Page 411 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

Unslaved by Andrew Harding.

I stop in front of the black door stamped in brass: room 613.

I grip the handle and push it wide.

Used to be in this room every day before I met Andrew.

But this time, when I step inside,

everything about this is wrong.

I am in the wrong place

at the wrong time

with the wrong guy

doing the wrong fucking thing.

White sheets slice through the dark, curtains spilling down in pale, ghostlike waves.

Everything else is black, black, black.

Black walls,

black furniture,

black floor…

It’s supposed to feel endless, a night sky. It’s not supposed to feel like a black hole, a coffin.

Ben plays a statue well: kneeling, eyes aimed at the marble, perfectly still. But I can’t even appreciate it ‘cause Andrew’s voice is circling.

‘You don’t give a fuck.

‘Not about me. Not about us.’

I don’t want to hear it.

I don’t want him pacing in my head.

I cross the room,

my heart pounding with dread.

‘We’re all just pawns in Allison Taylor’s fuckin' world.’ These words have been nailed into me, and they’re rusting with every breath I take.

It’s sick, I feel sick,

how does he have the power

to make me feel this sick.

‘I need space.

‘From you.’

I grab the remote and hit play on the surround sound, shutting him out.