0 March Secret Agent #6

TITLE: The Girl in the Mirror
GENRE: Women's Fiction (Upmarket)

Jodi’s fist punched the air, startling her awake. With her heart galloping, she searched her foggy brain for dream traces, finding only wisps and shadows. In the darkness, she patted the pillow beside her—“Michael?”—discovering only a dent where his head had been. The hollow was still warm, and she caressed it with her fingers, sniffed it, inhaled his musky scent. She lay her cheek on his pillow while her hands groped for him in the rumpled mass of bed covers. Her consciousness finally acknowledged that he wasn’t there.

"Michael?” she called, sitting up in bed. Silence. She leaned close to the red glow of the alarm clock on her bedside table: 2:37. Still the middle of the night. Part of her longed to pull the covers up and settle back into sleep. The other part couldn’t settle without him beside her. Or without at least knowing where he was. She rubbed her hands over her face and blearily scanned the room. A crack of light shone from under the bathroom door.

She padded barefoot to the door and tapped. “Michael?” She eased the door open, squinting against the brightness. “Are you okay?”

In his boxer shorts, with his hands on the edge of the vanity cabinet, he was leaning toward the mirror, talking softly. He jerked back when he saw her. “Hey, babe,” he said. He extended an arm toward her. “Hope I didn’t wake you.”

She pressed her body into his side.