Page 71 of Come Apart
I could leave now, but I'd be stuck in traffic for hours. I'd arrive at ten p.m. and need to leave by four a.m. if I wanted to get back to Samantha's place before she started freaking out.
"When are you going to be back?" she asks.
I take a deep breath. There's no way to soften this blow. "Sunday."
"Sunday?" Her voice falls.
"I'd rather leave tomorrow, but her parents are going out of town and she's afraid to be alone. She wanted me to stay through the weekend, but I offered a compromise."
"Oh."
Silence.
This really doesn't feel great.
"Well. I hope you come home with your hands clean of this." There's apprehension in her voice. "Wait. Her parents are out of town?"
"Yeah."
"And where will you be?"
"She asked me to stay at the house, but I already nixed that idea." "She asked you, huh?"
I can hear the implication.
"It's not like that. She just wants company."
"Yeah, if you were visiting me, I'd want company too." She exhales. "You can afford to drop four hundred dollars on a hotel for the weekend. Hell, I've seen your bank statements. You can afford a lot more than that."
"Snoop."
"You leave them on the kitchen table on purpose." "I'll break out all the stops to impress you," I tease. "And it doesn't mean anything, but I already refused the offer. She just needs someone nearby. We don't feel like that anymore."
"You don't." She agrees pointedly. "But I can't shake the feeling that she might not. What if she begs you to comfort her physically?"
I'm ready to start banging my head against the wall.
"She won't." "How do you know?" Because Samantha rejected my advances several dozen times. Because she'd rather sleep with my fucking dad.
I keep my voice calm. "I know. She's made that very clear. But even if anything like that happens, you have to know I would never cross that line."
Alyssa sighs.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
"Yeah. It's fine. But I should probably go."
"It's only this weekend," I say.
Alyssa sighs again.
I know what she's thinking.
Chances of that are slim with Sam.
And I can't even be mad at her for thinking that.
"How about you come over Sunday morning? I'm going to leave early. You can stay at my place so we don't wake up Laurie."
