text. I wonder at the image. I can’t tell where this picture was taken, but it’s a good table in what looks like a decent restaurant. Both men are in collared shirts, no ties, with their sleeves rolled up. They look like high rollers taking a few minutes to relax from being kings of the world. What did Tommy end up doing after school, anyway? The Falls isn’t so small that I’ve been forced to keep tabs, but I could easily find out. I seem to remember he had ambitions in finance, so maybe he’s rich. Fucking Tommy, can’t even be a slob like he’s supposed to be.
What were they talking about before this photo was taken?
What made Chadd suggest taking the photo, then send it to me?
Do they know? Do the two men know what they have in common? This little pic suggests they must. Because it’s not like Chadd and I are in a dating situation, where casual texts make sense. His first text was a prelude to a booty call, so what’s this? It can’t be a prelude to a threesome, can it?
The thought embarrasses me more than I’d think possible. The idea that the two of them got to chatting, and Chadd told Tommy about this girl he fucked in a bathroom. Tommy would have said, Hey, I fucked her too.
Maybe she’d be up for fucking us together.
I want to smash my phone. I want to smash their faces. How dare they? How dare they talk; how dare they presume; how dare they propose something something so bold?
You take the back, I can hear Tommy telling Chadd, and I’ll take the front.
I can imagine their high-five.
I’m shaking. I can barely see the phone because my emotions are gripping my throat. This isn’t fair. Not ten minutes ago, I’d been feeling good. No matter how Grady came to town, he was coming. No matter how things turned out, they would turn out. I’ve been crying over Grady — even though he was awful to me, too — for years. I can only handle one self-destructive obsession at a time. But now I’m supposed to face the man who left me and two men who assume I’ll be up for anything, whenever they deign to ask?
I’m shaking so hard I can barely think. Shaking because I’m furious. Shaking because it’s unfair and I’ve been through far too much. Shaking because I deserve better. Shaking because somewhere deep down, I very much want to do what this photo implies.
With Herculean effort, I delete the photo, then the text history. My thumb, as I touch the screen to confirm, weighs ten thousand pounds.
Someone rounds the corner behind me. I’m so keyed up, God help him if it’s Ed coming to order me back to work. He might find a fist in his mouth. A foot in his balls. A knife, from the counter beside me, in his fat fucking gut.
But it’s not Ed, or Roxanne. It’s Jen, looking at me in a way that proves I must look as horrid as I feel.
“Maya, are you … what’s going on?”
My phone buzzes again.
The screen reads, It’s Grady. I’m in town. I don’t know if you’re willing to see me, but I’d like to see you .
CHAPTER 14
Grady
I know from talking to Arthur that Maya works at the Nosh Pit — a diner that didn’t exist when I left town. So much has changed. I’ve heard chatter about Inferno Falls quite a lot, for a place I’ve mostly tried to forget. It keeps making Top This lists: Top 10 Fast Foods Made Hip, Top 100 Places to Start a Business. And now that I’m here, I see why. The town has blossomed. I’d almost want to settle here, if I wasn’t a wanderer at heart, and if it didn’t carry so much history.
But in the same breath that Arthur told me about the Nosh Pit, he shambled on in his rat-a-tat way to tell me that meeting his daughter there, of all places, wasn’t a great idea. “She’s been all keyed up these past days, Grady. Probably on account of that snippy woman.”
I could have asked Arthur to elaborate, but he’d already moved on. Classic Arthur Holland. I swear, it’s like no time has passed. I used to
What were they talking about before this photo was taken?
What made Chadd suggest taking the photo, then send it to me?
Do they know? Do the two men know what they have in common? This little pic suggests they must. Because it’s not like Chadd and I are in a dating situation, where casual texts make sense. His first text was a prelude to a booty call, so what’s this? It can’t be a prelude to a threesome, can it?
The thought embarrasses me more than I’d think possible. The idea that the two of them got to chatting, and Chadd told Tommy about this girl he fucked in a bathroom. Tommy would have said, Hey, I fucked her too.
Maybe she’d be up for fucking us together.
I want to smash my phone. I want to smash their faces. How dare they? How dare they talk; how dare they presume; how dare they propose something something so bold?
You take the back, I can hear Tommy telling Chadd, and I’ll take the front.
I can imagine their high-five.
I’m shaking. I can barely see the phone because my emotions are gripping my throat. This isn’t fair. Not ten minutes ago, I’d been feeling good. No matter how Grady came to town, he was coming. No matter how things turned out, they would turn out. I’ve been crying over Grady — even though he was awful to me, too — for years. I can only handle one self-destructive obsession at a time. But now I’m supposed to face the man who left me and two men who assume I’ll be up for anything, whenever they deign to ask?
I’m shaking so hard I can barely think. Shaking because I’m furious. Shaking because it’s unfair and I’ve been through far too much. Shaking because I deserve better. Shaking because somewhere deep down, I very much want to do what this photo implies.
With Herculean effort, I delete the photo, then the text history. My thumb, as I touch the screen to confirm, weighs ten thousand pounds.
Someone rounds the corner behind me. I’m so keyed up, God help him if it’s Ed coming to order me back to work. He might find a fist in his mouth. A foot in his balls. A knife, from the counter beside me, in his fat fucking gut.
But it’s not Ed, or Roxanne. It’s Jen, looking at me in a way that proves I must look as horrid as I feel.
“Maya, are you … what’s going on?”
My phone buzzes again.
The screen reads, It’s Grady. I’m in town. I don’t know if you’re willing to see me, but I’d like to see you .
CHAPTER 14
Grady
I know from talking to Arthur that Maya works at the Nosh Pit — a diner that didn’t exist when I left town. So much has changed. I’ve heard chatter about Inferno Falls quite a lot, for a place I’ve mostly tried to forget. It keeps making Top This lists: Top 10 Fast Foods Made Hip, Top 100 Places to Start a Business. And now that I’m here, I see why. The town has blossomed. I’d almost want to settle here, if I wasn’t a wanderer at heart, and if it didn’t carry so much history.
But in the same breath that Arthur told me about the Nosh Pit, he shambled on in his rat-a-tat way to tell me that meeting his daughter there, of all places, wasn’t a great idea. “She’s been all keyed up these past days, Grady. Probably on account of that snippy woman.”
I could have asked Arthur to elaborate, but he’d already moved on. Classic Arthur Holland. I swear, it’s like no time has passed. I used to
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