Joel made a scoffing sound. "Yeah. You're with me. A royal fuckup."
"You arenota fuckup."
"Uh-huh. But forget me for a minute. Let's get back to your dumb-ass friend. I don't care if you were begging on your knees, he should've said no. Or shit, if he couldn’t do that, the fucker should've manned up and brought you here himself."
Why did this matter? I sighed. "Oh, stop it. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't've."
"Yeah? Why not?"
"Because he's at a wrestling meet in Ohio."
"Fuck Ohio."
I took a deep breath. "Look, I don't want to be rude, but can you calm down? Please? It's not a big deal. Everything was fine. I mean, seriously,youdon't always play it safe."
"Yeah? And you're not me."
Well, there was that.
Joel continued. "And neither is your friend."
"Forget Mike," I said. "Let's talk about something else, okay?"
Looking anything but eager, Joel said, "Like what?"
"Well for starters, about your stuff. Do you know, I wouldn't let the movers take it?"
If Joel was relieved, he didn't show it. "Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah, so it's still there." I gave a nervous laugh. "And of course, I still have your money. And just so you know, it's all still there. I mean, like I haven't touched it or anything." I gave a playful eye-roll. "Well, other than to put it in my safety deposit box."
The longer I talked, the more unhappy Joel was looking.
Into his silence, I rattled on, "So, if you want, we could go get it. I mean, not tonight, because the bank doesn't open until tomorrow. But we couldleavetonight. It's a three-hour drive, but—"
"Melody."
I froze. Even as I'd been talking, I'd known that something wasn't quite right. The look in Joel's eyes only confirmed it. With growing fear, I asked, "What?"
"I'm not coming back."
