Author's note: Here it is, the last chapter! Thanks, all!
Wicked Game
What a wicked game you play
"Danny! Over here!"
Tucker stood by one of the tables in the restaurant. Danny headed over but hesitated when he saw Star sitting next to Tucker, her hands hanging onto his arm.
"Oh. Star. You're here," said Danny.
"Mmm hmm. Tucker invited me to join you," said Star. "That's okay, isn't it?"
Danny took a seat across from the two. "Yeah, it's… It's fine. I just wasn't expecting to see you."
Star pouted. "Do you not want me here?"
"No, it's not that!" Danny laughed. "I just never thought we'd be hanging out like this. Like ever."
Tucker patted Star's hand. "Star and I have really been having a good time. Parties, traveling, hotels with big hot tubs, all that jazz."
Star giggled. "Tucker really knows how to spoil a girl."
Danny nodded and smiled as Star snuggled in close to Tucker. He knew Star was just using Tucker for his money. He knew she would normally never give Tucker the time of day if he wasn't raking in over a hundred thousand dollars every year, an income that promised to only increase as his mobile app development continued to be profitable.
He knew Star had no genuine interest in Tucker as a person.
But he also knew Tucker was completely aware of that and didn't care as long as she went to bed with him each night.
And if Tucker was happy, then who was Danny to judge? Why would he want Tucker to be as lonely as he was?
The server came by to take their orders. Danny quickly glanced at the menu and opted for a sandwich with fries. Star ordered the most expensive item on the menu, and Tucker merely smiled in response.
"Anything to drink?" asked the server.
"Just water's fine for me," said Danny.
"I'll take a daiquiri," said Star.
"Isn't it a bit early for that?" asked Danny as the server walked away.
"I'm not driving." Star stroked Tucker's arm. "And not paying either."
Tucker laughed. "Star likes to start our fun early."
Danny said nothing more.
The server shortly returned with their drinks and took their meal orders. Star sipped her daiquiri and licked her lips. Danny hung one arm over the back of his chair while gulping down a quarter of his water.
"Thirsty, Danny?" said Star.
Danny took another gulp to avoid answering her.
"I'm guessing it's been a while since you've been with a woman, huh? You're probably really thirsty."
Danny coughed and set his glass on the table. He stared at her.
Star laughed. "I pick up on these things. You learn a lot about men's body language working at the club."
"Danny doesn't actually have any trouble picking up girls," said Tucker. "He just gets shy and chickens out."
"Tucker." Danny hardened his eyes.
"Maybe you'll meet someone at Sam's wedding." Star grabbed Danny's unused straw and placed it in her daiquiri, slurping it up. "Always lots of desperate single women at weddings, you know. Just pick one from the crowd trying to catch the bouquet."
"How do you know about Sam's wedding?" asked Danny.
"Tucker invited me to be his date," said Star. "I'm really curious what it'll be like. It's probably gonna be like a vampire or haunted house theme, huh?"
"That was high school," said Danny.
"Yeah, Sam's outgrown a lot of the goth stuff," said Tucker. "But her wedding colors are black and purple, so maybe not completely."
"I think I'm gonna wear my gold dress." Star twisted a long strand of her hair around a freshly manicured finger. "Shiny and sexy, you know?"
"So did you get work off to go to the wedding?" asked Danny. "Seems like Saturday night would be a big tip night for a stripper."
Star pressed her fingertips against the table. "I am not a stripper. I'm a dancer."
Danny held up his hand to appease her. "All right, all right, sorry. You're a dancer."
Star beamed. "Thank you."
"The best dancer there for sure," said Tucker, draping his arm over the back of her chair. "Those other girls got nothing on you."
"Aw, thanks, cutie," gushed Star.
Danny closed his eyes briefly so he could secretly roll them.
"But speaking of the other girls at the club…" Star smacked her lips and looked at Danny. "Pen asks about you a lot, you know."
Danny cocked a brow. "Pen? As in Penelope? Spectra?"
"Yeah, we all just call her Pen," said Star. "She's been wondering why we haven't seen you at the club since the last time you came. Tucker here comes all the time now."
Tucker laughed. "Well, I'm mostly just going to support you, babe."
