Dead Beat Dates & Deities - Goddess of Tornado Alley Series Book One

Chapter Six

Two hours and a large caramel macchiato later, Frank was feeling a little more like herself. The flimsy paper pants and wannabe slippers were dumped in the trash shortly before Frank crawled into a hot, sweet-smelling bath. While she soaked, Ella put together lunch from what she could find in Frank's understocked fridge.

"The bell peppers looked a little iffy, but I took a chance on them anyway. The mushrooms were okay and the expiration date on the eggs wasn't for another couple of days. You do have an amazing amount of cheese. All kinds."

"Yeah. Well, a girl's gotta eat," Frank sighed. Ella looked at her dubiously. "Is there any milk in there?"

"Nope. Just half and half. Maybe a little sour cream."

"Eh, maybe I'm not that thirsty."

Ella shook her head. "You need to go shopping."

"I need to do a lot of things, but first I'm going to eat this omelet. Thank you, Ellaphant. It looks great."

They sat in Frank's kitchen, the snow falling quietly outside and the muted sound of the television coming from the living room as they ate.

Frank's townhouse was a large three bedroom situated near Kendall Park. It was located in one of the wealthier parts of Sparrow and boasted a postage-stamp-sized front lawn with a bigger patch of grass in the back. Both were shaded by several maple and birch trees and enclosed by a decorative wrought iron fence. She'd been lucky to find an end unit and was able to put a sizeable down payment on the property shortly after celebrating her twenty-first birthday. Charlie had shared his good fortune not only with his wives but with his daughter as well. He'd set up a hefty trust fund in her name that allowed her to live quite comfortably and virtually worry-free on the salary she earned at the bank. Frank dropped a good amount of money on the shoes she loved so much, but in most other ways she was frugal. Financially, Frank was set. It was her love life that was not.

"I didn't see Muffin when we came in," Ella said before popping the last bite of toast into her mouth.

"You mean Satan's spawn? He's just waiting for me to go out and get my mail. That's when he'll leap over the pathetic excuse they have for a fence around his yard and come attack me."

"He's not Satan's spawn," Ella chided. "He's a German Shepherd, and he's nice to me."

"Everyone's nice to you, El. What is that dog called? You know, the one that guards the gates of Hades?"

"He had three heads and a serpent's tail, right?"

"That's the one."

Ella moved the last of her omelet around her plate, her eyes squinted in thought. "In Harry Potter his name was Fluffy."

Frank nodded. "Yes. That I remember."

"I don't know. Was it Cecil?"

"Sure," Frank laughed, her hand covering her mouth so she wouldn't spray eggs across the table. "Hades named his big scary hound of Hell Cecil."

Ella dropped her fork on her plate. "I teach the third grade, Frankie. I'm not in the habit of writing Hades and his three-headed dog into my lesson plans." She pushed herself away from the table with a screech of chair legs against the hardwood floor. "It's already two and the snow is still coming down. Let's head to the mall so we can get back before it gets too bad."

"Okay, okay," Frank said, bringing her dishes to the sink. "You never know. Teaching Greek mythology might spice things up in your classroom a little bit."

"No," Ella disagreed. "We're good. Third graders create enough drama on their own without throwing gods and goddesses into the mix."

Frank went to the entryway and hunted around the pegs on the hanging rack before making a decision. She pulled a red Huskers baseball cap onto her head, her shoulder length mass of dark curls snaking out from the hole in the back. Ella followed her into the small powder room between the kitchen and the living room and plopped herself down on the closed lid of the toilet.