Chapter 7: Test Drive

"Why do you want to know?" I said.

"A man from the electric company came for an inspection," she said. "The apartment was empty, so they called me. Why weren't you there?"

So that was the call.

I had hoped, for a second, that someone had finally told her.

I laughed without making a sound.

"Do I need your permission to leave the apartment? Am I not allowed a day of my own?"

"You stopped cooking. You stopped coming home. You pick fights over nothing. Now you want to travel alone?"

Outside the window, the sunset ran orange over the rooftops.

"Nothing is wrong with me," I said. "I'm only seeing straight."

She went quiet.

Then she said, in the voice she used on residents, "Then see straight on your own."

"I won't be home tonight. Neither will you, I assume."

"Let's find out who calls first."

The line clicked.

Heath looked ready to smash his own phone.

"She runs a department. One question to one nurse, and she'd know you're lying here. She never asks."

His eyes were wet before he finished.

He pulled me into a hug and held on.

"Cry if you need to."

I rested my head on his shoulder for a long time.

Then I shook my head.

"I don't have any left."

Three days later they cleared me to leave, and I went home for my bags.

I opened the door and found Sabine standing in the living room.

We looked at each other.

"You're back," she said. "Where have you been?"

I walked past her into the bedroom and started going through the drawer where I kept my papers.

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