Unsurprisingly, the next morning Venus woke up alone. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Malcolm was a vampire who needed to go hide in his coffin before the sun had risen. She couldn’t remember if she’d ever seen him during the day. Perhaps there was more to her weird musings. Laughing at her crazy thoughts, she rolled over unto Malcolm’s side of the bed, which was vacant and predictably cold, indicating he’d vacated it long before. Venus had no idea how he managed to keep the hours he kept and even how he had the time to work her into that busy schedule. But she resigned herself to never having him in bed when she awoke in the mornings. Climbing out of bed, she went about her day.
The rest of the week followed a similar pattern: Venus woke up alone, prepared and went to work accompa
