Page 94 of So Thirsty

He opens the tavern door and leads me through it.

Tatiana is where she was when I left, on her blanket. She paints her nails, looking apathetic. Ilie, Elisa, and Naomi sit at a table playing cards, all topless.

“You two were gone for a while,” Tatiana says, smirking.

“Get good rest,” Henry says. “We have a long drive tomorrow night.”

He takes my hand and walks me past the hearth, around the corner to a doorway. There’s a small storage room. “We can sleep in here.”

“On the floor?” I ask, sounding snotty though I’m really just concerned. I’m too old to sleep on a hard surface. I can barely get comfortable on a mattress.

He points to a stack of cushions in a corner. They’re dusty, but they’re something. He picks them up and arranges them on the floor and we get on top, and I rest my head on his chest. It’s not so bad.

“If you decide you might want to go somewhere with me, they wouldn’t have to come with us,” he says. “We could go out on our own.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. A stupid question. I know what he means.

“The two of us.”

“I’m not going to ditch Naomi,” I say.

“She’d go with Ilie, or Elisa. Or both. They would look after her. And we’d see them again.”

I turn onto my back, look up at the ceiling, where cobwebs cling and flutter as a draft sneaks in from somewhere.

It’s not like I see Naomi all the time as it is. We go months without getting together. We lead separate lives. We talk at least once a week, though. And I doubt we’d be able to communicate now, considering she tossed her phone out the car window, and I just realized I left mine in the car after the accident, so it’s likely been cremated.

As much as I’m frustrated with her, disappointed, resentful…the thought of separation makes me uneasy. After everything we’ve been through, how could we leave each other now?

Henry slides his arm under me and starts to play with my hair, and somehow it’s more intimate than the sex, more intimate than anything I’ve ever experienced.

My mind empties of everything except one question. Wouldn’t it be nice to stay like this forever?

—

It’s the best sleep of my life. Deep and dreamless. There’s no need to dream when your reality is so surreal. When you get to wake up next to Henry.

“Good evening,” he says, nudging me with his nose.

“Hi,” I say. “We slept all day?”

He nods, then starts to kiss up and down my neck.

Normally I’d be insecure about how I haven’t showered, or brushed my teeth, or applied deodorant, about how my body isn’t what it used to be. I’d be thinking about all my flaws, and all the things I’d have to do when it was over. Joel would be on top of me and physically I’d be under him, but mentally I’d be paying the electric bill or sending a work email or cleaning the filters on my beloved Dyson or adding bananas to the grocery list.

But it’s impossible not to be present with Henry. Not to be here in my body while he undresses me slowly, while he—

There’s a knock on the door.

“Hey.” It’s Naomi. “Sloane?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re getting ready to head out.”

“Okay. We’re coming.”

Henry chuckles and I pinch his side, which only makes him laugh harder.