"I see you ogling the other girls too."
"But there is no doubt you're the hottest one."
"Aw, you're gonna get something special for that tonight!"
Star tugged on Tucker's ears and brought his face closer to hers. Danny cleared his throat to bring their attention back to him.
"So you've seen Spectra there, Tuck?" Danny shot him a hard look he hoped would be understood.
"Oh. Yeah," said Tucker. "I almost didn't believe you when you said she was there last time."
"I know, right?" said Star. "She was our school counselor back at Casper. Amazing how good she looks for her age, huh?"
"She doesn't seem to be causing any trouble there," said Tucker.
"So she's not trying to make all the girls feel really shitty and insecure about themselves, Star?" said Danny, unable to take the bite out of his tone.
Star blinked, her eyes round. "What? Why would she do that?" Her posture deflated. "I mean, yeah, sometimes she likes to go into therapy mode. And sometimes after I talk to her, I feel like maybe I'm not as pretty or as good a dancer as the other girls. But that's part of what therapy is, I guess, just brutal honesty, making you see things as they are."
Danny crossed his arms and looked at Tucker. "No trouble, huh?"
Tucker shrugged. "Well, maybe a little trouble. I guess she's still trying to retain her youthful meat suit."
"Her what?" Star giggled and slurped more of her daiquiri. "You're so funny."
Danny didn't bother hiding his eye roll this time.
"But lately, she just asks me about you whenever she sees me," said Star, looking at Danny again.
"What about me?" asked Danny.
"I don't know, just like what you're up to, what I think of you, things like that." Star shrugged. "I have no idea why, but I get the sense she really digs you or something."
Danny looked off to the side, pouting slightly as his brow creased. Was his misery just that good to Spectra?
Or did she…? Maybe…?
Did she think about him as often he had been thinking about her lately? Did she hope to somehow end up on another accidental date with him, too?
"So what I should tell Pen the next time she asks me why you haven't been back?" asked Star.
Danny looked at Star, but he could not find the right words for a good answer.
"Well, for starters, Danny's moved," said Tucker. "He moved to be closer to his new job at Gardner Peak."
"Gardner Peak? You mean, like, the observatory?" asked Star. "You're still into space and shit, Danny?"
"Yeah. I am," said Danny curtly.
"And you got a job at the observatory? Are you like a janitor or something?"
Danny's nostrils flared. "No. I happen to have a degree in astrophysics."
"Really? You managed to do that even with all your sucky grades in high school?"
"Yeah, Star. I guess I did."
Tucker patted Star's hand. "Danny and I have both come a long way since high school."
"Mmm, but you're the one with money," purred Star.
The server came by with their meals and set the plates in front of them. "Let me know if you need anything else," she said before walking away.
The smell of fish from Star's salmon salad wafted into Danny's nose, and he was instantly reminded of the fish he and Spectra both ordered at The Red.
Was he just going to be reminded of Spectra every time he smelled fish now?
Star slipped a bite of salmon and lettuce into her mouth. "I guess I'll let Pen know you're doing okay as a hotshot astronomer now. But you should come by the club again someday!"
"Why? To give you girls more money?"
"Of course! We work hard, you know."
Danny shook his head and picked up his sandwich.
"But also because Pen really does want to see you again," said Star. "Seriously, she won't stop talking about you."
Danny hunched his shoulders and took a small bite of his sandwich. He decided not to answer and let the conversation die.
He really didn't want to think about Spectra anymore. Even though she had crossed his mind every day since their last encounter.
How could she do such a thing to him?
Maybe he really was just way too lonely.
After lunch, Danny declined an invite to continue hanging out with Tucker and Star and returned to his condo, the condo he lived in all alone because he now made enough to afford a place without roommates.
And that was definitely what he wanted, right? To be alone?
He switched on the TV and sank into his sofa. He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, it was dark outside.
His whole body felt heavy as he sat up and rubbed excess moisture out of his eyes. He glanced over at the blurry clock numbers above the oven in the kitchen. It was getting late. He wasn't sure if he should just go to bed or stay up and waste even more time. He didn't have to work the next day anyway. Not until Monday.
