In the Wake of Wanting (24 page)

“No. My driver dropped me off at home.”

“Did you make any stops?”

“No. You can call my driver and again, I have security footage that proves I was in my apartment all night. I didn’t leave there until around noon.”

“Well, what did you do when you got home Saturday night?” Raymond asks.

“I, uh… I drank a little and spoke with Coley on the phone. After that, I went to bed and slept.”

“What time did you get up Sunday morning?”

“The first time? Around nine, I guess. I took some aspirin and went back to bed until eleven.”

“Sleeping off a hangover?” Yarbrough asks.

“Yeah, I was.”

“So you drank more than you’re letting on?”

“When I got home, I had four drinks in quick succession.”

“Sounds like a frustrated man to me,” Raymond suggests.

“Or a man who knows something he wants to forget,” Yarbrough adds.

“Look. I’ve told you everything I know from that night.” I’m so angry at whoever made the suggestion to them that I was approaching
The Wit
offices. I can’t help but think Asher had something to do with it. I think back to my lunch with him today and remember how he’d so blatantly and easily lied to me, and then I remember what he’d done the following morning. “There is one more thing. I had lunch with Asher today. He admitted he’d stopped by my hotel room yesterday morning around seven. Coley said he was pounding on the hotel room door and
still in his tux
. She said he was
at least
drunk when she answered. She was terrified of him.”

“At seven?”

“She checked out shortly after. At seven-thirty-five.”

The detectives look at one another.

“Coley told you this?”

“Yeah. She said he was looking for me. He doesn’t know I wasn’t there.
Thankfully
.”

“Okay, Trey. We’ll need to see this DVD you’re talking about,” Raymond says.

“I have a copy at my apartment.”

“No, we’ll need the number for your security company.”

I nod my head. “My dad handles that.”

“I have a message that says your dad is here, so… we’re finished with you for now. Thanks for your cooperation. Can we trust you’ll stay close by while we conduct this investigation?”

“I have no plans to go anywhere.”

“Stay in the state.”

I raise my brows, and my heart races. Suddenly, my entire body feels weighted down. I think I’d been working on an adrenaline rush, and the adrenaline just ran out. I’ve never been so scared in my life. My legs feel weak as they lead me back out into the lobby of the station. Dad is waiting with his lawyer.

“They need the security company’s number,” I mumble to him in a monotonous voice. He looks just about as terrified as I feel.

“Sure,” Dad says.

Our lawyer steps forward. “I’m Danny Reese, representing Trey Holland. Is my client under arrest?”

“No, but we need him to stay in the state while we finish our questioning. And we definitely need that security footage.” Danny has the information readily available.

“Did they handcuff you?” Dad asks.

“No, Dad. I’m fine. I kind of just want to go home.” His lawyer drove him here, so the three of us ride together back to Columbia. I’m interrogated all over again on the way back to my apartment, just recounting what the police asked me and providing my answers as best as I can remember. The drive isn’t long enough to get through everything Danny wants to know.

“Should we finish this conversation upstairs?” my father asks.

“Dad,” I say, knowing I have to give a firm
no
in response because he wouldn’t understand nor approve of Coley being at my apartment, “I was up all night rewriting Coley’s article for her because she was, uh… dealing with this,” I tell him. “I’m exhausted. It’s late. I skipped all of my afternoon classes today so I’ll have to make up the work tomorrow. I really need to get some sleep.”

“If you think of any question you’re concerned with, Trey,” Danny says, “please email me and your father.”

“Okay,” I tell him. “Dad, I’m sorry about all of this.”

“Jackson, you’ve done nothing wrong. We’ll get past it. Go get some sleep and call me between classes tomorrow–or if there are any new developments.”

“I will.”

“Keep your distance from Asher,” he instructs.

“Don’t tell him you spoke to the police,” Danny adds.

“Okay. Good night.”

I half-expect to see reporters or paparazzi outside my building, but it’s quiet when I get home. The doorman greets me, and the night concierge has the elevator open for me when I come in.

“Thanks.”

I text Coley as I ride up to let her know I’m on my way. I don’t want to startle her with the alarm. She’s peeking out my door when I turn down the hallway.

“I was worried you weren’t coming back tonight,” she says.

“There were a few moments when I was worried about that, too.”

“Did they fingerprint you and stuff?”

“No,” I tell her, following her in and setting the alarm myself. She’s wearing patterned pants and a white robe that’s barely covering a lightweight graphic t-shirt. I’m not sure how she can make that ensemble look sexy, but she can and is. I veer off into the kitchen as she goes back into the living room to her books. “Need anything to drink? Brain food? Anything?”

“I’m good.”

“I know I swore I wouldn’t drink and talk to you again, but I’d really like to have a glass of something, if you don’t mind. My nerves are shot.”

“Go ahead. And Trey, I’m not mad about the other night. I shouldn’t have said what I said. I led you there. You just followed. It wasn’t fair of me to do that. I was just feeling a little brazen. It was either the bourbon or the clothes I was wearing. Possibly a mixture of both–”

“Let’s just not talk about the clothes you were wearing.”

“You didn’t even see them,” she argues, scrunching up her nose. I can see freckles all the way from here.

“I have a fantastic imagination, Coley. I don’t need to. I can’t even look at you in the gear you’ve got on now.” I toss the blanket at her from the back of the couch. “And I shouldn’t have said
that
to you, either. And I’m perfectly sober. But I am so damn sleep-deprived right now.” I set my drink on the coffee table and nearly collapse next to her on the couch. “I’m delirious.”

