PLAYLIST: A DROP IN THE OCEAN – RON POPE
Iopen my eyes, and when I glance to my side, everything feels surreal. I see Jane next to me in my bed, looking at me, leaning in for a kiss.
“Hi,” she says. It's usually my line.
“Hi,” I say back. “How long have you been awake?”
“Long enough to watch you peacefully sleep,” she says, laughs, and adds, “I had to pee, and then I couldn’t fall back asleep. There is a lot of light in this apartment, not to forget that very monumental piece of…art…”
She tilts her head at the pussy picture.
I laugh.
“You’ll get used to it,” I say, and only then realize what I have said. “How late is it?” I ask quickly to change the topic while turning to my side and propping my head on my elbow
“Past noon.”
“Oh,” I say. “I haven’t slept that long in like forever.”
She smiles at me.
“How are you feeling?” I ask. “It got quite wild yesterday.”
“I feel alive,” she says. “My headache is killing me, but I’ve never felt more alive. Tad awkward, maybe, thinking back.”
I laugh and let myself fall onto my back.
“I’ll get you an ibuprofen, hang on.”
“Thanks,” she says as I get up. I take a long shirt and some panties from a drawer and slip them on.
“Do you know where El is?” I ask her because she seems to be nowhere.
“No, she wasn’t here when I woke up.”
“Huh,” I say, and walk to the kitchen and open the drawer with the drugs in it. I pull it open, see the plate with the cocaine on it, and somehow, my gut clenches.
We had a deal. And that deal was no more drugs. But that plate was used. I run upstairs, get out onto the terrace, but she is not there. My heart races. Something doesn’t feel right.
I get back down.
Jane stands in the doorframe connecting the main room and the bedroom.
“What’s up?” she asks, but I don’t answer. I spotted a note on the dinner table. Next to it is the Porsche key. I run to the table. Grasp the note.
Had to do it now,
otherwise I’d never.
I love you. Always.
xoxo El
Goosebumps spread over my arm. I thought we’d plan. We’d plan her move, so I can protect her. So she is safe?—
I run like an idiot through the studio until I find my phone. I dial her number, but it goes straight to voicemail.
I shoot all the way downstairs, no Range Rover waiting outside.