Her questions made his insides squirm like a nest of vipers. Jack gripped the glass, ready to throw its contents in her face if he needed to. “The, um, audit?”
“Quit whispering about your fucking job,” Claudia snapped, tipping the rest of her drink down her throat. “You watch too much TV. That’s not why I asked you here.”
“Oh,” said Jack, genuinely surprised. “It’s not?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to repeat myself so much in my life.” Claudia rolled her eyes. “No. Don’t be stupid. I don’t know shit about you, why would I know about your job?”
“Because you’re in the, um, you know…” Jack gestured helplessly.
Claudia laughed, head thrown back, blond curls bouncing. Under other circumstances, Jack might’ve found her alluring. “I’mnot in anything,” she said, still cackling. “Calm down. I’m not a rabid dog. I don’t bite.”
Jack very much doubted this but nodded along because she seemed like the kind of person who might bite him, anyway.
“Listen,” said Claudia, refilling her glass, then Jack’s. “You ever feel like the days are just… sort of endless? Like nothing changes, and you’re just sort of stuck repeating the same bullshit day after day?”
Jack stared at her. Disbelief itched beneath his skin. “You mean like the dog days of summer?”
Claudia scowled. “Yeah, sort of. Listen, it’s complicated. I just—Tell me if you know what I mean, or not.”
Eyes locked on his bourbon, Jack said, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Like, for real.”
“Yeah,” said Jack, meeting her eye. “For real. I promise.”
Claudia sagged against the back of the chair. “Oh, thank fuck. I thought I was the only one.”
Jack’s heart stuttered in his chest. “The only one who what?”
“Was living the same day again and again,” she snapped. “I thought I was going crazy. Then I saw you, wandering all over town like a lost puppy. I tried to find you the next day, but you weren’t there anymore. At first, I thought you were a hallucination, but then I realized that you just weren’t following a set routine like everyone else. I was hoping you were sentient, you know? Not oblivious like the others.”
“Sentient,” Jack repeated, too astonished to add anything to value. “Like everyone else is a potted plant? Have you talked to them?”
Claudia snorted. “Yeah. Endlessly. Trust me, nobody else has any idea what’s going on.”
“I know,” said Jack. “But they’re stillpeople.”
“I didn’t say they weren’t,” Claudia groaned, covering her face with manicured hands. “But I’ve been trapped in this hell with nobody to talk to, and I’m going crazy!”
Jack felt the depth of that statement. “Yeah,” he admitted, swirling the liquid in his glass. “Me, too.”
“It was already tedious!” Claudia burst out, palms slappingagainst the desk. Hair swinging, brown eyes wide, she looked feral, half-mad, like a creature scurrying between garbage cans, shrieking as the moon rose higher into the sky. “Every damn day, the same fucking thing! ‘Babe, where are my eggs?’ ‘Is my suit pressed?’ ‘I’ll be back late!’” She threw her head back and groaned. “And now it’s even worse! Every day is the same, no matter what I do!”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Yeah. I know exactly what you’re talking about.” He was in too much shock to really process what she was saying, but her despair echoed in him. “I want to go home. And I can’t.”
“Neither can I.” Claudia downed another gulp of bourbon, paused to examine the liquid in the decanter. “This stuff is good. I wonder what it is.”
“I can’t say I’m much of an expert,” Jack admitted.
“I’ll ask,” she said. “Someone’ll tell me.”
They sat in silence for a long moment. Jack tapped a rhythm on the arm of the chair. “So, this isn’t home?”
Claudia laughed, loud and airy. “No. It’s a vacation house. It’s my, uh, soon to be ex-boyfriend’s vacation house.”
“Oh,” said Jack. Worry slithered in his gut like a worm writhing through muck. Her boyfriend was mobster. A wealthy mobster, which meant that he was pretty high in the ranks. Which meant that Jack was probably in danger even if her boyfriend wasn’t the jealous type.
He held his satchel close, as if it might protect him from being shot full of holes.