He slouched on the couch and stared at the TV, which was still on and blaring some late night talk show that was in no way funny.
Yeah. Maybe he just needed to go to bed.
Danny picked up the remote and switched off the TV. He stood, stretched, started heading for his room.
But then someone knocked on the front door.
Danny stared at it. He wasn't expecting anyone. And now it sounded so eerily quiet that he wondered if he just imagined he heard knocking.
Another knock. No way he imagined it this time.
But he hadn't invited anyone over, and no one had texted him to say they were dropping by.
Could it be…?
A fleeting suspicion. And maybe even a hope.
But no. It couldn't be her. She had no idea where he lived.
And he didn't want it to be her anyway. Why had his heart fluttered for a moment there? He didn't want to see her ever again. She'd probably just find some new way to steal his money.
Another knock. And also a voice.
"Danny? Aren't you going to open the door?"
Spectra's voice. It really was her!
Danny stared at the door. He definitely for sure shouldn't answer now.
"Danny, come on, I just wanna talk," said Spectra, her voice sultry, alluring. "I haven't seen you in so long. Why don't you come to the club like your friend does?"
Danny walked up to the door in a trance. He pressed his head against the wood and closed his eyes.
"Sweetie, you know I can just phase through, right?"
Danny's eyes widened.
"But of course I won't." Spectra laughed. "I just really want to see you. I brought a gift!"
Danny looked at the door knob.
"Danny, I know you're in there," said Spectra. "I can feel your misery. It's filling up all my senses so beautifully. You're lonely, I'm lonely. So how about we be lonely together tonight, hmm?"
Danny sighed and unlocked the door, opening it halfway. "What do you want?"
Spectra stood on his front step holding a bottle of wine. Her face lit up. "Danny dear! I knew you'd open up eventually."
Danny crossed his arms. "You didn't answer my question."
"I already told you, silly." She placed a hand on his upper arm. "I just wanted to see you."
Her touch made his skin tingle. He shuddered and shook her off. "I mean, what do you really want?"
"You are so obsessed with that question. Why can't you just believe that I like you?" She stepped past him inside. "Anyway, aren't you more curious about how I found where you live?"
Danny watched her walk by, catching a whiff of her perfume. "I'm used to ghosts figuring out where I live," he muttered.
"Star told me that you worked at the observatory here! So all I had to do was look through the employee directory. And there you were!" Spectra giggled. "I had no idea you were so smart. I remember you being a D student in high school."
Danny shut the front door. "I was a C student, actually."
"Oh, can you take this for me?"
Spectra took her purse off her shoulder and held it out to him. Danny narrowed his eyes but grabbed and hung it on one of the hooks near his door.
"And look what I brought!" Spectra brandished the bottle of wine. "It's the same Caymus Select from the restaurant! Remember?"
Danny stared at the familiar bottle, remembering all of the many times he poured it into his glass while sitting across from her.
"Where do you keep your wine glasses, dear?" Spectra entered his kitchen and started opening his cupboards. "You do have some, don't you?"
"No," said Danny, standing beside a counter as he watched her rummage through his kitchen.
"No?" Spectra pouted, then smiled again. "Well, I know what to get you for your birthday, then!"
"My...what?"
"These will do, I suppose." Spectra grabbed two ordinary glasses. "Shall we?"
She led the way into Danny's living room. Danny followed her, followed the scent of her sweet perfume. He recognized it from somewhere. It stirred hazy memories he couldn't piece together.
She set the glasses and wine on the coffee table and took a seat in the middle of one of the sofas, spreading her arms out on top of it. "Nice little condo you got here. But you know, I half expected to see a dog."
"Nope." Danny dropped onto the adjacent sofa and rested his elbows on his thighs. "It's just me."
"But a dog would help with the loneliness, you know." Spectra crossed her legs with flair, kicking one of her high-heeled feet in the air, pointing the toes at the ceiling.
Danny clasped his hands and hummed.
"Sit next to me?" Spectra patted the empty spot beside her.
Danny shook his head. "I'm fine here."
"Then maybe I'll sit next to you."
