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She scooted a little closer, beginning to look worried. “Hurt you?”
“What?No.”
“Call you fat? Degrade you? Cross a personal boundary?”
I winced.
Because when she said it like that, it sounded as if I had a stellar boyfriend because I knew Damien would never doanyof those things.
“He lied,” I cut in before she could convince me that I was being ridiculous for getting upset with him in the first place. “He kept something major from me that is going to change my life as I know it.”
“Huh…” Thalia looked stumped by that. “Well, that’s not good either,” she admitted as she brought up a fingernail to her teeth to chew on. “It sounds as if he was preventing you from becoming your true self.”
“Yeah,” I admitted glumly. “I mean, I’m still me,” I added after a moment. “But…different.” I really didn’t know how to explain it. “I’m just…confused,” I concluded with a sigh.
“Well…” Thalia started as she bent her legs up to rest her feet on the couch and hug her knees to her chest. “Whenever I feel lost, like I’m questioning my own existence, I like to go back to my roots.”
“Your roots?”
She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. That’s the perks of having a solid, supportive family. They’re always there when you need them to remind you who you are. You said you had good parents, didn’t you?”
“I do,” I admitted, smiling as I thought of them. But they were six hours away right now.
“Man…” Thalia murmured nostalgically. “Whenever I’m feeling down, I just want to go home and ask my mom to make me some saganaki. She always made that for us when we were glum.”
Curious about this woman who would also be Damien’s mother, I asked, “What’s saganaki?”
“Oh my God.” Thalia rolled her eyes and rubbed her stomach. “Fried cheese. You cut it up into these thin slices, drag it through some flour, and then fry that sucker to perfection. It’s a Greek dish.” With a roll of her eyes, she added, “My mother clings to her Greek roots. But I guess with a maiden name like Thanopoulos, maybe it’s required.”
I smiled over her joke, beginning to miss my own mom with her Latin roots.
“I think Iwillcall my mom,” I said to myself. “First thing in the morning.”
Thalia didn’t need any more explanation than that. She merely nodded. “Good. You should. But until then…want to finishPitch Perfectwith me to help you get back to sleep?”
I couldn’t press her to ask how she knew I’d already been to sleep once tonight. I couldn’t come right out and ask about the screaming, the empty bedroom, the fact that she was no longer alive.
Because I really didn’t want to upset the harmony we had going. At the moment, I just wanted to make it through the night. And she was offering to help me.
So I let her.
“I’d like that. Thanks.”
The next thing I knew, the television along with the faux fireplace flickered on, and the movie began to play exactly where we’d left off the last time we’d watched it together.
“Here,” Thalia called before a throw pillow came lobbing my way. “Get comfy. We can fall asleep on the couch like we’re having a regular old slumber party.”
I nodded. “Sounds perfect.”
Dragging the lap blanket off the back of the couch, I wrapped it around me and laid down with my head on the pillow that my ghost roommate had just given me. Glancing over, I saw her doing basically the same thing on the other end of the wrap-around couch.
We smiled at each other, and then simultaneously returned our attention to the movie.
I knew it was strange; the only person who’d alleviated my fears was the very spirit haunting my apartment. But it worked, so I appreciated the company.
And I fell unconscious probably within the next fifteen minutes, sleeping deeply.
When I woke, it was morning and my phone was sitting on the arm of the couch next to me. Thalia was nowhere to be found.
