When the men and I are up in my room, Adrian asks, “Will you take Lindsey to court?”
“If she doesn’t pay me back … I guess. I don’t know what that all entails. Not sure it would be worth hiring a lawyer, and all the costs?” I say.
“There’s small claims court,” Duke says. “You don’t need a lawyer for that. Did you take any pictures yet?”
“Pictures?” I ask.
“Of the damage. Best to get pictures before we pack everything up,” he explains.
What a great idea. I document the state of my guitar and my clothes with both still images and video. After that, I search the rest of the room, but thankfully don’t find anything else that’s been harmed.
As soon as I finish inspecting my closet, Adrian and Garrett begin loading my clothes into the bags. Meanwhile, Duke and Trevor carefully pack the remains of my old guitar, take the sheets off of my bed and begin disassembling it.
“Do you have room to store all of this at your house, Garrett?” I ask.
“You can stay at our place,” Duke says. “I have an extra room available.”
“That’d be great. Duke’s place is nearby,” Trevor says as I look to Garrett for his reaction, which is hard to read.
“Are you sure?” I ask Duke.
“We’d love to have you there,” Adrian says as Duke nods.
“Maybe that would be better …” I say to Garrett. “More space, and we wouldn’t have to worry about work finding out that I was staying with you.”
“Whatever you want to do,” he says in a tone that sounds intentionally neutral. I wonder if, like me, he was imagining us sharing a bed tonight. I loved sleeping with Adrian last night, and when I haven’t been sick with anger and worry about the Lindsey situation, I’ve been anticipating spending the night with Garrett, even though it would probably be better if I slept on his couch and didn’t get further involved in something that was so against the rules.
“I don’t want to impose on anyone,” I say to Duke, “but if you have extra space, I’d be grateful. I shouldn’t need to stay for long.”
“You can stay as long as you like,” Duke says.
26
Duke
Packing up Autumn’s stuff reminds me of being young, when everything I owned fit into one room. People are like pack rats, accumulating stuff as life goes on, until you get to be thirty-six and wonder where all of the shit you own came from. I hate to think how much more shit I’ll have when I’m fifty.
Autumn actually has nice things, not the makeshift sort of furniture I had when I was her age. “Anything of yours in the rest of the house?” I ask her when we’re nearly done in her bedroom.
“Just a caddy in the bathroom and a few items in the kitchen. I can grab those on the way out.”
Part of me wants to get Autumn out of here as quickly as possible; the other part of me wants her piece of shit roommate to come home while I’m here so I can have a talk with her, though I’m guessing if the girl approaches the house, she’ll see my truck and stay away. Trevor and Adrian have been making trips down with the furniture and boxes, so it’s already loaded up and probably looking like a moving truck.
When we’re ready to leave, her other roommate is at the door to say goodbye to Autumn. She seems like a decent girl.
Out in the driveway, Garrett offers to drive Autumn to my place. The truck’s bed is full, and we could use space in the backseat for a couple of bags that don’t fit in the back.
“I still need to get my car,” Autumn says. “We dropped it off at Garrett’s because the plan was that I’d be going back there,” she explains.
“Can you get it in the morning?” I ask.
“I guess…”
“All I know is that I’m starving,” Trevor says, interrupting. “How about if we have something to eat at Duke’s, unload everything, and then we can figure out the car situation later?”
“That okay?” Garrett asks Autumn.
I know Adrian and Trevor are good guys, and I’ve been assessing Garrett all evening and have decided he fits in that category too. He’d clearly do anything for this girl, including share her with his friends, apparently.