Page 69 of Third Time Lucky

Chapter Eleven

Joey

I’m never leaving my apartment again.

I’m not all that sure I want to leave my bed in the foreseeable future. But if I do, I’m going to stay in this penthouse apartment for the rest of my life. Mr. Gordon could help me find people to deliver my groceries and cut my hair. Maybe he’d come visit me after he makes his rounds and gossips with the woman on the second floor. I don’t need anything else.

I’ll be like Fourth. A mystery other people wonder about, causing random blackouts by plugging everything in at the same time.

How did she cause the power surge that changed my life? Should we be calling her Eleven instead of Fourth?

Stranger Thingsreference. Elliot wouldn’t get that.

I don’t want to think about Elliot.

“You up there. Are you ever going to wake up so it can be my turn to go crazy, toss my cookies and pass out?”

I lift my head out from under my pillow. I could have sworn I heard—

“I made my special tea.”

Tani.

I scowl at the sunshine coming through the windows. Way to read the room, weather. “Give me a minute.”

My bright side for the day is that Tanisha is downstairs. She’s really here. Flew across the country with no warning, using the key I overnighted her when she realized I wasn’t home.

I’ve been nagging her to move here. I’ve been planning for her eventual arrival. But this isn’t like her at all, and that can’t mean anything good.

After a quick trip through a lukewarm shower and a long session with my toothbrush because my mouth tasted like rhino ass—I imagine—I’m almost back to normal.

I wish I’d had enough whiskey to black out, because then I wouldn’t remember Elliot carrying me up the stairs before I made a drunken beeline to the toilet for my Exorcist reenactment.

I wanted to tell him that it didn’t have anything to do with what happened in the elevator, but he was gone by the time I wandered downstairs for water, aspirin and a piece of bread in between bouts.

I’m sure he knows, but if we’d done what we did and he’d spent half the night worshipping the god of porcelain loudly enough for me to hear it through the wall? I might take it personally.

I can’t believe any of it happened. I had the hottest, kinkiest sexual experience of my life in a darkened elevator stuck between floors. And we were both just drunk enough to call it our second mistake and end up right back where we started.

He could be grateful Tani showed up when she did so we didn’t take it any farther. Not that we could have. Who am I kidding? Even if he had been curious enough to try for round three, the unforgettable events of Hurlapalooza ‘19 had to have changed his mind forever. Which is why I’m never leaving this apartment and will most likely die alone.

Hangover Joey is a downer.

I tug on pajama bottoms and a shirt, hobbling down the stairs to squint at my bestie. “D’you sleep okay? Find your bedroom? I labeled it for you.”

“I noticed.” She holds up one of my oversized coffee cups that reads:

Testes

Testes

1, 2…3?

Classic ball jokes crack me up. Surprise.

“Drink this now.”

I take it obediently, bending down to her five-foot-two level to kiss her cheek. “Thank you, dearest.”

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