Before he could object, Spectra got up and plopped down beside him. Danny caught another strong whiff of her perfume and was reminded of her moves and legs as she danced in front of him.
Just the two of them, all alone in that room. Him and her and those legs and her top coming off.
"Well, then." Spectra knocked her knees together before crossing one leg over the other. "How about you pour us some wine?"
Danny stared at her foot a moment, the way her ankle hit against the strap of her high heel. Why was she even wearing heels right now?
"Did you come over here straight from the club or something?" he asked.
"Mmm." Spectra looked down at her tight dress and tall heels. "I'd normally be working until much later, but when I saw your friend there all alone—you know, the one dating Star—I looked for you too but couldn't find you. So I decided to call out the rest of my shift to come see you."
"But why? What did you want to see me for?"
"You are far too distrusting, sweetie." Spectra placed a hand on his thigh. "I just missed you. Really. That's it."
Her nails scratched at his jeans, traveling up a few inches and then down. He inhaled her perfume again and was reminded of the way her hands caressed his thighs at the club.
"Are you wearing the same perfume from that night in the club?" he murmured.
Spectra moved her hand off his thigh to smooth back a stray lock of his hair.
"Yes," she said close to his ear.
Danny breathed in her scent more deeply, barraged with images of her gliding around the stage pole and removing bits and pieces of her clothes in front of him when they were alone.
"Be a dear and pour the wine, won't you?" whispered Spectra.
Danny looked at the wine bottle on the coffee table, which seemed so far away now. He reached for it, his fingertips brushing the cold neck but not quite grasping it.
"Everything all right, Danny love?" asked Spectra.
Danny nodded and leaned forward, grabbing the bottle and twisting its cap open. He poured even amounts into each drinking glass and handed one to Spectra.
"I really wish I had known you didn't have wine glasses." Spectra swirled the wine in her cup before sticking her nose in and inhaling. "Smells a little different this way, doesn't it?"
Danny brought his glass to his lips and took a gulp without bothering to smell it. Spectra lightly smacked his arm.
"So boorish," Spectra scolded him. "Don't you know how to properly enjoy wine?"
Danny lay his head on the back of the couch, the taste of the wine lingering on his tongue.
"What's on your mind?" asked Spectra.
Danny continued looking up at the ceiling. "I was just a kid when we first met. You were my counselor. Well, until I learned what you really were."
"I liked you best of all the students at your school, you know."
"Why? Because I was the most miserable?"
Spectra smiled.
"That's why you're here now, isn't it?" Danny looked forward and sipped more wine. "You still like my misery."
"It's certainly a perk," said Spectra, bringing her legs up onto the couch beside her. "But it's not why I'm here." She placed her elbow on the back of the couch and rested her head in her hand. "Seeing you again in that club after all these years, it felt nostalgic. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Hmm. I just didn't expect to see you there." Danny drank again. "And I definitely didn't expect us to be sitting together on my couch in my own house."
"Well, after that lovely date we had, I knew I wanted to see you again."
"That wasn't a date."
"What was it if not a date, Danny dear?"
"A mistake."
"A mistake? You mean you accidentally invited me to dinner and then showed up at the exact time you asked me to meet you there?"
"Yeah. I guess that is what I'm saying."
Spectra blinked and frowned, looking genuinely confused. An expression Danny had never seen on her before. An expression that almost made her seem human.
"That note you found wasn't meant for you," said Danny. "It was meant for me. It was in my pocket and I accidentally gave it to you when I was giving you money for the…" He groaned quietly. "You know. The dance."
"Hmm. I see. So someone else wrote that note for you."
"No. I wrote it. As a reminder. I was supposed to meet my sister for dinner that night."
"Ah. Yes. Your sister, I remember her." Spectra sipped more wine. "Jazz, right? Very smart, very optimistic. Far too cheerful for my taste, but she was the one who brought you to me." She squeezed his shoulder. "I'll always be grateful to her for that."
Danny leaned away from her. "You tried to blow her up," he said curtly.
Spectra rolled her eyes. "Really, dear? You still hold that against me?"
"Yeah. I do."
"But that was nothing personal. She was just the one who was going to be giving the Spirit Week speech." Spectra shrugged. "But of course, I was a little excited knowing she was your sister. I knew it would make you even more miserable." She hummed dreamily. "So much misery to lap up."
