The Sympathy Screw | 18+

Chapter 27 - Back At It

Author's Notes:

The theme song of this chapter is:

Dirty by Tank

~:~

As the plane touched down, the intercom came on, notifying passengers electronics could be turned back on. I powered on my phone and it immediately chirped with a new message. Sam.

Look for Cass after you get your bags.

Iris was picking me up, so Sam must have sent Cass along. I giggled. The mental image of my little brown kissy fluffball running through the terminal had me hysterical.

It took me far too long to locate my black rollerboard suitcase that looked exactly like everyone else's rollerboard, checking each luggage tag to see if it was mine. The garish hot pink and neon green strap around one of them that I had scoffed at earlier suddenly seemed like a fantastic idea, but I could only keep that in mind for next time now.

I picked up my bags from the carousel and walked toward the exit, searching for my sister and my adorably tiny pup on his leash. But what I saw stopped me in my tracks. There, in the short-term pick-up parking, was Sam, holding Cass on his chest in a little backpack-style baby carrier, holding up a gigantic sign with my name on it and a picture of Cass!

I ran up to Sam, completely forgetting my bag bouncing against the rough pavement, and threw my arms around him, careful not to squish Cass. "Sam!"

Casanova gave a little yip when Sam kissed my cheek and said, "Welcome home, beautiful. We both missed you."

"Where's Iris?" I asked.

"Cass missed you too much. We had to come. I asked her to sit this one out."

I asked Sam, "You came just because of him?"

Sam shrugged. "He looked at me with the puppy dog eyes."

"Okay, but you're carrying him. He couldn't walk?"

"He's so little," he offered, "He gets tired so easily."

"At least tell me you haven't been spoiling him like that this whole time."

"What? Me?" Sam asked, rolling his eyes sarcastically, "Of course not. Besides, what about our movie night?"

"Fine," I told him, "but I get to pick the movies."

~:~

The night had gone fine, but my bra was so uncomfortable and my arms were falling asleep from holding Casanova. Towards the end of the night, I was already tired from the jetlag, but I'd also had a few drinks with Sam. I was crabby, needing relief, and my inhibitions were lowered.

Once I wished Sam goodbye and locked the front door, I unceremoniously dropped a very happy sleeping puppy from my arms onto the empty spot on my bed where Andrew used to sleep and began taking off my clothes.

Again, I had a pang of sadness at the place Andrew used to sleep. I hadn't thought about those things as much while I was gone, but they all came rushing back now when I was alone in the place that had been ours.

I stripped off my shirt and eyed my brassiere as I removed it. It was a gorgeous bra, but not very comfortable. I remembered the last time I had been undressing with that bra on a movie night with Sam; the night I texted Nick a picture of my bra.

The drinks I had tonight while we were watching the movies earlier, the lowered inhibitions, and the need to feel some sort of tension release were telling me that texting Nick another picture was a great idea, but I'd already discarded my bra.