“Is that me?” Tor asked.
“No,” I answered and his eyes went from the answering machine to me.
“No, sweets, I mean the other me,” he explained.
“Then, yes,” I replied and the next message came on.
It was my friend Selena.
“Got your message and just wanna say, don’t call back ‘cause I got your other message loud and clear. I can’t believe you have the balls to call me after you did what you did. Don’t call back, Cora, ever.”
I stood frozen to the spot, staring at my machine.
“Cora?” Tor called.
I didn’t move.
I felt his hand on my back. “Cora, who was that?”
“My…” My nose started stinging, oh shit, I was going to cry again! Damn the other Cora! “My friend, Selena.”
“Love –”
“What’d she do?” I whispered, staring at the answering machine.
“Sweets –”
I looked up at him, tears swimming in my eyes and whispered again, “What’d she do?”
Then a tear fell, then another because I could tell my parents (maybe) that I’d been in another world but I couldn’t tell my friends. They’d never believe me, they’d think I was insane or making crazy excuses for whatever the other Cora did.
And whatever Cora did, it sounded bad and I knew from experience Cora’s bad was the worst that bad could be.
Tor pulled me to the couch, sat down in it with me and gathered me in his arms. I pressed into his chest and held onto him while the tears fell silently.
“I hope I never meet her,” I whispered after awhile.
“I hope you don’t either, love, it’s rarely a pleasant experience.”
After he spoke, for some reason, I just sat there, cradled by Tor and thought about the fact that none of my other friends had bothered to call back, knowing now what that meant. Then I tried to think of how to rectify whatever happened. Then I realized I was right back where I started in Bellebryn when Tor first took me there. But this time, it wasn’t a bunch of people I didn’t know who hated me, it was a bunch of people I cared about. A lot.
I sighed into Tor’s chest.
Tor murmured, “This musician is a poet,” and I lifted my head and looked at him.
“What?” I asked.
His eyes came to my face then his hand came to my face and he used his thumb to wipe away the wetness as he answered quietly, “That song that was just coming from your box,” he tipped his head to my stereo, “the musician is a poet.”
I tilted my head to the side because I’d been so deep in thought I hadn’t heard what was playing. Then I twisted and reached for my stereo remote in the side table drawer. I used it to go back to the song before the one playing and the guitar strums of The Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash into Me” started.
I looked up at Tor who was studying the remote, he felt my eyes, his came to mine and I smiled.
“I love this song,” I told him.
His eyes dropped to my mouth then without a word he slid the remote out of my hands and tucked my face back to his chest.
Held by Prince Noctorno Hawthorne on my sofa, in my world I listened to a beautiful, sexy song.