On the Verge (A Charmed Life Book 1) by Joseph Bonis Read Free Book Online

with how the soup smelled, she returned to the cutting board, where the lighter and more energetic scents of the sandwiches were stronger in her nose.  She quickly assembled another sandwich, complete with cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce, then stuck four toothpicks into it before cutting it into four little triangles, one toothpick in each.
    Life was good.
    Fifteen minutes later, the food didn't matter any more.  Everyone had called, and no one could make it.
    Tracy was left with a hollow feeling inside.  They all had good reasons - car troubles, family emergencies, sudden overtime at work, lack of a ride - and she understood that none of it was personal.  But there was the food on the stove and counter, and there were her plans for the evening, and all of it was pointless.  She had been prepared for an evening of laughing and friendship and socialization, and instead she was going to be alone.
    It felt slightly surreal.  A rational part of her was observing the rest of her from a distance, as if she didn't actually feel bad, but rather was simply watching herself feel bad.
    She moved to the counter, reaching into the bread bag for another two slices, but then reminded herself that she didn't need to do that anymore.  Instead, she calmly closed the bag and put the bread away.  For a moment she felt the urge to throw the bread across the living room and let herself have a good cathartic yell of frustration, or at least a decent sulk, but instead she just set it gently into the breadbox.  Calmly, she put all the unprepared food away into the fridge, nibbling on one of the mini-sandwiches in the process.  She turned the soup down to a simmer to keep it warm and let it finish, cleaned off the counter.
    Normally, she would have enjoyed these simple tasks, chatting with early-comers about their day, their week.  About movies and stories and her jewelry and their hobbies.  Perhaps Ted had driven about and taken some more photographs of landscapes, and Stephen would, of course, be excited about the latest in video game news.  Sing would have been sitting back and listening to it all with that enigmatic grin on his face, like watching them talk about trivialities was a great treat for him.  Alex and Jill would have more stories of how cute their cats acted - and no doubt would have been cooing and baby-talking to Nameless.
    “Well, at least there's that,” she said quite seriously to Nameless.  “Your dignity gets to be preserved, because I certainly won't speak down to you like that.”  She wrapped up most of the mini-sandwiches in plastic wrap, stuffed them in the fridge, and then sat down on the couch with the remainder.
    Normally she wouldn't eat at the couch.  She had her routines, like anyone else, and part of her routines involved eating at the table - but today she wanted the comfy seat.  She wanted to feel spoiled.  She turned on the television and flipped through the programming, but it all felt flat and uninteresting, so she turned it off again, nibbling at her food without any real hunger.
    A gentle touch against her leg made her look down to see Nameless, and she smiled and patted the couch next to her.  The cat looked at the movement, but ignored the invite, instead twining about her legs a couple more times before leaping up onto the couch on her other side.  Nameless looked at Tracy with a flat stare, as if to say, “I did that to show you it's because I want to be here, not because you asked me to be here.” and then put a paw up on Tracy's knee to lean over and nibble at the sandwich in Tracy's hand.  Tracy gave a reluctant little smile and let the cat do so - Nameless had been eating Tracy's food all week, and hadn't thrown up once, yet.  She knew the cat should have, at some point in time.  Cats don't eat human food without throwing up - or at least, that's what she had read on the internet - but there you are.
    “Ah,” she sighed, “Thanks for being there, Nameless.” She swapped the