I Was Already Gone novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Rule

Roxie's building had no buzzer.

I stood in the rain and shouted her name up at the third floor until a window opened.

"You're in your socks," she said.

"I know."

"They're not even matching."

"I know that too."

She shut the window.

I thought that was the end of it.

Then the door clicked, and I took the stairs up.

She was waiting in a gray T-shirt with her arms crossed.

"No talking about Laney in bed," she said. "That's the rule. I'm not in bed. Talk."

"I loved her," I said. "That's true, and I said it, and I won't take it back."

"Great."

"I loved her at nineteen, on the steps, when I wrote the song."

"And?"

"I stopped before I met you. I didn't know I'd stopped until you put your hands on my ribs."

Roxie looked at the wall.

"I'm the rebound," she said. "I told myself that in your practice room, and again at your door."

"You're not."

"It's the oldest story there is, Marlow. A man gets his heart stepped on, and the nearest woman with a mic stand gets the fallout."

"Roxie."

"Then tell me the first honest thing you ever said to me."

I opened my mouth, and nothing came.

She watched me, and her chin went up.

She looked like she had seen this before and had no patience left for it.

"The laundromat," she said.

"What about it?"

"That was the first lie. I've been counting the rest."

I felt it land in the middle of my chest.

"Seven, by my math," she said.

"Seven."

"I spent two days wondering if I'd gone deaf."

"I'm sorry."

"Then you stood on my stage, and I posted your video to a hundred thousand strangers like an idiot."

Her voice shook, and she let it.

"I had to learn the truth from a tired man with a mug. You let me find out last."

"Yes," I said.

"Do you know what that is, to be the slow one in the room?"

"Yes. I do."

It came right away.

I heard how quickly it came, and so did she.

"I lied because I was afraid you'd look at me the way Laney does," I said.

"How does Laney look at you?"

"Like someone she has to be patient with. I wanted one person who thought I was fast."

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