In the morning Susannah could not remember why she was in Daniel’s bed.
She’d fallen asleep in her own bed. Daniel had been asleep beside her. And then, at some point, a conversation had woken her. Daniel’s voice and someone else’s. But this must have been a dream because the other person had been Bogomil, and she was the only other person in her room. It was almost two a.m. and Daniel had left while she was asleep. It wasn’t very polite of him. She decided to go find him and tell him so.
She put on long johns and a sweatshirt, slipped on her old Keds. Grabbed her phone off her nightstand.
Outside it was still snowing. The night sky had an eggshell luster, heavy with the snow that was still to fall. There was a burnt taste to the air. Her Keds sank into the snow and her feet quickly grew wet. The cold numbed the place on her heel where the splinter was. Why did she keep forgetting to pull it out?
She had a sudden memory of sitting on the counter in the kitchen while her father used tweezers to take a splinter out of her palm. How old was she? Four, maybe. He’d held her arm down against her side. He hadn’t been hurting her, but she’d been frantic to escape. She’d hit him, hadn’t she? He’d gotten a black eye and she’d jumped off the counter and run away. Now Susannah didn’t even remember how they’d gotten the splinter out. Maybe they never had. Maybe this was the same fucking splinter.
It wasn’t exactly kosher to take the key the Lucklows kept under their fake rock and let herself into their house. But she’d done it in the past. And she wasn’t there to do anything bad. She was just there to yell at Daniel.
But when she opened his bedroom door, he wasn’t there. She didn’t feel like sneaking back out of the house or sleeping in her own bed and so she lay down on Daniel’s.
She fell asleep then and at some point Daniel came home. Now it was dawn and Daniel was sleeping beside her once more. She decided yelling at him could wait a little longer. Makeup sex didn’t always have to come second. Sometimes you could even skip the yelling and go straight to the sex, especially when the other person never even knew you’d been mad in the first place.
Daniel appeared surprised at first, as if he hadn’t realized until now that there was a girl in his bed. Then he was into it with a kind of enthusiasm that suggested he really liked surprises. Not that in the usual order of things Daniel lacked enthusiasm. It was surprises Daniel usually wasn’t keen on.
Afterward, Susannah couldn’t stop smiling. “We should fight more often,” she said.
Daniel gave her a sideways look. “Were we having a fight?” he said.
“Yes,” Susannah said. “But I forgot to tell you. Know what’s better than karaoke?”
“What?” Daniel said.
“Fighting,” Susannah said. “Also sex.”
“What would you have sung at the Cliff Hangar if we’d gone?” Daniel said. “If you were singing for me?”
Susannah said, “I would have picked Elton John. ‘Daniel.’ ”
“The obvious choice,” Daniel said. “So very obvious.” But he was smiling.
Susannah said, “But when it started I would have just started screaming. And kept on screaming.”
“So the usual,” Daniel said.
“Yeah,” Susannah said. “Why mess with a good thing? Want to come to What Hast Thou Ground? with me? I’ll make you a fancy coffee.”
“It’s Wednesday,” Daniel said. “Billy doesn’t open until noon on Wednesdays.”
He held up his hand, examining it. Susannah watched, bemused. He touched his nose, then his ears. Lifted up the sheet and appeared to be checking to make sure that his dick was still there, which of course it was.
“Any place is open if you’ve got the keys,” Susannah said. “I’ve got keys. Come on. Besides, Billy gets there early, and he’d love to see you.” This was true. Billy hated people, but he loved Daniel.
She checked her phone, saw Mo had texted her.
“What?” Daniel said.
“Mo,” she said. “Something’s up.”
“With Mo? What?” Daniel said. “Does he say?”
“Don’t know,” Susannah said. “Gonna go find out.”
“Tell him to come to the coffee shop,” Daniel said. “I’ll go with you.”
“You guys don’t even like each other,” Susannah objected, texting. She didn’t know if Daniel coming along was a good idea. “Unless you became friends in Ireland or something.”
“No,” Daniel said. “I don’t know. Hold up. I’m coming, too.”
“Maybe I should just go,” Susannah said. “You could come later. It’s just, Mo and I haven’t seen each other in a while.”
“I could walk you into town,” Daniel said. “Unless you’re sick of me.”
“Clingy,” Susannah said. “But okay.”
Lissy and Carousel were in the kitchen eating Pop-Tarts. They looked at Susannah, then at Daniel.
“Hey, guys,” Susannah said. “Just came over this morning to help Daniel out with something.”
“Help him out with what?” Lissy asked.
Susannah said, “Oh, you know. Just something. Something really cool.” She couldn’t think of anything, though. She waited for Daniel to help her out.
But Daniel was staring at his sisters. He looked as if he were suddenly sick to his stomach.
“You okay?” Susannah said.
“I’m fine,” he said. “You go. Tell Mo hey. I’ll see you later.”
“You sure?” Susannah said.
Daniel nodded.
“Someone made a mess in the kitchen last night,” Lissy said. “We cleaned it all up.”
“It wasn’t me,” Susannah said, because she really hadn’t. Then she wished she hadn’t said anything.
Lissy gave her a knowing look. Carousel just went on eating her Pop-Tart.
Susannah would have kissed Daniel goodbye before she left if they hadn’t had an audience. He really did not look good. Clearly whatever was going on with him was still going on. Eventually he would come clean, but that was not going to happen in front of his sisters.
She ducked into her house and put on more weather-appropriate clothes. There were black scuffs on one end of the white couch. She was probably going to get blamed for that as well when Ruth saw it. She got a Post-it note from the kitchen and wrote SUSANNAH DIDN’T DO THIS on it. Stuck it beside the scuffs.
When she checked her phone, Mo had texted back. He was on his way.