[h2]Esme[/h2]
Esme watched Duke, seeing how her voice pulled him out of thought and caused him to flinch. His flinch caused her to wince and take a couple of steps back. [i]I guess sitting on the edge of the bed to put my boots on wasn’t the best idea. Maybe I should have sat at the table.[/i] she thought to herself. His voice then pulled her from her own thoughts. As he spoke, she started to feel a bit bad, that was until he called her a sex witch again. Esme placed her thumbs in her back pockets, shifted her weight to her hood leg, then looked at him with raised eyebrows. It seemed this was something he was going to hold over her for a while. 

“Now hold on there, Cowboy…… You can’t pin all of what went on this evening on me. In case you’ve forgotten…. It takes two to tango.” she told him in a slightly more serious tone. “You had plenty of opportunities to get out of our activities this evening. It’s not as if I was holding you hostage or anything. Although, a little spell casing may have been involved.” She smirked to herself, then walked over to the table near the door and pulled her jacket off the chair it was draped over. Swinging it around behind her, she slid her arm into the sleeves, adjusted it over her frame, then adjusted the collar as she turned towards Duke. “Alright, let's go save my car from the side of the road.” she said with a warm smile.

Esme then made her way to the door and opened it, and looked over her shoulder. She opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it with a small laugh. She was going to ask Sarah if she was going to come with them but before she could get a word out, Sarah had darted from the bathroom and out the door. “Guess that answers that.” she said to herself softly. She then walked out the door and towards Duke’s truck. As she walked to his truck, her phone began to ring in her jacket pocket. Which was a surprise to her, she thought it had been left in her car. After digging the phone from her pocket, she looked to see who was calling and smiled at the name she saw on the screen. “Hey, I was planning to……..” she started warmly, but trailed off, her smile fading from her lips.

“Sassy…… Sassy, please…… Let me explain…….” Esme tried to speak, but the person on the phone wouldn’t let her get a word in. She leaned against Duke’s truck and sighed as she ran a hand over one side of her face, holding the phone away from her ear as the person on the line ripped her a new one. “Sa…..” She sighed once again at not being able to get a word in and dropped her head. She waited a moment before trying to speak again but as soon as she opened her mouth, the person that called started in again. “Sassy, please!” she said a little more harshly than she intended but it made them stop talking. She then brought the phone to her ear. “Look, I’m sorry I haven’t called to check in with you. Things have been crazy and I misplaced my phone. I had every intention to call you and fill you in on everything.” Esme blurted out in an apologetic tone.

“I can’t go into detail right now but know that I’m alright, and I’m not alone anymore. I’ll call you back later and fill you in on all the details.” she said. She went silent and nodded as she listened to the person talk, a small smile made its way back to her lips. “Yes, I promise I won’t leave anything out…… I’ll call you later tonight….. I promise.” Esme fell silent again, nodding softly as she continued to lean against Duke’s truck. “Hey, Sassy?..... I really am sorry I worried you…….. Love you too.” She ended the call and returned the phone to her jacket pocket. Leaning her head back, she ran a hand through her hair with a heavy sigh. “I should have known that call was coming.” she whispered to herself. Esme then felt a nudge against her leg followed by a whine, she looked down with a warm smile. “I’m alright. It was just a call from someone worried about me.” she breathed to Sarah as she scratched her head.

[h2]At the roadblock[/h2]

Once they arrived at the roadblock, Esme jumped out of the truck without a word, shutting the door behind her. She looked at her car, the driver's and passenger's doors were still wide open. As she stood there, the events of that day played in her mind as clear as day. A shiver ran down her spine and she wrapped her arms around herself as the memory continued. A few moments later, she shook her head to rid herself of the memory and let her hands fall to her sides. Esme then walked over to the passenger’s side of her car, looking it over as she went, then picked up the worn leather jacket off the ground, bringing it up and holding it close to her chest. “Hey, beautiful.” she whispered to her car, as she shut the door. “Sorry, it took me so long to get back.”

Esme walked around the front of her car and to the driver's door, looking over every inch as she went. Which wasn’t easy with what little light shown in the area thanks to the cloud cover. She placed her jacket in the car in its normal spot, draped across the back of the seat. After pulling her head from the car, she saw it as the clouds moved away from the moon, several nice long scratches along the back door and corner panel. Closing the door slightly, she saw the scratches also went along the driver’s door. “Dammit to hell! Those bastards!” she growled through gritted teeth as she stared at the scratches. She then ran a gentle hand over the scratches, feeling that they were deeper than they looked, obviously done with her car key, which she just so happened to see on the ground. She released an irritated sigh through her nose as she picked up her keys, then stood up and looked over at Duke. “Thanks for the lift here.”