A Night With A Stranger novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: No Touching in Private

Bree picked a diner on Ogden Avenue where nobody from the Cellar ever went.

She was already in the back booth when I got there, in a hoodie, with her ponytail down and her eyes swollen.

I slid in across from her.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. Everything." She pressed her hands to her face. "Mar, I did something stupid."

"What kind of stupid?"

"I can't tell you."

"Then why did you ask me here?"

"Because I can't not." Her voice broke. "He made me promise, and I can't tell you, and I can't stop thinking about you in that hotel."

My stomach went cold.

"Who made you promise? Dennis?"

She shook her head hard, and tears dripped onto the table.

"Bree. Look at me."

"I can't."

I reached across the sticky Formica and took both of her hands.

They were freezing.

"Whatever it is, we'll fix it," I said. "You've been my friend since I started. You gave me your coat in January."

She cried harder.

"That's what makes it worse."

The waitress came with coffee and went away again when she saw our faces.

For ten minutes Bree said nothing that mattered, and I said nothing back, and I held on to her hands.

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