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“He helped inning to prickle in defensiveness What the hell is happening?

He held me while I threw up And called his brother in the ht He washed my dishes And I’m pretty sure he watched me sleep

“Oh Sorry, I thought we hated hi to work today?”

“Yeah, I’

ll go”

“I’m downstairs in the lobby if you, um, want me to drive you”

“Really? Isn’t today your first day of freedom?”

“Well, yeah But Mitchell’s written me a letter of recoive you a ride”

“I’ll be down in five” I check tolipstick on ard face would look ridiculous

“Hi,” Danny calls when I step out of the elevator He’s holding a bunch of white daisies My ehted and embarrassed

It seeht next to me I’d have to be blind to not see the split-second pop of crestfallen surprise in his eyes As sweaty and gross as I was on Friday, I still looked better than this

He blinks away his reaction and offers me the flowers “Are you sure you shouldn’t stay home?”

“I look worse than I feel Should I” I gesture at the elevator I take another look at hi a Matchbox Twenty concert T-shirt, and the sunglasses on the top of his head have ugly white frames We stand aardly and stare at each other

“You could always put them on your desk at work”

“Okay, I will” It seems like a bad idea but I’m all flustered If I take the flowers upstairs, I’ll have to invite him up We walk out to the pavement and I breathe my first fresh air in days