“Just don’t mess with that plug while you’re in there.” His voice echoed in my brain as I turned on the water and wet a washrag. “Are you going to come out again soon?” he called from the living room. “Because your beer is getting hot.” I found myself biting my lower lip to keep from shouting back a number of bad responses, ranging from an observation on the general nastiness of light beer to a fairly dirty retort regardi...

Part One “How was your drive?” he asked me as he opened the door to let me into his apartment. I had never seen it before, not since he moved out of state a few months ago. “Fine,” I said, shrugging as he took my bags out of my hands. Two personal bags, and one grocery bag. He set them on the table as I glanced around briefly. Of course, he didn’t give me very long to see much more than the basic layout, which was probabl...