt, he lowers his face and brushes his lips over mine so gently I could have imagined it. I don't have a chance to figure out whether or not I did before he lowers his face again, this time pressing his lips to mine with more force. He moves his hand to my neck and parts his lips, deepening the kiss. A shudder travels through my body as his tongue meets mine. As I try to figure out if it's from the night air or desire, something vibrates close to my butt. What the heck?
Eric breaks off the kiss with a bit of a growl. He shifts me on his lap as he reaches into his pocket to pull out the offending object. "Hello?" he barks into the phone harshly. I jump a bit at his tone and rise from his lap. The least I can do is give him a little privacy.
I busy myself with putting away the food while he talks softly in the background. I can't help but wonder where I would have let things go if not for that interruption. I have never felt so instantly attracted to a man in all my life. It's like there's something inside Eric calling out to something inside me and that pull is almost irresistible. Hearing him finish up, I turn back to face him as he stands.
"I've had a great time but I really have to go," he says briskly, all emotion gone from his voice. I blink at him blankly. "Something's come up at the bar that just can't wait. Why don't you hang onto the left-over food? You can have it for lunch tomorrow."
"Sure," I say, dumbfounded by his attitude change. I look at him for a moment longer before grabbing the bag with the remaining food and heading over to the rail separating our decks. I drop the bag over to my side and stand on the closest object, the plastic bench, to launch myself over. Landing on the other side, I turn back to Eric. "Guess I'll see you around?" I say. I hate that I can hear the question in my voice.
"See you," he responds a little harshly, turning to go inside. "And lock the door."
Well that was disappointing.
I watch him disappear through the door before walking into my own kitchen. I lock the door behind me, as ordered, and make a trip to the front door to lock that one as well. I make quick work of stashing the Chinese before going to hunt down the box containing the sheets. I may have had a lengthy nap earlier but I still feel exhausted. I hope I'm not getting sick. Now would be the worst possible time for the flu.
I locate the sheets and quickly put them on the bed, relishing the thought of sleeping on my soft, familiar mattress. I would have never believed I'd be so happy to get the opportunity to sleep in my own bed! I pull my hair out of it's bun and slide between the sheets. I click off the light and close my eyes before realizing it's been hours since I've seen my phone. With a sigh, I turn the light back on and climb out of the bed.
I pad through the house in bare feet for a couple minutes before locating my little black phone on the stove between two boxes. Not a great place for a phone but it's no more out of place than the boxes surrounding it. I head back to the bed and snuggle under the covers before hitting the button to check for missed calls. No one called, but it looks like Amelia texted.
"Hey grl, hows new plce? Shrvprt as g8 as u hoped?"
I delete the message automatically and pull up the contact list to return Amelia's text. Things look a bit different and I take a moment to really focus on the small list of names. It takes me a moment, but I finally realize that sandwiched between Dr. Ludwig and Halleigh Robinson is one additional name – Eric Northman. He must have programmed his information into my phone when I was in the bathroom.
"High-handed," I mumble, texting Amelia and clicking off the light to go to sleep.
