Kevyn woke up feeling as if she hadn't slept even though she knew she had. She dragged herself off of the sofa and headed to the bathroom for a shower and then to the tiny kitchen to fix herself a bowl of cereal. Her thoughts ran to Patrick and whatever had happened between him and Melissa, she hoped for his sake that whatever happened hadn't gone beyond a kiss.
"He said he stopped." she muttered under her breath as she poured milk over her cereal.
She couldn't remember if she left her phone on or off and went to check it relieved to find that she had left it on.
"Come on Kevyn," she said out loud, "he's not going to call you." and then she felt an inexplicable sadness at the thought. She pushed the feeling away and ate her breakfast as she decided where she was going to study for the morning. It was another nice day which made the park tempting but then she did have to work tonight and she always like to sleep for a couple of hours before going to work. As she was trying to decide, her cell phone rang, she recognized the number as work.
"Hey Kev, this is Lola from staffing, we've seriously screwed up your schedule."
"Meaning what?" Kevyn asked.
"Meaning that you're off for the next five nights...."
"What? That's a serious screw up! I can't afford to miss four shifts!" Kevyn protested.
"I know and I'm sorry." Lola said, "But I can do this, you've got a shit load of vacation time-I can authorize vacation pay for you."
"That's great but that's straight pay, it doesn't include the night shift differential." Kevyn argued.
"I know it doesn't but its better than not being paid at all isn't it?" Lola asked.
"I guess." Kevyn conceded, "So when am I on again?"
For all practical purposes, she was off for the week, "well, I guess I'll go to the park." she muttered.
During the time she was on the phone her cereal had gone to mush, she forced herself to eat it grimacing the entire time; she couldn't afford to just throw it away. Breakfast finished, she decided to pack a snack just in case she stayed past lunch time and then decided to throw something in the crock-pot.
She dug around in the small freezer until she located a small roast, she made room on the tiny counter for the crock pot, put the roast in and then mixed in a bowl a can of cream of mushroom soup, a package of onion soup mix and a half a can of cola and poured it over the meat and set it on low.
An hour later, she was at the park sitting in the same spot that she sat in the week before. The sun was warm on her back but she loved the feeling and didn't move. She was going over her test when she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello."
Kevyn turned to see the man who had spoken to her the week before standing behind her.
"Hi."
"Look, I came on a little too strong last week and I wanted to apologize."
"Ok. Thanks." Kevyn said and turned back around.
"That offer for coffee still stands."
"No thanks."
"I could go get it and bring it here."
"Look, Stu-that's your name isn't it?" Kevyn asked.
"Good memory...."
"I'm not interested, I have a fiancé and I know that he wouldn't approve so thanks but no thanks."
"It's because I'm white isn't it?" Stu asked.
"What? NO! That has nothing to do with it." Kevyn replied.
"Then what? Because I don't believe that you have a fiancé."
Damn it! Why was it that everyone knew when she was lying? Kevyn wondered.
"Alright, here it is, I don't have a fiancé but that doesn't change the fact that I'm not interested. It has nothing whatsoever to do with your skin color but everything to do with that you're a man. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go."
Kevyn packed up her things and left without saying goodbye. She counted the money in her wallet and decided to spend the morning in a burger king where she could sit all day as long as she bought coffee or pop and hopefully she would be undisturbed. She also decided that from now on she would avoid the park, seeing the same man two weeks in a row was a little unnerving and it looked like he wasn't going to leave her alone.
She went to the counter at the burger king, ordered a coffee and found a quiet corner where she could relax and study. The problem was that she kept thinking about Patrick and every time she did, she tingled all over to the point where it was uncomfortable.
She checked her phone several times becoming disgusted with herself, finally she turned the phone off and put it away. Once she did that she was able to buckle down and study stopping only to go to the bathroom and to get a refill on her drink. It was well after four when she left the restaurant and got on the bus to go home.
The smell of cooking meat greeted her making her stomach rumble, she changed into her sweats and washed a potato to nuke in the microwave. As she waited, she turned on her phone to see that she had four missed calls.
******
Patrick at up long after everyone else had gone to bed, he couldn't get around the fact that he could still hurt someone, that he had in fact almost hurt someone and would have if Ethan and Martin hadn't gotten there in time. The fact that Melissa pushed his buttons was beside the point, he had lost control and it shouldn't have happened. He realized that he had any number of options that he could have chosen but at that moment none of them were obvious.
He wanted to apologize to Melissa but couldn't, she wouldn't remember him as her assailant and he didn't want to waken any memories of him. With nothing else to do, he logged in to his school account to send an email to the class notifying them that he would no longer be teaching the class but to show up anyway. He was surprised to see an email from Melissa and wasn't going to read it until he saw the time stamp. He read the email and then deleted it; she was gone for good he hoped. He also hoped that she learned something although the way it happened he wouldn't have wished on anyone. He sent the email to the other students and then sent one to Kevyn.
"Kevyn,
Thank you again for agreeing to let me call you, I know that you work tonight but if you have a free minute, could you call me?
Patrick"
It wasn't quite five in the morning and he wondered if Veronica and Vanessa were still up. As much as he wished that he could forget what happened, they would want to know, it could help them in their research in figuring out why some males knew their mates and why some didn't. He also wanted to know why the bond didn't stop the anger from rising. He picked up the phone and spoke with Vanessa.
"Hi Uncle Patrick!"
She listened quietly as Patrick described the events of the past few weeks.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm... ok, I just don't get it." he said, "I found my mate so why do I still have this anger?"
"Is the woman alright?"
"Yes, thanks to your dad and your Uncle Martin."
"Are you going to be staying at mom and dad's?"
"Yes for now anyway."
"I think that's a good idea, I'll talk to Veronica and see if we can come over there tonight if you're up to it." Vanessa said.
"I want to figure this out so come if you can." Patrick said.
"Uncle Patrick?"
"Yes?"
