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“It’s not that bad,” she said as she looked around.
“Yes, it is.” I untangled my limbs from her body and stood up to take a piss and pull my clothes on. I shifted a little bit in the pants—they were starting to get a little rough on my ass from the lack of clean underwear. I definitely needed to get to my place for supplies.
Odin followed me into the bathroom and sat there as I dressed, wagging his tail with his bone hanging part way out of his mouth. I grabbed it, ordered him to drop, and then tossed it to the other side of the room.
“I can’t really afford anything else at the moment.” I glanced in Lia’s direction and watched her pull her shirt on over her head. “I haven’t even found a job here yet.”
“You don’t need one,” I countered. I grabbed the bone back from Odin and threw it again.
“Of course I do,” she said. “I only have enough to cover rent and utilities for another month or so.”
“You don’t need any more.” I was dismissive in my tone but didn’t want to come right out and tell her just how much money I had stashed away in various places.
“Well, then I guess I’ll be staying in this hellhole.”
I watched her for a moment, trying to judge her mood. She certainly sounded pissy, but her posture was casual.
“I’ll take care of you,” I finally said.
“Evan, you just got out of jail, and we don’t even know when your hearing will be or anything yet.”
“There won’t be one.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I cupped her face in my hands, placed my lips against hers, and kissed her deeply.
“I’m going to take care of it all,” I promised. “Then we’re going to leave Chicago altogether.”
“And go where?”
“I have a few options.”
“You’re being very vague.”
“Yep.”
“Evan!” She took a step back from me and placed her hands on her hips.
“Lia,” I mocked back. I smiled warmly to try to break the building tension. “I can explain more later. Right now, I just need to get back to my apartment and assess the damage.”
With minimal additional protest, we collected Odin and his stuff, and I called a taxi from Lia’s phone.
“That’s going to be expensive,” Lia remarked.
“No one’s going to let him on a bus,” I said, nodding toward the dog. “A big tip goes a long way with a taxi driver.”
“I don’t have that much cash.”
“We’ll take care of it when we get back to my place.”
When we did get there, the apartment was a disaster.
The scene was almost enough to remind me of a warzone, but not quite. There was still crime tape up on the door, but I tore it away and shoved the door open to reveal most everything I owned spewed out all over the floor.
Papers, boxes, even dishes and shit from the cabinets in the kitchen were lying all over the floor, the counters, and the dining room table. My desk drawers were all pulled out, and papers were everywhere. All the cords and shit for my laptop were there in a heap, but the machine itself was gone.
“Wow.” Lia breathed out the word with a huff of air. “This is a mess.”
