I didn’t like that.It didn’t matter that it was Britta.
Me not hearing someone move in the apartment was a problem.
“You planning on moving anytime soon?”I asked.
She let out a light laugh and shook her head.“I hope not, but lately things seem to happen whether I want them to or not.”
“That’s life, sugar.”I took another drag and let the smoke out slowly.“Fucking life.”I glanced over at her.“Couldn’t sleep?”
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her waist, rubbing at her sides like she was trying to warm herself up.“I think I’ve done all the sleeping I can for the moment.My eyes just popped open, and I know there is no way I’m going back to sleep anytime soon.”
I looked at the clock on the cable box.Two-oh-three.“I think two a.m.might be too early to start your day.”
She wandered over to the window and stopped next to me.
Close.
Not touching, but close enough that I was aware of every inch between us.
Close enough that if I moved the wrong way, my arm would brush hers.
She looked out at the street below.“Anything interesting going on out there?”she asked.
“Nope,” I said.“And that’s how I like it.”
She sighed and leaned one shoulder against the wall near the window.“I’ve never really just stopped and watched out my window before,” she said.“I don’t think Madison ever really sleeps, does it?”She looked at me.
I shrugged.“I mean, you’ve got about two hours of quiet between the barflies and the early birds jogging State Street and heading to work.”
That got a tired little smile out of her.
We stood there in silence for a while, just watching.
A guy in a backwards cap tried and failed to walk a straight line across the street.A girl in a University of Wisconsin sweatshirt sat on the curb, laughing so hard she had tears running down her face while her friend waved down a rideshare.Somewhere farther off, a siren whined and then faded.A delivery truck rolled by slower than it should’ve for that hour, rattling over the rough patch of pavement at the corner.
A city like this never really shut down.
It just changed shifts.
Britta tipped her head slightly toward the glass.“Do you think we could go to The Badger Den tomorrow?”
The word no was on the tip of my tongue.
Over the last week and a half, I’d learned something important about Britta.
No didn’t work on her.
Not really.
Tell Britta no, and all you did was make her look at you like you’d personally insulted her ancestors.
“You sure you’re up for it?”I asked instead.
She shrugged, her expression turning a little wry.“I mean, probably not.But I have to do something other than just lie around, Swift.”She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.“The bar is only down the street.If I get tired, I can easily find somewhere to sit there, or we can just head back here.”Then she looked at me with a twinkle in her eye that told me she already knew she was wearing me down.“I mean, I could be wanting to go for a motorcycle ride and kicking you out of my apartment,” she pointed out.
I took another drag off the cigarette and let the thought sit.
She had a point.Not that I was going to tell her that too quickly.“I guess you have a point there, sugar.”
