As You Were Read Online Free Page A

rind on her plate.
    “I think I’d get motion sickness on a bus all the time.”
    Helki swallowed the bite of cucumber and offered, “You could take Dramamine.”
    Brittany half-smiled. “I’ve got some shmoozing to do at a couple of galleries. And I need to get my portfolio up to date anyway. I’ll stay busy and be here when you get back. Maybe you’ll get back sooner if you miss me.”
    “You know I’ll miss you.” Tru leaned over and kissed her.
    “How could you miss me? You’ve got hundreds of screaming girls throwing themselves at you.”
    “No, they’re throwing themselves at me, Brit,” Helki joked.
    Tru stayed up quite late, reviewing the recordings she and Helki had made that day. Her head did not hit the pillow until three in the morning. She snuggled up into a spooning position behind Brittany and slept.
    Up at six-thirty, Brittany dislodged Tru’s snuggle-hold on her, and by eight, gathered her things for a meeting with gallery owners in Boulder.
    “What time do you think you’ll be back?” Tru asked groggily from the warm folds of pillows and comforter.
    “Oh, it’ll be tonight sometime. I’ll give you a call.” Brittany adjusted the blanket around Tru. “If the weather gets bad, I’ll stay with Brenda.”
    Brittany enjoyed her jaunts into town. Often, her visits would be as much about socializing as about the sale of her artistic creations. At exhibits and other artistic events, she rubbed elbows with gallery owners, well-known artists, and collectors. Inevitably, she formed actual friendships with some of them.
    Tru accepted the quick kiss at the corner of her mouth, with a contented sigh, her eyes fluttering closed again, as Brittany grabbed her things and headed for the door.
     
    5
    One Week Later
    TRU FELT THE GENTLE PRESSURE OF DROPSI’S PAWS on her jeaned leg and lifted her head off her arms. She slid a hand across the rough-hewn wood of the kitchen table for the eCig, hoping nicotine would help her function just a little while longer. If she had been using tobacco cigarettes, her lungs would have been in bad shape by now. The vapor didn’t even accost her eyes like real smoke, which was good, because she didn’t care to force any more moisture from her tear ducts than had already come in the last few days.
    The missing persons report had been a fruitless endeavor. When she had filed it, she got the distinct impression that the deputy knew she sought a gay lover, and didn’t take it seriously.
    So the search for Brittany had been dropped solely in her lap, and she had risen to the challenge only to be dashed again and again by dead-ends over the last three days. Helki had been helping her call around, but neither of them had discovered Brittany’s whereabouts. The sick feeling this gave her was akin to drinking battery acid. Though the scene had been awful, the last time she saw Brit, she couldn’t imagine why Brittany wouldn’t have called. Just to have the common courtesy of letting her know she was okay. Unless she couldn’t call. Tru was left with the abrasive, wounding truth that Brittany could not call. Something had happened to her.
    “Police report?” he echoed, pressing the back of a numb hand beneath his cold-reddened nose.
    “An officer should be here in a few minutes.” The LPN held her ballpoint Bic poised above the form on the clipboard. “It’s routine with any accident, sir.”
    The young man took a step toward the entrance, his Nikes slipping slightly in a puddle of mud and slush left by his own foot on the way into the emergency room. “I told you I don’t even know her.”
    She looked up and saw him moving toward the door, in his drenched clothes. “Sir—you should let the doctor look at you too...I could get you a blanket and something warm to drink. You might know something that would be helpful, and not realize it—”
    He glanced down at his sodden clothing, suctioned against him like cellophane, the numbness of his skin beginning to give