Chapter 22: Three

I turned the lease over and wrote on the back of the last page, in blue ink, the way my mother would have.

Cal read over my left shoulder, and Devin read over my right.

Nobody said a word until I put the pen down.

1. Tenancy continues for as long as all three of us want it.

2. Nobody touches anybody unless they're awake and have said so out loud.

3. Nobody leaves out the big thing.

4. Nobody leaves without asking the others to stay first.

5. Rent is paid in dinners.

"Dinners," Cal said.

"You cook terribly. It'll be good for you."

"I'm a contractor, I don't cook."

"Then you'll learn."

Devin took the pen from me.

He signed his name under the last line, small and square, and he looked up at me with eyes that weren't careful at all.

Cal signed next, with a flourish.

I signed last.

I didn't draw a heart.

I made a long, plain line, and under it I wrote the date.

"That's a contract," Devin said.

"That's my house."

"It says nobody touches anybody unless they say so." Cal tipped his head. "Right now, then. Kate. Say so."

"Upstairs," I said.

I took them up to my old room.

It had a narrow bed under the window and a poster of a band I didn't like anymore.

The afternoon sun lay in long stripes across the floor.

I stopped in the middle of it and turned around.

"Strip," I said. "Both of you. Slowly."

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