“Oh, holy *****. That’s the same one. This ***** cat, I swear to God-go away!-yeah, Colleen dated her for like, six months.”

“Yeah?”

“I think. I’ll ask her when she wakes up. But yeah, that was her name, I’m pretty sure. That was the girl who I was like, you know, I don’t want to start any sort of relationship if you’re still hung up on your ex, and Colleen was all, this isn’t a rebound thing, yadda yadda, whatever, long story short, Bette Porter’s supposed to be very hot. Apparently.”

I snickered. “Well, I’ll confirm if you want.”

“Are you sleeping with her? That’s awesome. I mean, were you sleeping with her?”

“No.”

“Oh. Whatever. Listen, when do you want to have coffee or something?”

“Today, tomorrow,” I said idly. “Whenever.”

“Well, I don’t have to work on Monday, and you’re job’s still shiftless, right, so is Monday good?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” I came out of the bedroom and walked toward the kitchen, unable to decide yet whether or not I wanted to be awake.

“Okay. I’ll call you.”

I hung up and set my phone on the counter in the kitchen and took a nearly habitual trek to the fridge and opened it, staring blankly into its black hole of nothingness, willing food to appear.

“It’s still empty.”

“Holy *****!” I cried, slamming the door closed and whirling around to face Max, who was standing around in his boxers and looking wide awake. As my heart relaxed a bit, I took a few breaths. “I forgot you were here.”

“Thanks.”

“Sorry.” I waved my hands around like a maniac. “You weren’t there when I woke up, so I forgot you stayed.”

“Oh, I was in the bathroom,” he said, pointing, “and I heard you on the phone.”

“Okay.” He looked at me expectantly. I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Uh… why don’t we get dressed and I’ll buy you breakfast?”

***

“Alice?”

“Hmm.” I liked the blankets. They were cool and soft. And I liked the sunlight on my back. And I almost liked the persistent way Bette was poking me in the shoulder.