She gulped the rest of her wine and held her glass out toward Danny. Danny glared at her before sighing and refilling her glass, pouring more in his own glass as well.
"I guess I was pretty miserable, wasn't I?" muttered Danny, swirling his wine a couple times before taking a sip.
"Oh, yes," said Spectra. "I could tell immediately you were full of such depression and gloom. It was extraordinary." She chuckled. "But it all made sense once I realized you were that half-human ghost boy everyone in the Ghost Zone was talking about."
Danny's finger tapped the outside of his glass a couple times. "Yeah. That was a really hard time in my life."
"Tell me all about it," said Spectra silkily.
"I was just a kid," said Danny. "I was fourteen. And I was getting beat up all the time not just by ghosts but a couple guys at school, too." He paused. "When I met you, I had only had my powers for a few months."
"Yeah, Bertrand and I could tell," said Spectra. "You weren't very good at using them yet."
"No. I really wasn't."
Spectra chuckled. Danny half smiled.
"I meant to tell my parents," he said quietly. "From the very beginning, I wanted to tell them. But… I was just so scared. So afraid of what they would say, what they would do. For starters, I wasn't supposed to play around in their lab, certainly not in their ghost portal. And then I knew that they were really into their research and were hoping to catch ghost specimens to—" He caught his breath. "You know. To experiment on. And I just didn't know what they would do to me when they found out I was a ghost."
"Mmm." Spectra draped her arm over his shoulder. "Do go on."
"But I knew I needed to tell them. But I just kept thinking later, later, not right now, knowing that the longer I waited, the angrier they would be. I knew they would be mad that I kept it secret for so long, that I didn't tell them right away. So I just kept...putting it off. And then suddenly a few months had passed and I still hadn't told them and I was just getting in more fights, more bad situations, more problems at school, falling asleep during class, not finishing my homework on time." He blew out a breathy scoff. "And then you came along and just made it all worse."
Spectra smirked. "Guilty as charged."
Danny took a large gulp of wine, pressing the glass rim close to his face to avoid looking at her.
"But I didn't do all that to you because I hated you." Spectra stroked his cheek. "I really liked you, actually."
Danny drank more wine.
"Most other ghosts really hate you, you know." Spectra laughed. "Well, of course you know that. But I never hated you. Still don't." She looked out across the room. "Even when you thwarted my plans, I couldn't hate you. You were just so very fun."
She lightly nudged him with her elbow.
"And just look how cute you grew up to be," she said with a giggle.
"Can't possibly be that cute since I'm still single," he said with a tone more bitter than he intended.
"Have you been hurt by other women in your life?" asked Spectra. "Not just that Paulina girl?"
"It's not that," said Danny. "Although I'm sure you'd love that, wouldn't you?"
Spectra smiled and shrugged.
"I've been on dates with other girls. But just like with Paulina, I start thinking about how I'm lying to them from the start. They think I'm human but I'm not." He looked down at his lap. "But I can't just tell them what I am before I know I can trust them. I don't know who will keep my secret or who might turn me over to the Guys in White or something. Or worse, maybe I'd scare them. Maybe they'd just think I'm a freak."
"You're certainly not normal," said Spectra.
"No." Danny clutched his glass tightly. "But just like with my parents, I wait too long to tell them. And by then I know they'll be angry I kept it from them, that I let them develop feelings for me based on a lie. I don't even know if I can—"
His throat closed up. He placed his fingers against his neck and massaged it.
"I don't know if I can have kids," said Danny softly. "With the way I am, I mean. I don't know and I don't want to...disappoint anyone."
He sank back against the sofa.
"I don't want to trick anyone into being with a monster," he whispered.
Spectra trailed her nails up his thigh. "Sounds to me like you need someone who already knows what you are."
Danny scoffed, laughed. "Yeah, right. The only girls who know are Jazz and Sam. One's my sister, the other's engaged." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the fridge where he had tacked Sam's wedding invitation. "I got the wedding invite and everything. It's official. She's really marrying some guy she met in college."
