I leaped out of my truck and slammed the door. The street was quiet and still dark enough for the streetlights to be on, but the sky was an early sort of pre-dawn half-light that drained the world of color. Feeling like the only person on the planet, I crossed the empty street and stood in front of the gray brick building. Then pulled out my phone.
“Hey. I’m here. Yeah. Can you open the door?”
Silence again. Then the sound of footsteps far away coming closer. Then pounding loudly just before the door squeaked open.
“What the f-" Liam looked out onto the street and then back at me. “Cooper? What the hell are you doing here?“ He stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Jesus Christ man, you’re shaking.”
I lifted my hand and saw he was right. The drive across the state had felt endless, and the lashing wind and torrential rain meant it took everything I had just to stay on the road. It gave me no time to think about what I was doing, driving to New York City in the middle of the night. I had no plan other than finding out the truth once and for all. “Go ask him,” Willa had told me. So here I was doing just that.
I opened my mouth to start giving him the whole story. But I was too exhausted to say anything other than, “You and Willa. You have to tell me."
A shadow passed across his face, but I was too strung out to register what it could mean. The exhaustion hit me all at once and I staggered, leaning up against the wall for support.
"Shit man." He snapped out of the defensive pose and stepped out to catch me. "You look like shit, did you really drive all night? It's four in the fucking morning.”
I shook my head. “I know. But you have to tell me. About you and Willa. The truth."
He stood stock still. "I will," he finally said after a long beat. "But. Not now. You woke me out of a sound sleep and you haven't slept at all by the looks of it. Have you been drinking?"
"No."
"Your eyes..."
I wiped at them. There was wetness on my cheek. "Rain," I lied.
Liam let that one go. "Here. Come in.“
I followed numbly up the five flights of stairs to his apartment. The simple action of putting one foot in front of the other felt soothing. Every step I took was one step closer to the truth.
Liam pushed the front door open. Scattered boxes still lined the walls of a small three-room apartment. I was too exhausted to take note of much more than the pile of coats hung in the entryway and the video game system in the corner. Since when did Liam start playing video games?
“It’s a bit smaller than back home,” Liam said.
“It’s yours though, so that’s pretty cool.”
Liam smiled gratefully and pointed me toward a small spartan room off the main one. It looked about the size of a big closet and was furnished with just a wobbly floor lamp and a futon couch. "I'll pull that out,” Liam told me. “I dunno if I have any extra sheets though."
"Just a blanket is fine." Now that I was here, I felt like I was ready to drop with exhaustion. But also relief because answers were close at hand. And fuck, it was good to see Liam, even if it was at four in the morning after driving through a storm for almost six hours.
I was about to fall into the bed when I took another look around. "Wait, he's not going to come home and wonder what the fuck I'm doing on his bed, right?"
Liam went rigid. “Who?"
"Your roommate. The guy whose bedroom this is?”
Liam blinked at me.
"That wasn't your coat on the hook out there, Liam. The letter jacket? And unless you’ve picked up a serious gaming habit in the past few weeks, that’s not your system out in the living room. I don’t want to piss him off if he comes home and finds me crashed on his bed. Where is he?"
“Don’t worry about it. He’s on a business trip."
"So he won’t mind if I crash here?”
Liam looked exasperated. “It’s fine. Good night, Cooper."
“We’re going to talk in the morning, right?”
Liam nodded and looked down, then blew out a long exhale. “Yeah.” He nodded, slowly at first, and then faster. “Yeah, I think it’s time we talked about a few things.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not.” He stepped back and rapped his knuckles twice on the doorframe. “It’s a good thing.”
I nodded and sat at the edge of the bed, then caught the throw blanket he chucked at me. “Right. A good thing.”
“Night, Cooper.”
I laid back on the uncomfortable bed and tried to believe him. Would it really be a good thing to know for sure that I couldn’t trust Willa? Would this be the clean break I needed to be free of her?
I’d driven all this way, but was that really what I wanted? That was the last thought I had before I slipped uneasily into a dreamless sleep.
The smell of bacon and coffee works much better on me than any alarm clock.
I was confused when I first opened my eyes. Last night seemed like some kind of surreal dream, but here I was, tangled in a blanket in Liam’s roommate’s windowless bedroom. I sat up and stretched the kink out of my back, then sniffed.
Bless Liam for making breakfast. I didn’t think I could face this conversation on an empty stomach.
I pulled on yesterday’s jeans and opened the door, blinking as my eyes suddenly adjusted to the light streaming in through the windows. “Hey man,” I greeted Liam’s silhouette.
“Mornin’,” came the reply.
That was not Liam’s voice.
I blinked again. The man making breakfast had deeply tanned, almost olive skin, jet black hair, and a close-shaven black beard. He was very much not Liam.
My sludgy, pre-coffee brain slowly put two and two together. “Oh shit, man. Sorry. I’m Cooper.” I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling like an asshole. “Sorry about crashing in your bed. Liam told me you were on a business trip.”
“Hey Cooper.” He flipped the bacon casually. “I’m Marco.”
“Marco, man, sorry about that. It must have been a real kick in the teeth to get home and find some random guy crashing in your bed. Did you have to sleep on the couch?”
“No.” Liam walked into the small living room. He was bare-chested and scratching his head, still yawning from sleep. “He didn’t.”
I looked at Liam, then back at Marco. “So wait, you just got home or something?”
Liam and Marco shared a glance. Then Liam pressed his hand down on the counter and turned to look me full in the eye. “No, Cooper. He slept in his bed.” He paused. “With me.”