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He turned to go to his room only to get a splash of holy water in the face.

“In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Clarence prayed, holding up his rosary.

“What the hell!” Milo spluttered.

“Pagan cleansing will not work, so I have provided Jesus.”

“I don’t think Jesus needed to splooge all over my face!”

Clarence gasped and threw more holy water on him. “You are clearly possessed.”

Milo wiped his face clean. “I’m fine, you guys!”

“Wine and fries?” Conrad called back, waddling from his room in his robe and slippers. “At this time of night? The doctor said I need to watch my cholesterol.”

Another door opened and Ethel popped her head out, rollers first. “What is all this racket?”

“Nothing, Ethel. Sorry for waking you,” Milo said, slipping past Clarence and away from the holy bukkake.

She eyed him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong!” Milo exploded. “Can we all just drop it?”

“You’ve been coming home smiling from ear to ear for days and now you come home with a thundercloud over your head and you expect us not to notice? Some of us are deaf, not blind.”

“What?” Conrad yelled, shuffling closer.

Ethel rolled her eyes.

Milo sighed out a breath. “It was a tough day at work, that’s all. Everything just caught up to me at once. And I didn’t have any coffee.”

“You’re in misalignment with the stars,” Shelly told him.

“Which a good night’s sleep should fix right up!” he said peppily. “We have Glenn’s appointment in the morning and then it’s bingo night!”

Bingo was the magic word, and they all started discussing the last time they were there and how rigged it was that Martha had won twice in a row. They were determined to catch her out.

Milo slipped away in the chaos, closing his door behind him and pressing his back against it in relief.

He was definitely fine.

He didn’t need to see Rowan every day. He just had because he was there. And now he wouldn’t be. Which was FINE.

He swallowed around what felt like glass shards in his throat, cupping the weird sensation in his stomach.

He tried to shower it away, and for a moment he did feel moderately better, here in his familiar space, with his hoard surrounding him. But his mind was on Rowan’s apartment and how he hadn’t left enough things there really.

Also, Rowan wouldn’t even be there.

Who was looking after his hoard while he was away? Why hadn’t he asked Milo? They had each other’s numbers but they never really texted. They just kind of…ran into each other all the time. Milo would show up at Rowan’s apartment. Rowan would show up at his work.

Milo hadn’t even thought about it further than that.

But now he couldn’t stop.

He dried off and crawled into bed on autopilot, staring up at the stained ceiling.

Everything was fine.