Page 94 of Just Forever

Thirty minutes later, I go and get a beer from the fridge. I’d go for something harder, but we don’t have anything at home, and it’s not like I’m gonna go to a bar and get drunk right now.

I pick up my phone and debate calling Lake, but then I put it back down. It doesn’t feel like a conversation we should have over the phone. I’m not even sure he’d pick up, to be honest.

It’s better to let him calm down and come back to me.

So instead, I putter around the apartment for a while and then finally settle in on the couch with the remote. I click through old episodes of sitcoms, mind a million miles away. The canned laughter sounds unnerving in the empty, quiet apartment, but I turn the sound up anyway because that way I won’t hear all the distant sounds from outside.

And then I wait.

I jerkawake at the loud noise. It takes me a moment to figure out it’s my phone. I rub my fingertips over my eyes.

Why the hell am I on the couch?

Oh. Right.

I grab the phone and hope it’s Lake, but it’s a number I don’t know.

“H’llo?” I mutter into the phone.

Somebody clears their throat. There’s a beat of silence, then Lake’s voice.

“Hey,” he says. “It’s me. I… I need you to come and pick me up.” There’s another pause and then a soft “Please.”

I sit up straight, totally alert now. “Of course I’ll come. Where are you?”

I’m out the door two minutes later.

I’ve never pickedanybody up from a precinct before, so here’s to new experiences, I suppose.

Lake stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans and keeps his head down while we walk toward the car. Once there, we stop. Lake’s shoulders drop, and he taps his head against the driver’s side window for a good few seconds before he stops and turns to face me.

“I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time.

Lake frowns at me. “What are you sorry for?”

I shrug. “For getting into a fight with you.”

He eyes me thoughtfully. “I’m pretty sure that fight is on me.”

“We’ll call it even.”

He sends me the tiniest of smiles. “You’re way out of my league. You know that, right?”

“The brainwashing is finally starting to take, huh?”

This next smile is a bit more like the Lake smile I know and love. He replaces that with a sigh soon after.

“I just…” he says. Then, he shakes his head, looking impossibly lost all of a sudden.

I take his hand and link our fingers.

He blows out a big breath.

“Do you want something to eat?” I ask.

He sends me a relieved look and nods.

We find a diner that’s open in the middle of the night and slide into a booth. A tired-looking waitress drops off a couple of menus and for a little while we’re both occupied choosing our late-night meals. The waitress comes by again, takes our orders, and walks away.

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