Page 10 of Heartbeat

“You shouldn’t smoke.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not the kind of thing that discriminates.”

“So?”

“You shouldn’t smoke, either?” he pointed out.

“Touché.”

He smirked. “Tell me. Casper? Were you not ready to have him show up?”

“Uh—no, that isn’t it. It was nice that she—”

He just kept looking at me, waiting for me to finish, which I thought was kind of cool.

“It’s actually a bit complicated,” I eventually said.

“Ah,” he said, sounding wise. “Then you’re in luck because I’m good with complicated.”

“You are?”

“Uh-huh.” he nodded. “Why don’t we head back inside and talk some more?”

“Thank you, but I think I’m going to go home.”

I’d forgotten that my dosage had changed since the hospital. In normal circumstances, I would’ve handled the vodka pretty well. These were not normal circumstances though. Normally, I wouldn’t have lithium, venlafaxine, and duloxetine to worry about, at least not so much of it. And although I didn’t care how nauseous it was making me, I didn’t really want to vomit right at that moment either.

“Are you here with anyone?” Ethan asked me.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I just saw you drink half a bottle of Smirnoff in there; I don’t really think it’s a good idea for you to drive.”

“I’m not driving. I feel like walking, actually. And this is New York; who even has a car?”

He smiled. “In that case, do you want some company?”

“It’s a very long walk.”

He just took an extra second to speak. “I got all night.”

Chapter Four

Parallel Universes

We walked for the first five blocks in silence, with me trying to continue going in a straight line while still focusing quite a bit of energy in keeping the contents of my stomach inside said stomach.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” I was finally able to say.

“I wanted to,” Ethan said. “Besides, I got stood up, so it was either walking you home or drinking alone.”

“Who stood you up?”

“Lucy Bell.”

“Yeah, I don’t know who that is.”

“She’s in my English lit class.”

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