Chapter 4: Boxes

Maddox did not mention the café.

That night I came home at ten from the library desk, and he was at the table with a textbook and a bowl of plain rice.

"I'm sorry about this morning," I said from the doorway. "What I said to Chandler came out wrong."

He turned a page.

"It was true," he said. "You rent a room. I'm your roommate."

"That's not what I meant."

"It's what you said." He kept reading. "Your key's on the hook."

He said it evenly, with no edge in it at all.

It would have been easier if he had been angry.

I went to bed and lay awake, listening to the dryers turn downstairs and trying to decide why I cared.

The next afternoon Teddy drove me to the suite in a Jeep that smelled like hockey tape.

"I'm the muscle," he told me in the parking lot. "Maddox made me promise not to hit anyone."

"Is that likely?"

"I'm a goalie. I stop things. I don't start them."

Camilla opened the door of our suite before I could knock.

She was in yoga pants with her hair in a perfect knot, and she hugged me before I could step back.

"Roxy! I've been so worried. Come in, come in. I made you a bag for the bathroom things."

She handed me a clear plastic bag with my toothbrush, shampoo and face wash in it.

It was thoughtful of her.

I did not open it to check.

I only wanted to be out of that suite as fast as I could.

"Thanks," I said.

"The boxes are all in your room. Take the lamp too, I never liked it." She smiled up at Teddy. "Hi. I'm Camilla."

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