She was lying on a mattress. A fucking mattress. And wrapped in a soft comforter. There was warmth radiating from beside her. She rolled over and saw Grace fast asleep. Shayla caressed her face careful not to wake her, then kissed her forehead. She got out of bed to discover she was not wearing tattered, dirty rags. She was clothed in a long sleeve shirt and fuzzy pants. She took a moment to feel the soft fabric on her skin before exploring her apartment.

It was a single large room. A king-sized bed sat in the center against the back wall adjacent to a floor to ceiling window covered with an elegant curtain. A TV was mounted on the wall across from the bed above a dresser. There was a door on either side of it. One was open to reveal a bathroom. Shayla undressed and started a shower. The shower head exploded with a firm stream of hot water.

She let the water massage her whole body. Despite being very clean, she spent a long time in the shower. When Grace came in and began brushing her teeth, she turned the water off and grabbed a fluffy, white towel from a rod on the wall. She patted her face dry as she stepped out. The room was full of fresh steam.

“Hey,” Shayla began drying off the rest of her body.

Grace spit, “Hey.”

“How did you sleep?”

She shrugged, “Alright I guess.”

“Any plans for today?” she asked.

“Might go down to the market,” she said.

Shayla bit her lip before wrapping her arms around Grace from behind, “You wanna hang out for a bit before you go? It’s kinda early.”

“It’s a ten-minute walk and I still have to finish getting ready,” she said, “Maybe later.”

“Oh,” she let go, “Okay.”

She finished drying off and got dressed while Grace brushed her hair and put on makeup. Shayla tried not to gawk at her girlfriend when she emerged from the bathroom. They had been homeless for so long. She had forgotten how beautiful Grace could be. Shayla’s eyes followed her across the room as she gathered her things but darted to the ground when she looked over.

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“I’ll probably be out for a while,” she put a jacket on, “Don’t wait up for me.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, it’s okay,” she put on her jacket and opened the door, “I’ll see you later.”

Shayla followed her to the hallway and hugged her. Grace stood stiff. When she let go, she brushed a strand of Grace’s hair aside and leaned in.

“I gotta go,” she said and turned away.

“Okay,” she said, “I love you.”

Grace stopped walking, “Yeah. You, too.”

Shayla watched her walk away until she was no longer visible before going back inside. She looked at her new home and tried to be happy, but something in the way Grace was acting worried her. She tried to distract herself, but there wasn’t much to do except sit around. Shayla was trapped in a web of her own thoughts. Eventually something would come along and consume her if she didn’t do something.

Shayla began ruffling through her dresser and examining the outfits. They were fresh, clean, and totally her style except for something she found buried in the back of her underwear drawer. She pulled it out and held it up. It was hard to tell exactly what it was. It looked like a very tiny suit of some sort. The fabric was sheer and stretchy. It must be some kind of lingerie. She undressed, figured out which limbs went in which holes, and put it on.

When she saw herself in the mirror, she gasped. She had seen herself naked before, but this was different. The fabric extenuated her many curves. The bralette inside made her boobs look at least a cup size bigger. She turned around to discover her ass had undergone a similar illusion. Shayla looked sexy for the first time in years, and it felt good.

Shayla put her clothes on over the lingerie. She decided she was going to give Grace a sexy surprise when she got home. She turned on the TV and sat waiting in sweet anticipation. The day droned on like cattle grazing in a field. Each hour was a small eternity. Though the time stretched on, night came, and Grace wasn’t back yet. The anxiety began to set in, and Shayla began to pace. After some time, she decided to go looking for Grace. She wasn’t hard to find.

It was nothing more than a tangled mass of limbs and blood and guts, but it was no doubt Grace. Splattered across the sidewalk right by the front door. Shayla screamed but heard no sound. Not the sirens. Not the people around her. It wasn’t until a cop put her hand on her shoulder that she came back to reality.

“Ma’am,” she said, “Do you know her?”

Shayla shook her head, eyes glued to the mess in front of her, “Her name was Grace.”

Of course, they had more questions after that, but foul play was ruled out from the start. Shayla was shaking the entire interrogation. When she was sent home, she had begun asking her own questions. The main one being, why? Why did she do it this time? And she knew who had the answers.