Law of Dreams

5

I sat beside Law, not with him. The scene was almost exactly as I'd imagined it, but he was pressed forward, elbows locked together on the table. His arm was a high wall between us. When he laughed he covered his face with his hands, laughing into them and not into me.

His friends swung between each other like there was an elastic band connecting them all and it wasn't long enough to reach me.

"You been with Law long?" a guy across from me asked. We hadn't interacted much but I'd counted his beers. Seven.

"Uh, we—" I stopped. It felt like a question with no right answer. "Not long," I said, smiling. The guy, whose name I thought might've been Will, nodded and gulped to the end of seven.

I wondered why Law hadn't told him the story of how we met. It was a funny anecdote. I'd told Mike and Belle and they had laughed for an hour at the part where I bowled over the seventy-year-old man. I imagined myself leaning across the table to share it with Will. It's a funny story—I would say. He'd stop me and get everyone's attention. They'd all turn to me and I'd launch into it. Law would take his elbows off the table and sit back so I could see his face. Everyone would laugh.

Will turned his shoulders to Brad who sat beside him. He asked about Brad's work—I picked up that he was an electrician—and the moment for my anecdote passed.

Law and I were the first to leave. We got back to the den and he made himself a coffee.

He sat down beside me on the couch, took one sip, and then leaned a kiss into my mouth. I could taste the coffee. I felt his teeth graze my lower lip before they clamped down and tugged. It was probably meant to be sexy, but it hurt. I swallowed down a yelp.

Law stood up suddenly and walked to the bedroom. I stared after him, and moments later he appeared in the doorway—shirtless. He was so pale. So beautiful. "Coming?"

I sucked on my sore lip and went to him.

Lying naked with Law felt like an out-of-body experience.

"Will asked how long we've known each other," I said afterwards, while we sat up against the pillows. Law had just come back with his coffee. It was sure to be cold by now.

"Oh yeah?"

"I said not long."

"True I guess."

"I was going to tell him about the laptop incident."

Law ran a hand through his hair. Sipped at his coffee. "Certainly a day to remember," he said, but a part of me didn't believe he meant it.

"I sometimes wonder about the guy," I admitted. "That old man. He kept going on about Althea, remember? Some woman named Althea. I assume she was his wife. Or is. Who knows? Maybe she really did ask him to take the laptop."

"Maybe." Law lowered his mug and pulled out a cigarette from the packet in his coat pocket, lighting it up with the white barrel between his teeth. The cloud appeared between us.