Spectra looked at the fridge. "How did that make you feel?" She looked at Danny again. "When you saw that invitation? How did it feel knowing your friend has found love while you're still single?"
"I don't know. How do you think it felt?"
"Tell me, please."
"I told you at the restaurant already. You already know how it made me feel. You just want more details."
Spectra smiled.
Danny sighed and finished off the wine in his glass. "I always thought Sam and I would get married one day. Like I don't know, I just kind of figured that we would somehow. I didn't really see myself with anyone else. I…couldn't see myself with anyone else."
He stared down into his empty glass, not sure what he was looking for.
"I just really thought we'd be together someday," he said quietly. "But it didn't happen."
Spectra picked up the wine bottle from the coffee table and poured more wine into his glass.
"I guess she didn't have that same thought," said Danny. "She could see a future without me." He chortled. "She always was the smart one."
"Did you think she was the one?" asked Spectra. "The only girl for you? Your one true love?"
"I don't know. I mean, we didn't really have that much in common, like we fought about dumb stuff all the time." He paused. "But she was the only girl in my life who knew what I really was. Not human. A ghost." He rested his glass on his thigh and leaned his head back on the couch. "The only girl who knew and was totally okay with that."
"The only human girl," said Spectra.
Danny lifted his head and looked at her.
"Does it have to be a human girl?" asked Spectra. "What about a ghost girl who knows what you are?"
Her smoky eyes lidded, her plump lips curved upward.
"I might be too drunk to answer that question right now," Danny murmured.
"Why?" purred Spectra. "You're not afraid of what your answer might be, are you?"
Danny stared at her for several seconds, his eyes traveling from her face down to her ample cleavage, toned waist, full hips, long legs. A body he knew was maintained by the misery of so many vulnerable women crying at the club and men drowning themselves in beer and lap dances.
"I know what you want from me," he said quietly. "Same thing you've always wanted from me. My misery."
"You're right. You've always been so good at giving me what I want."
She walked her fingers up his chest. Danny watched her long red nails getting closer and closer to his face.
"But I can give you what you want, too." She traced his collarbone. "You don't have to be lonely. You don't have to be with someone you have to hide from."
He could feel her breath on his neck.
"You don't need to hide from me, Danny."
Her lips brushed him. Danny jumped and brought his cup to his mouth for an excuse to lean away from her. He downed the wine quickly, tilting the cup straight up. His hand shook as he hunched forward and set the cup down on the coffee table.
"It's getting late," said Danny, not bothering to even check the time to be sure.
There was silence for a few beats.
"Do you want me to leave?" asked Spectra.
Danny stared at the wine bottle on the table. He did not respond. Not even a gesture.
Spectra placed her hand on the far side of his face and turned him to look at her. Danny gazed into her eyes, so vibrantly green, an inhuman radiance.
Inhuman. Just like him.
"You have some wine around your mouth," said Spectra. "Right here. Let me just…"
Her tongue slipped past her lips. Danny watched her come closer and did not move away as she licked the corner of his mouth, his upper lip, tracing around his mouth before moving to the center, parting his lips and drinking him in.
Her taste was seductive, exquisite, laced with wine.
Danny closed his eyes and sighed into her, meeting her sucking and massaging movements with his own. Her fingers curled into his hair while his moved up her spine.
He stayed latched onto her, his lips pressed to hers, waiting for her to make the first move to break away because he knew he couldn't, he wouldn't, he had missed this and he for some reason had missed her and he hadn't realized just how long he had been missing her, even before he encountered her at that damn night club.
Her hands grabbed his shoulders as she pressed him into the couch and climbed into his lap, straddling him, facing him, pulling out of the kiss. Danny opened his eyes to find her leering.
"Do you want a lap dance, Danny dear?" she asked.
"Is it gonna cost me three hundred dollars again?"
"No, sweetie. This one will be free."
Danny smirked and raised a brow.
"And this one won't have all the club restrictions and rules. My nipples won't be covered and you can touch me all you want."
Danny ran his hands up her thighs. "All I want?"
Spectra puckered her lips.
"But how exactly is this supposed to make me miserable, Spectra?"
"Maybe I don't want you to be miserable right now. Is that so hard to believe?"
