Page 99 of Jep

“Why don’t you go into the bathroom and clean up. I can’t concentrate with you looking like that.”

“It’s that bad?”

“You look like a corpse.”

“That’s what Pearce said when he found me. All right. I’ll go make myself presentable. Through there?” He pointed down the hall.

“Yeah. Second door on the left. There are fresh towels in the closet across the hall.”

“Thanks.”

She took the creamer from the fridge and pulled the coffee machine from a cupboard, plugging in on the counter before retrieving a couple of pods from a drawer.

The pipes groaned for a couple of seconds as the shower started. They always had. She hugged the pods to her chest and smiled. There was something cozy and safe about being here with Jep. It was normal. Easy.

Once the water turned off, she popped the first pod into the machine and started it. She was leaning against the counter when he emerged with damp hair and a clean face, and she almost sighed. “Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

She focused on the drink as she handed it to him, afraid the look on her face would give her away.

He took the cup and breathed in the steam. “This is exactly what I needed. So was that shower.”

“Here’s the creamer and sugar.” She set them up on the counter next to where he sat on a stool.

He added a splash of cream. “You’ll have to show me where Carla keeps the vacuum. I shook out my clothes without thinking, and now there’s a thin film covering the floor.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” She put in another pod and waited while it hummed and gurgled. “I got this coffee maker for my aunt for Christmas, but she never uses it.”

“Why did you get her a coffee machine if she doesn’t drink coffee?”

“She drinks instant. Always has. I thought I could convert her, but she insists it tastes better.”

Jep snorted. “To each his own.”

“So…I’m curious.”

“About?”

“Yourfaith.”

“You want more stories?”

“Yeah. I’m interested to know where it began. After growing up the way you did, how’d you find God?”

“It was messy.”

“Too messy to share? It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“No. It’s not a secret. I was hallucinating and stepped off the roof of a five-story building.”

“What? Are you being serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Wh—how?”

“A girl dumped me, and I was not handling it well. A friend of mine had access to the roof of this building where we used to hang out and get high. I went up there to stew and…maybe it was the drugs or maybe it was the devil—probably both—but a black fog settled around me and whispered seductive darkness into my ear.”

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