“Please, Paisley, just give me another chance,” Jeremy pleaded. “I’ve got my place near campus, in the Lakeview Apartment complex. I wanted to give you some room to think things over and let you come to your senses.”
I stopped what I was doing, frozen in mid-air, the muscles in my body tightening. “Excuse me?” I said, looking straight at Jeremy. “Mysenses?”
“Now, don’t get mad, P,” Jeremy said and stepped back as I stepped toward him. “I just wanted to talk to you, to sort things out. I’m sorry about everything, about my affair with Brenda … I just—”
“Get out.”
“Oh, Paisley, stop—”
“I said get out,” I repeated, my tone of voice dropping to such an icy degree that Jeremy stopped talking. “And if you don’t get out right now, I will drag your cheating ass out of my apartment andmake youget out.”
Whether he believed me or not wasn’t clear, but it did the trick because Jeremy gathered up his jacket, fixed the glasses on his nose, and walked out the door without another word.
“God, P, I’m so sorry,” Jake said, unsticking himself from the couch to cross the room to me. “I had no idea.”
“It’s okay, Jake.” I was so tired after tossing and turning all night, and even more so now after seeing Jeremy. Amid recent events, something about that arrogant ass seemed to suck the energy right out of me. Fatigue tugged at my eyelids as I went to the fridge for a glass of wine.
“Well, hey, I gotta go,” Jake said. “I work in a few hours, and I promised a friend I’d stop by.”
“A friend, huh?” I asked, pouring a small glass of wine. “Like—a female friend?”
Jake flushed and shook his head, but he forced a smile. “Just a friend.”
“Have a good shift,” I said and took a sip from my glass. “I think I’m going to fall asleep and not wake up for a while.”
“Sure. Call me if you need anything.”
Once Jake left, I kicked off my shoes and drew the curtains over the windows to block out the sunlight. Then I locked the bolts on the door and hunkered down with a glass and a bottle of wine in front of the TV. I called Hansen again, praying he would answer, but there was still nothing. I had barely spoken to him since yesterday morning and hoped he was okay.
Feeling a bit antsy and out of sorts, I chugged the first glass of wine, poured another, and it was only minutes before I’d fallen asleep in the deep crevices of the cushions.
When I woke later to the ringing of my cellphone, it was dark outside. The whole apartment was draped in black. Fumbling for my phone, I grabbed it and placed it to my ear without checking the caller ID, wiping the sleep from my eyes.
“Yeah?”
“Paisley, it’s Hansen.”
“Oh, Hansen, hi.” I sat back on the couch, yawning, glad he’d finally called me back. “Is everything okay? You sound—weird.”
“The station got a call about an hour ago,” Hansen said. There was a note in his tone I wasn’t familiar with, concern that I had never heard before. I froze, sensing something bad was about to be said.
“Erik?”
A long sigh proceeded as though he was hesitant to say whatever was on his mind. “There was a fire near campus,” he said. “In the Lakeview Complex.”
“Lakeview?” I repeated, and a sliver of horror climbed up my spine. “But, Hansen, Jeremy is—”
“Jeremy is fine,” Hansen said. “He wasn’t home when it happened, but five other units burned with his.”
“The fire started in his apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Do they know how?”
“Not yet, but they believe it’s an arsonist.”
“Jesus.” I put my head in my hands. My heart beat so loudly I could hear it in my head, pulsating off the insides of my skull.
