The Water Column by Aran Jane

Author:Aran Jane [Jane, Aran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780578622897
Publisher: Roquebrune Books
Published: 2020-02-23T22:00:00+00:00

The morning arrived with a blinding reminder that the drapes had been left open. The light blared into Lila’s eyes like a silent alarm. When she finally realized where she was, she found she was alone.

She stretched, got up to pee, and, on the way back, smiled at herself in the mirror. She fussed with her hair. “Mark!” she called out. No answer. Then again, louder this time: “Mark?” Nothing. Spotting his robe draped over a chair, she slipped it on and padded downstairs to look for him, only to discover that she was alone in the house. Even the dog was gone. What was happening? Why did he disappear? She went over to her purse and grabbed her notebook, something familiar—something she could control. Shivering, feeling as if the floor was beginning to give way beneath her, she leaned on the table and scribbled a “four” in her notebook. She was halfway back up the stairs when the front door swung open.

“Hey! You get my note?” he asked. He gazed down into the open bagel bag he held in his hand. When he looked up at her again, he smiled.

“No!” she answered more caustically than she’d intended. Once upset, it was doubly hard for her to shift gears. “And I don’t appreciate you leaving without telling me. It’s not just rude, it’s fucking irritating!” She realized that maybe she was especially on edge due to their “dangerous folks” exchange the night before, but being aware of that didn’t make it better.

“I left you a note,” he said again, confused. “You were sleeping so soundly; I didn’t want to wake you.” He held up the goodies. “I just ran down to Bagelers. I’m sorry.” He shrugged. “I figured you for a bagel gal.”

She looked at the coffeehouse bag, her anger wrestling with relief and the embarrassing awareness of how ridiculous she must seem. She took a calming breath, counted silently to ten, then said, “Did you get cream cheese?”

“Of course.”

“Okay then.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.