She covers herself with the blanket and cuddles into the opulent sofa.

“Did you tell the police about Lucy?”

“No. I don’t think it’s my place to tell.”

“No,” she says. “I got the other girl’s name. Kamiesha Williams.
She
sent
me
an email. Lucy actually spoke with her and explained that we were doing a story on sexual abuse at Columbia. She said she wanted to tell her story. I’m interviewing her during class on Wednesday.”

“Do you want me to come?” I ask, kicking off my shoes and putting my feet up on the chair next to me and taking a long sip of my drink.

“I think I can do it.”

“Okay. I know you can. All right, laureate. Remember that going-to-bed thing I was going to do hours ago? I’m going to attempt that again. Any questions about anything?”

“Do you snore?”

“No,” I tell her. “I’m in an entirely different room anyway!”

“I have exceptional hearing. So where are the earplugs when you start to snore?”

“I do not snore. I’m the quietest sleeper you’ll ever meet. Scout’s honor. But I do sleepwalk.”

“So… lock my door.”

“I also pick locks in my sleep.”

“Now you’re just making shit up.”

“Well… the doors don’t lock, so I
don’t
pick locks in my sleep. Or sleepwalk. Listen, you won’t even know I’m here, even though my room is next to yours. That, I promise you. You should have everything you need in your bathroom. The hot and cold water is labeled backwards on the faucet. Towels are in the cabinet.”

“Go to bed, Trey. I’ve already gone through all your stuff
and
taken a moderately-uncomfortable lukewarm bath.” I laugh, but wish I’d remembered to tell her about the faucet before I left. “I’m way ahead of you.”

“I’m glad you’ve made yourself at home.” I finish off my drink and take my glass to the dishwasher.

“When’s your first class?” she asks.

“Eight.”

“Mine, too. I’ll walk with you?”

“Not if you’re not a morning person… I hate grumpy people in the morning.”

“I guess you’ll find out at seven-thirty. Good night.”
God, I love her smile
.

“Good night, laureate. Don’t stay up too late.” I grab a wrapped chocolate from the basket on my counter and take it with me as I go down the hall to the bedrooms. Stopping by the guest room, I turn down the bed sheets, setting the small candy on the pillow Coley brought. I notice a prescription bottle on the night stand.
It’s none of my business
.

In my room, it’s quiet and my bed beckons me. I strip out of my clothes to my briefs, kicking everything to the corner near the hamper where I
may
end up putting them in the morning, but right now, I’m too tired. I have just enough energy to brush my teeth and wash my face, but nothing more.

In the mirror, I wonder how long my hair has looked this disastrous and run my fingers through it a few times. Zaina would have fixed it for me, or would have told me to fix it.
Yes, Trey. Tasks for girlfriends
. I flick off the bathroom light on the way out and fall onto the bed, not even bothering to get beneath the comforter. One arm wrapped around my pillow, I tuck it close to my head and hear a piece of paper crumple in my grasp. Curious, I feel around, finally finding a note tucked into my pillowcase.

We tango

A tantalizing trip

Too tempting at times

To twirl apart

You talk

I take

We trust

Standing astride a dividing line that confines

It’s taboo

Tenderly

Truth taps

We toe the line

Tune into the taciturnity

It’s all transparent

We let go

After plugging in my cell phone, I send her a quick text.

- I was hoping to get a good night’s sleep. Now you’ve just got me thinking about things.

- - That wasn't my intention. I was trying to take some of the burden off of you.

- I get it… and I will say no more. You’re right.

- - Good night.

- You rhymed.

I tap off the rest of the lights with an app, only realizing after I hear Coley squeal in the other room that I’ve cut
all
the lights in the apartment. “Sorry!” I yell, finding the living room and hitting the on-switch for that section.
“Not used to having people stay with me.”
I mumble to myself.

This is all that Zaina had wanted when she was in town. An invitation to stay with me while she was here. The thought of her living with me stressed me out. On the nights she did stay over, they weren’t planned in advance. They happened because it was late when we were fooling around and I didn’t want her to leave. While she was overjoyed that she got to stay over, my reasons for her staying could have been attributed to two of the seven deadly sins: lust and sloth. Not anything to be particularly proud of.

I can honestly say I had no ulterior motive for having Coley over, though. I won’t say I haven’t had a few lustful thoughts about her since she’s entered my apartment, but the invitation came from a pure place and the most significant thing is that I had no fear or panic or stress at the thought of her staying over.

In fact, it’s
comforting
knowing she’s in the other room.

chapter twelve

“You’ve got your questions for Kamiesha?” I ask Coley before our
Wit
class on Wednesday. “With the ones I gave you?”

“Yes, boss,” she says with sass. “What are you gonna do about Asher?”

I shake my head, not having come to a definitive solution for that one yet, even though I’d lost plenty of sleep over it last night. I hadn’t spoken to him since I ran out on him at lunch on Monday. He hadn’t reached out to me; I hadn’t tried to contact him. I knew he’d convinced someone to lie to the police about me; fortunately, the evidence I’d presented and my own testimony was enough to clear me. I wondered if any of the information I’d supplied to the cops had gotten back to him yet. All I know is that Stanley said he was at the frat house last night, which forced me to create an excuse as to why I wouldn’t be coming to our chapter meeting.