Rita could not decide between pacing the hotel room, lying down on the bed or curling up on the floor. Between tearing the room apart, bursting into tears or going mad with anxiety.
She had just driven to the nearest hotel from where she parked outside the tech store and got a room. That was two hours ago. She was still in the same clothes as this morning, covered in sweat, tears and stinking of anxiety and vomit. She didn’t have any clothes to change into for the night or for tomorrow when she had to visit the bakery. The goddamned invitation was still sitting in her jean pocket.
No one was answering her calls. It seemed like all her friends were avoiding her or the universe just wanted her to stew in her anxiety and basking in the event that was her indecision.
The best thing to do was to tell the police but that would entail telling them why he was doing it and that would lead to them asking her why she kept quiet in the first place. But considering how long she had known Theo if he was caught he would bring everyone else down with him and that was a situation or category she did not want to be in.
She sat down on the bed, held her head in her hands and just thought. For several minutes she sat there, trying and finally organizing her thoughts. When she was done, she got up. Grabbed her new purse with her car keys and new bank cards in one hand and her room keys in the other.
She left the room, she did have to get work done tomorrow and she was not about to look like a wasted, anxiety driven heathen who had just lost her job in front of her employees. So first things first, time for some shopping.
Rita was the first one at the bakery that morning looking not the least bit of how she was yesterday, granted that it was just four in the morning. That morning, she seemed like how she would every other Saturday she came to check in. Confident, ready to start, analyzing and determined.
The new clothes and makeup helped. She hardly slept a wink.
The nearly two hour late night shopping also helped. She had gotten herself three new sets of clothes and shoes. Pairs of underwear that completely covered everything, it would be a long time before she wore lingerie or any type of sexy underwear ever again. The thought still made her want to vomit.
She had also gotten some new deodorant, perfume, soap, she did not trust the ones at the hotel, a new handbag, new makeup and a small, basic really, jewellery set.
It had been a good distraction but it had only lasted so long. That was why she needed another one. That was where the bakery came in.
It was not a big place, just the first floor of a rental building in a doable part of town and it served well, as a bakery and a café, for production and attracting customers.
After giving the kitchen a bit more cleaning, she put on an apron, a hair cap and gloves and set to work, pouring sugar, breaking eggs, whisking. The new recipe she wanted to try took a lot of work, concentration and time to make, exactly what she needed, something else to put her concentration on besides the situation at hand.
The cakes she was making needed to feel really light, fluffy and if she made it right, really really tasty. She put in the flour and set the huge bowl in the mixer, she reached for the flavor on the table only to discover she had taken the wrong set. She was just one spoon away from making ginger and apple flavoured cake. Lyak!
The decoration on the label reminded her of the invitation that was desecrating her new bag. The thought annoyed her, she had come here to forget about the current Theo thing but it seemed everything was set out to remind her of it and her current isolation. She had left hundreds of calls to her friends but none of them answered.
Maybe she needed to get more friends. The more and more she thought about it all her emotions could not seem to balance between sadness, anxiety or anger.
She screwed on the caps and took the little bottles to their cabinet. She had not counted on seeing a snake in there but there it was, a big brown puff adder looking at her, coiled and hissing.
The thing with nowadays was that no one knew the difference between a shifter in animal form from an actual animal. It caused a lot of accidents and deaths every year, none of them pretty.
The adder was in prime position, her face, its prime target. If it went for a blow, it would dig its fangs into the place below her eye and into her cheek. A bite would land her in the hospital, bright side was she would not need to meet Theo. Downside she would be in the hospital, in excruciating pain and since no one was around she would probably be dead.
How in the world did it even get here? Puff adders were native to Africa, then how did this one make it to her bakery all the way in North America?
It could very well be a shifter but she was not going to wait to find out, she closed the cabinet and duly locked it.
A quick call to animal control got the problem taken care of. Apparently, a lab uptown lost a few of their specimens when there was a break in three weeks ago and they had not managed to get all of them back.
Matthew was making his way into the bakery to start the day when the men from animal control were making their way out. He looked as surprised to see her as he was to see animal control.
“Morning Ma’am, what happened?” His voice dripping with his French accent seemed to voice more than just the question he asked. Have you gone rouge on us too?
Matthew was the manager of the bakery, dark haired that he wore in a long unfairly beautiful ponytail with deep set catlike green eyes and long thick lashes. He was over thirty, lithe but huge and he towered over her by a good two feet. A shapeshifter not held in the boundary of one animal form. He was carrying the same huge dark blue backpack that he always brought with him, it made him look like he was going on a hike everyday. Whose to say he did not hike everyday.
Over the last months, the trend in calling animal control for shifters had gone up with human settlement in Alvas on the rise. Something the new Mayor was doing nothing to stop. It got a lot of Alvasians angry, mostly the shifter population.
Rita knew what he meant, she did not blame him. “Found a puff adder in the cabinet. Scared me shitless.”
A confused expression passed his face. “Puff Adder? They’re not from–“
“Around here, Yeah. The lab that got broken into three weeks ago weren’t successful in recapturing all their specimens, hence the guest I found this morning.” She explained.
Matthew subtly scented the air, Rita had seen and been around enough shifters to know when they were discreetly trying to get a scent, Matthew just wanted to know if the adder was really just an adder. By the way his eyes went showed a relieved expression then went wide just a little told him his answer.
“Oh I’m sorry, you must be shaken up.” He apologized. She was slightly trembling and her adrenaline had yet to calm down, he was right, she was still shaken up, who would not after seeing a venomous snake coiled and hissing at you early in the morning.
Matthew took off his bag and propped it against the counter, he took her by her shoulders and guided her to a seat.
“You have a seat, I’ll get you a glass of water.”
Rita sat down while Matthew disappeared into the kitchen. It was not even five yet and already so much had happened.
Matthew reappeared with a tall glass of water and handed it over to her, she gulped it all in seconds while Matthew just stood there watching.
“I turned the mixer off, need anymore?” He asked, gesturing to the glass in her hand.
She waved him off gently. “No, I’m okay.”
“Okay then. Ma’am not that it’s any of my buisness at what time you come into the bakery but if I may ask, why did you come in so early?” He asked.
And just like that she remembered why she was here so early in the first place and all of a sudden she was felt very tired.