Danny only smiled in response.
"And please." Spectra ran her hands down his chest. "Can't we be on a first-name basis now, Danny darling?"
She pressed her lips to his neck, his jaw, his earlobe.
"Penelope," he whispered, closing his eyes.
At some point, one of them turned off the lights. At another, Danny was pushed down onto his back.
And then the sun was up.
A ray of sunlight landed across Danny's eyes. Danny squinted and turned away from it.
He wondered briefly why he was on the couch and not his bed.
Then he remembered.
He forced himself to sit up, his head splitting with pain as he blearily looked around the living room. His clothes lay rumpled on the coffee table. Her clothes were nowhere to be seen. He looked over the couch behind him and saw that her purse was no longer hanging by the front door.
She was gone.
Not that he was surprised.
He would have to look through his room and see if she stole anything.
He grabbed his pants and boxers and pulled them on. He couldn't see his shirt anywhere, perhaps it had been flung farther away. He leaned over and rested his elbows on his thighs, clutching his aching head in his hands.
This hangover seemed a fitting punishment for letting Spectra take advantage of him yet again.
He stayed in that position for some time, the sunlight pouring in through his window and warming his skin.
He didn't have to go to work today. But did he really want to keep sitting on this couch doing nothing? He could at least shower and get her smell off of him.
He rubbed his eyes and was about to stand when something red underneath the coffee table made him pause. His head protested with a rush of pain as he bent forward to pick it up.
He sat back and held it in his hands, stretched it between his fingers.
Spectra's red silk panties.
He leaned back on the couch and continued to examine them, proof that she had been here, that they had been together.
She had left them behind. Wherever she was now. Perhaps to mock him, taunt him.
Or perhaps just as a memento of the first night in a long time when he didn't feel lonely.
He suddenly shivered despite the warm sunshine streaming in, and his breath fogged. Spectra phased in through his front door. The panties fell out of his hands into his lap.
"Good morning, Danny love," said Spectra cheerily, holding up two lidded paper cups and a bag bearing the logo of a local coffee shop. "I went out and got us some coffee and bagels."
She set the coffee and bagels on the table and took a seat next to him on the couch. Danny looked her up and down, at the familiar shirt she was wearing that was too large for her.
"Is that my shirt?" he asked.
Spectra looked down at herself and pulled at the shirt's hem. "Yes, I just figured my dress was a little risqué for a trip to a coffee shop, so I threw your shirt from last night over it."
Her hand reached toward his lap. Danny's breath caught as her fingers brushed his crotch.
"Oh, you found them, thank you." Spectra picked up her panties from his lap. "It was still a little dark when I went out this morning, I couldn't see where they were."
She pulled the panties up past her ankles and knees and thighs, wiggling into them underneath her dress and Danny's shirt. Danny watched her movements, mesmerized.
"What's on your mind, darling?" asked Spectra.
She picked up a cup of coffee from the table and handed it to him. Danny held it, its heat radiating through his fingertips.
"I don't know," he said quietly.
Spectra blew into her own coffee cup and took a sip. Her eye makeup was a little smudged. The remaining traces of her lipstick transferred to the cup's lid.
"You must have an idea," said Spectra.
Danny stared at his coffee cup for a long time.
"Why are you here?" he finally asked. A question he had asked so many times now.
Spectra swung her legs over and across his lap, nestling her head against his shoulder while clutching her coffee cup to her chest.
"I didn't want you to be lonely," she said, hushed.
Her breath and skin felt cold against his bare chest. Because chilled ectoplasm flowed in her veins. Because she wasn't human. Just like him.
He didn't have to hide from her.
Maybe she was right. Maybe he didn't have to be lonely anymore.
He wrapped his arm around her back, resting his hand on her hip.
"By any chance, do you need a date for your friend's wedding?" Spectra purred into his ear.
Danny squeezed her and sipped his coffee.
The end! Thanks for reading!
I have no plans to write anything after this because I feel that the story concludes here and the wedding would be its own thing, possibly the beginning of a new longer story. But if anyone feels inspired enough to write their own follow-up with Spectra and Danny at the wedding, you have my blessing!