“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll be responsible.”
Jeri left. By the time Bob heard her bike roar into life, he’d changed into the thin gym shorts he’d worn to close up his apartment. They were still on the top of his pack. Adding his own clothes to the load, he gathered up the fiver and the laundry. Uneasy despite his orders, he took the razor from Toni’s colors and slipped it into the back of his shorts. As if in response, it was her shrieking in climax he heard this time as he pulled the door shut behind him.
Back down the hall, Bob felt like he was back at college too. Breaking change, forking in quarters, loading the washer in just his shorts, listening to the ice machine clank: it was all so freshman-year-at-the-dorm. Even the uneasiness was the same.
Back then he’d felt intimidated by ever
