At least Melanie had stuck by her. Once she’d accepted the news with the help of a late night drive and a bottle of tequila, she’d been there for her, accepting the fact that she couldn’t eat gluten again unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life being miserable and chance an excruciating death from cancer. Even her parents, who she’d thought would be happy that they’d finally had some answers hadn’t given a damn. To them this diagnosis had just been the final proof that she was a hypochondriac.

The second that she’d explained what Celiac’s disease was, they’d shut down, believing that she was grasping for straws. According to them there was no such thing as a gluten allergy. Gluten-free diets were just the latest diet trend and the fact that she was going around claiming that she was allergic to it only proved that there was something seriously wrong with her.

They hadn’t been willing to let her explain, so she hadn’t tried. She’d simply cut her mother off when she’d started pushing for her to see a therapist and said goodbye. She didn’t know what she’d expected, maybe an apology, hearing them admit that they were wrong and that they’d regretted giving up so easily. She really should have known better.

She’d told them and they hadn’t believed her. It wasn’t her problem and she wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. They lived their lives and she lived hers. Other than the occasional phone call, a birthday card and her parents randomly showing up with the name of the latest psychiatrist that they truly believed could help her, they barely saw each other.

That probably wouldn’t change, she realized, forcing her mind away from that depressing thought as she grabbed a Hostess pie and tore it open. Melanie wasn’t going to listen to reason, so she wasn’t going to waste her breath. They both knew that she wasn’t allergic to gluten thanks to the fact that she actually felt sick from giving it up. Aidan had explained that anyone that gave up gluten unnecessarily usually ended up feeling sick. In turn, she’d explained that to the stubborn pain in the ass, but Melanie refused to listen.

So, now Rebecca was done talking.

“What the-” Melanie started to scream, but the Hostess pie that Rebecca shoved in her mouth muffled out the rest of her bitching.

Melanie was going to eat every damn crumb or Rebecca was going to beat her to death. With a glare, and a hungry little whimper, Melanie took over and devoured the rest of the pie all while glaring accusingly at her.

“Eat the damn pie and shut the hell up!” she snapped just in case Melanie decided to argue with her.

Judging by the way that Melanie angrily tore into her pie as she glared at her, it was probably for the best if she stopped putting this off and moved her ass. Grabbing another pie off the pile, she tossed it at Melanie, uncaring that it hit her in the face before she grabbed the shopping list that she’d made with the help of Google and headed for the door.

“Mojo!” she groaned pathetically a few seconds later when her little baby plopped down in front of her and inadvertently tripped her, but thankfully she managed to catch herself at the last second and didn’t end up smashing her face into the wall and needing to make a quick trip to the emergency room for stitches, again.

They were really going to have to work on that whole dropping thing at some point, she decided as excitement coursed through her.

She was going food shopping!

Okay, so it probably didn’t sound exciting to anyone else but her, but she’d been looking forward to doing this since last night when she’d devoured her last chocolate bar. She was going to finally have food that didn’t make her want to beg for death.

At first she’d been a little depressed that she had to give up a lot of her favorite foods, but after spending some time reading posts on several Celiac forums, she wasn’t too worried anymore. Gluten free foods had apparently come a long way in the last decade and they now had everything from gluten-free bread to cookies and everything in between. She just needed to know what to look for and now that she did, she was going shopping!

*-*-*-*

Two Depressing Hours Later…

She was going to starve to death, she thought miserably as she stood outside the downstairs door, hugging her grocery bag filled with baby carrots and Hershey candy bars against her chest. Who would have thought that grocery shopping could lead to a major depression? She certainly hadn’t seen this one coming, but here she was, numb and staring blindly at the keypad that stood between her and the stairs that would lead her to her apartment where she would have to deal with a fridge full of food that she couldn’t eat.

Instead of entering her security code, she somehow found herself walking towards Lucifer’s office, hoping that he wasn’t there so that she could lie down and feel bad for herself for a little while until he kicked her out. When she arrived at his office and found it locked, she breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that at least one thing was going her way today.

Knowing that he could have locked the door for privacy, she knocked on the door and waited for him to tell her to get her ass back to work, the greeting that he normally used when someone bothered him. She waited a few seconds before she grabbed her keys, let herself in and headed for the couch. She tossed the bag holding the only two things that she would ever be able to eat again and dropped down on the couch with a miserable moan.

This sucked, she concluded with a scowl as she curled up on her side, wondering why Lucifer couldn’t have been considerate and left a blanket and pillow on the couch so that she could be bitchy in comfort. Then again, she mused a few seconds later when Lucifer walked into his office with an incredibly beautiful woman by his side, perhaps she should have been more concerned with pushing him too far, again.

Of course, if he killed her then she wouldn’t have to worry about how she was going to survive on carrots and chocolate for the rest of her life and just like that, she’d found the upside to Lucifer’s homicidal tendencies.

Chapter 15

“Use the envelope opener,” the woman who was going to be responsible for his conviction to a federal prison said, sounding helpful as she gestured towards the vicinity of his desk.

“What the hell are you doing in my office?” he snapped even though this wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary for the little pain in the ass.

She was always where she wasn’t supposed to be, finding new ways to push his buttons just to see what it would take to drive him over the edge. He swore that sometimes he could see her holding back a little smirk of satisfaction, confirming his suspicions that she was the devil and not just one of his minions.