Chapter 17: Lamp Off

Lena's room in Aldrich was smaller than mine and a great deal messier.

Her roommate's poster hung over the empty bed. A physicist in a lab coat, and under him, in cheerful letters: BE CHARGED.

"She's at her girlfriend's until Sunday," Lena said, and locked the door behind us.

"Is that a hint?"

"It's a fact. I like facts." She took off her flannel and dropped it on the desk chair. "Stand there."

I stood where she pointed, by the bed, with my coat still on.

She came across the room and took my glasses off my face.

"I can't see you," I said.

"You said that last time, too."

"It's still true."

"Then use your hands."

She put them where she wanted them, on her waist, under the hem of her shirt.

Her skin was warm and a little damp from the stairs, and I heard myself breathe out.

"Say it first," she said.

"Say what?"

"Ask me. You never asked me anything. Ask me now."

My mouth was dry.

"Can I take this off you?"

"Yes." She lifted her arms. "Yes, Malcolm. Please."

It was the first time she had said my first name.

I had to stop for a second, with the shirt halfway up her ribs, because it did something to me that I had no word for.

Then I pulled it over her head.

She had a small gold chain around her neck, a freckle under her left collarbone, and a faded scar on her shoulder from a bike fall.

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