True Love's Kiss (A Slow Burn, Orc Romance)

CHAPTER III

Can't just let your guard down and fall for someone anymore
That's what stupid girls do

- RAYE. "Flip A Switch." My 21st Century Blues, 2023.

RAYNA

Weirdly, I slept very well that night.

The next morning I awoke already in worker-mode, ready to traipse to the kitchen and make my mandatory cup of morning coffee...until I realised it was a Saturday and my first day off. Deflating like a balloon, I reclined and sank back into the plush surface of my mattress.

My bedroom door was closed, but I could hear the indistinct murmur of voices coming from the living room. Probably Juno and a client. My little sister may've been too curious for her own good sometimes, but she also had impressive business acumen. She ran a hair business and my apartment living room was her headquarters. Box braids, lace front wigs, senegalese twists, locs–you name it, Juno could do them. Black girls from all over London visited my little sister to get their hair done.

Still half-asleep, I felt around on my bedside drawer for my phone. I spent a short while browsing the internet, before settling on a YouTube playlist of my favourite songs. I played them out loud at a low level so neither I nor the music would be heard through the apartment's thin walls.

Stevie Wonder into Alicia Keys, into Chloe x Halle, then Taylor Swift. I hummed along with the infectious melodies of their songs, hynotised by their lyrics and vocals. Automatically, my fingers tapped at imaginary keynotes in the air, like I was playing a piano to accompany their musical talent.

I hadn't played since I was a kid. Being in school was hard enough when I was so far behind my peers in every subject, but the music room had been my safe space. I had no recollection of my education before being handed over to social services, but I was a skilled piano player. I don't know...it was like I sat down by the instrument and my muscles just knew what to do. I was so good that my music teacher tried to convince me to apply to the world's top universities for music.

Being a globetrotting musician was nothing but a nice dream to me though. Realistically, my lifestyle would be so all over the place that I wouldn't be able to adopt Juno once I was old enough to leave the foster care system. So I traded my dream in for a more stable reality and a reliable degree.

The apartment boiler stopped droning - Juno had finished washing her client's hair in the bathroom.

I got out of bed, calculating my chances of making it to the kitchen and back without being seen. Shrugging on my nightgown, I looked out of the window to the entrance courtyard, to see if Homeless Man was down there. He wasn't.

Good.

"Show it to me at once, Lady Juno!"

An unpleasantly familiar voice erupted from the living room. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach, and I was so disorientated I almost banged my head on the glass.

"Shhh!" Juno hushed her visitor.

But it was too late.

She'd snuck Homeless Man into my apartment, and I was going to fulfill the promise I'd made him last night.

"Rayna! Stop! He don't mean no harm," Juno ran up to me as I came charging out of my bedroom in pursuit of the kitchen knife set.

Homeless Man stood up abruptly from a dining table chair to greet my arrival. The action had little to do with chivalry, and more to do with sizing me up after I'd asserted my dominance over him the night before. And, boy, I couldn't wait to do it again.