I Told My Therapist About My Stalker, but He Already Knew novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Washed Hands
Eli held the hand under the water and watched the blood come away in threads.
The tub in the East Pike apartment was old and deep, with feet.
It had taken the hot water twelve minutes to fill, and neither of them had spoken once in all of it.
It was eleven at night.
Keogh had kept them seven hours.
There had been a van, and a room with no windows.
A woman with a recorder had asked each of them to say what they had seen three times.
Coburn was in a cell in Tacoma with a broken cheekbone.
The list was over, all ten names.
Eli sat on the edge of the tub in his boxers and a bandage.
Simon sat in the water to his waist, naked, with his back against the porcelain, and let his right hand be held.
"It stings," he said.
"Good."
"I did not say it was bad."
Eli worked the soap into the split knuckles with his thumb, slowly, and rinsed them, and watched Simon's face.
The grey eyes were not on the hand.
They were on the long white dressing taped over Eli's ribs, where the blade had gone through the skin.
"It's six stitches," Eli said. "It's nothing."
"It is six stitches."
"I've had worse from a bike."
"You have not had worse from anything." Simon's voice was very low. "I watched it go in."
"I know you did."
"You told me not yet."
"I did."
"Ninety-four seconds."
Eli looked up.
"You counted?"
"I counted every one."
The wet fingers closed on Eli's, loosely.
"I counted them in my head, in two languages. I have never done anything so difficult."
The water slopped against the side of the tub.
Eli set the hand on the rim and dried his own palms on his thighs.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Told My Therapist About My Stalker, but He Already Knew are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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