“He’s still on my couch.”
She doesn’t say anything.
I keep my eyes closed. “If I go back now, he’ll be on that couch in the morning, and I’ll have to watch him drink coffee in my kitchen before I’ve had any of mine. I want one full night before I have to do that.”
She’s quiet for a long time.
“You’re not getting in my bed.”
I open one eye. “I would never.”
“The floor. With a pillow. One pillow. From the linen closet. Not one of mine.”
“Generous.”
“And you’re gone before Bree or Kirra wake up. Six a.m. You’re out.”
“Got it.”
“Six. Not six-oh-five. Six.”
“Six, Linwood.”
“And you do not tell anyone you stayed here.”
I look at her. “They all know I’m here, Linwood. That was the whole point of leaving. Gavin already thinks it. By morning, he’s convinced this is the real deal.”
She closes her eyes and drops her forehead to her knees for a second. Then she lifts her head. “Fine.”
“Fine.”
She starts listing it out on her fingers. “On the floor. Six a.m. Out the side door. Don’t wake my roommates.”
“Aye aye, princess.”
She gets up and disappears into the hall and comes back with a pillow that’s clearly been exiled to the linen closet — flat, faintly green, possibly white in a past life. She throws it at my chest. I catch it.
“You’re a real gem of a girlfriend, Linwood.”
“I’m your fake girlfriend, Ermington.”
“That’s what I said.”
She turns off the lamp. The room drops to dark, and the strip of light under the door.
I shift around on the floor until I find a position that won’t wreck my back. The pillow goes under my head. The carpet’s harder than I gave it credit for. I’m fully dressed, and I’m staying that way, unfortunately.
I lie there in the dark.
“Ermington.”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not letting him talk about me.”
