NA

dio. I watched the city lights streak by, my mind a mess. Beckett's performance tonight

aid softly, brea

red, and the three words were like a bucket of cold wate

d didn't speak again until we wer

d to shrink, amplifying the awkwardness between us. We were no lo

pulling a set of bedding from

to. This is your apartment.

ink I'm going to let my woman sleep on the couch while I take the bed?" His tone made it clear the d

at small couch, and a complicated mix of feelings chur

rd sat on the table next to a note written in his sharp, fo

is six-foot-something frame onto that ridiculous sofa simply because he refused to let me be uncomfortable. He insisted it was all part of the contract, but somehow, the apar

t and a new resolve took hold. I couldn't l

ft store and a flower shop. I used the card. I bought a soft rug, a few throw pillows, a

ire day transfo

wn sketches-Chicago street scenes, the cat fr

a warm yellow tablecloth and placed

pillows, and a cozy lamp sto

the living room. It was a hockey rink. The light was focused on the ice, where skate b

t was still small, but now it was filled with the warmth of life

ETT

ed from practice. All I wanted was a shower, something to eat, a

turing the same bare white walls and lifel

ed the door

of flowers and something savory cooking on the stove. For a sec

and sketches all over the blank wall-Chicago streets, a cat, a sunset. Somehow, in less than a

someone wanted t

aw the p

tured one. There were no faces, no cheering crowds, no scoreboard. Just ice beneath a hard beam

d what hocke

her own studio someday. That had been information I'd memorized because I needed to survive dinner with

're

ring an apron, with what looked suspiciously like flou

it should have. The warm room behind her, the smell of dinner, that

g I had no bu

e trusting myself to say any

ow tablecloth. The meal was simple, homemade pasta, but I couldn't remembe

ingerprints on it. She hadn't filled the place with expensive things,

ood and gathered the p

to rise. "

oice came out roug

The sink was too low, the counter was cramped, and I was pretty sur

na watching me f

t turn

hange. She needed a shield from her family, and I needed someone respectable beside me lon

lt like a home because of her, I was beginning to r

difficult to remember which parts of thi