Ro inserted her house key into the metal lock and turned, surprised when she was met with no resistance.
What the…
She turned the knob and pushed the door open, that paranoia from before bubbling back up with the force of a tsunami. She always locked her doors. Car and house.
Always.
This was Chicago, for crying out loud.Of course,she kept her stuff locked up tight. It was a habit drilled into her by her parents from the time she was big enough to reach the doorknobs.
Although to be fair, she had been feeling very out of sorts this morning. Maybe…
Ro sat the milk and bags down onto the round kitchen table she’d purchased a few weeks before. Turning back, she double checked that the door was shut tight before snicking both the knob and deadbolt locks into place.
She returned to the awaiting groceries, getting halfway through putting it all away when she noticed something strange. One of her cabinets…one she hadn’t opened yet…was slightly ajar.
With a frown, Ro went over to it and opened it the rest of the way. It was the cabinet where she kept her coffee mugs, only she hadn’t gotten one down this morning.
It was probably Brody.
Her heart thumped from the thought, her belly swirling with regret and guilt from the previous night’s events. Regret that she couldn’t remember all that had happened, and guilt that she’d been so far gone Brody hadn’t felt safe leaving her home alone.
Ro started to shut the cabinet when she spotted something strange. She always kept her mugs upside down on the shelf. Something her mother had always done to “keep the dust and bugs out”.
Not that they had bugs. Before she got sick, her mom had been animpeccablehousekeeper. And after…
After, Ro had taken on the role of full-time student, chef, and maid.
Her dad had done what he could. But between working overtime at the factory to help cover the bills and added medical expenses and spending nearly every minute he had at home by her mom’s bedside, most of the daily chores had fallen into her young lap.
And when her mother passed away, it was as if she lost both parents that day. A few years later, her dad was gone for good.
I miss you guys so much.
Ro allowed herself a moment to picture her parents’ faces, before shaking off the melancholy thoughts and returning her focus back to what had stopped her in the first place. The mug.
Her favorite mug, to be exact. And as Ro turned it upside down—the way she always kept her mugs—an uneasy feeling gnawed in her gut.
She jumped when her phone dinged with an incoming text.
“Geez, Ro,” she scolded herself. “Give yourself a heart attack, why don’t you?”
Reaching behind her, she pulled her cell from the back pocket of her jeans. Ro checked the screen, smiling when she saw the message had come from Megan.
Megan:How’d dress shopping go? Find anything?
Ro:One. Maybe. I’ll show you pics when I see you.
Megan:Can’t wait! See you soon!
Ro:See you soon!
Ending her last text with a heart emoji, she slid her phone into her hoodie’s front pocket and finished putting the groceries away. With a loud exhale, her headache was finally subsiding, but the remnants were still there.
Hoping a long, hot soak in the tub before her movie night with Meg would do the trick, she went into her bedroom. Pulling her hoodie up over her head, she tossed it onto her bed.
Ro removed her jeans, laying them on the mattress next to the hoodie, before going over to her dresser and pulling open the top drawer. She started to reach for her favorite pair of panties, stopping mid-grab when she realized they weren’t there.
Her brows scrunched together with confusion because she knew they’d been in there earlier that morning. She’d seen them. Had almost put them on after her shower. But at the last minute, Ro had chosen a different pair, wanting to keep the others for when she went out tonight.