His Three-Day Girlfriend novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Honey

Poppy calls to welcome her back, Meredith tests Elliot at midnight, and a stolen text reaches her sister.

At six, Elliot's laptop rang, and a girl in a pink hoodie filled the screen.

"Hi, hi, hi! Is she awake? Oh my gosh, look at you!"

It was Poppy Laird, and she was waving both hands.

"I'm Poppy," she said. "Elliot's friend from his building. I've heard so much about you. I just wanted to say welcome back."

"Thank you," I said, and let my voice shake. "That's so kind."

"Aw, you're shy! Look, I brought you something."

She held up a little vinyl figure of a sleepy bear in a raincoat, still in its clear box.

"Limited edition," she said. "I've got ninety-one out of a hundred. Isn't he adorable?"

"He's very cute."

"I know, right? I'm going to get you a whole set."

She blew me a kiss.

She was so warm I almost felt bad.

Then I remembered the pink coat in the clinic corridor and the arm around her shoulders, and the feeling went away.

"Thank you, Poppy," I said. "You're really sweet."

Elliot reached over and ended the call.

He hadn't looked at me while she talked.

He had looked at the table.

We ate pasta he burned slightly, and I praised it, and he said "Thanks" like a man accepting a parking ticket.

Afterward I washed the plates and watched his phone on the counter.

He typed the passcode to answer a text, and I watched his thumb.

Zero. Four. One. Nine.

I washed the same plate for a long time.

Around ten, Elliot went to take a shower.

His phone rang on the counter, and the screen said *Poppy*.

I reached to silence it, and my thumb slid across the green button.

The screen showed a ceiling fan and the corner of a bed.

Poppy had propped her phone on a pillow, and she wasn't looking at it.

I could hear her, crisp and cheerful, talking to someone out of frame.

"God, she's so boring," she said. "She just stands there and says thank you. How did you ever do this for a year?"

A man's laugh answered.

Colin's laugh.

"That's the beauty of her, babe," he said. "You can say anything. She'll say thank you."

"Say thank you, Merry," Poppy said in a baby voice, and Colin laughed again.

My hand on the phone was shaking.

I held it still with my other hand.

I touched the red button, and the screen went dark.

I stood there with the counter pressing into my ribs and the shower running down the hall.

When Elliot came out in a T-shirt, with his hair wet, I was drying a glass.

By eleven he had made up the couch with a blanket and a pillow.

"I'll sleep out here," he said. "You take the bed."

"Thank you," I said, and I heard how it sounded.

He winced.

At midnight I got up.

I padded across the living room in the dark and sat on the floor beside the couch.

He wasn't asleep.

His eyes were open, looking at the ceiling.

"Elliot?"

"Yeah."

"I'm scared," I said. "I don't know who I am."

It was a lie, and it was also the first honest thing I had said in fourteen months.

His hand lay flat on the blanket.

I put my fingers over it.

For one second he went still.

Then he drew his hand away and tucked it under his hip.

"Go to bed, Merry," he said.

His voice was thick.

"It's all right," I whispered. "You're allowed to touch me. We're together."

"Don't," he said. "Please."

I went to bed.

I lay awake in a stranger's sheets, listening to a man pretend to sleep, and decided he was a better actor than Colin.

An hour later I crept out again.

He had fallen asleep for real this time, one arm over his face.

His phone lay on the arm of the couch.

I took it into the bathroom and shut the door.

Zero. Four. One. Nine.

The screen opened to a photo of a bridge at night, and nothing else.

I opened a blank message and typed a ten-digit number I had not forgotten.

*It's me. M. Don't answer if anyone's near you.*

I sent it, deleted it from the thread, and sat on the cold tile with my knees against my chest.

The phone buzzed in my palm before a minute had passed.

*MERI??? Is this really you? They told me you didn't want to hear from me. Where ARE you?*

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