Jake stirred. Casper meowed and kept banging against the bedroom door. He tossed his arm out but instead of discovering Xavier he felt the cool softness of an empty bed. He forced his eyes open and some sunlight had started to creep through the window. Casper meowed again.
“Okay, wait a second,” managed Jake through his raspy morning voice.
He got up, saw his dirty boxers that were on the floor and that he should have thrown in the laundry basket the night before, kicked them to the baseboard, and opened the door. He followed Casper to the kitchen. As he walked to the kitchenette he saw Xavier’s long body spread out on the couch. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and saw Xavier’s cell phone next to the laptop with a half-finished glass of water. After opening a can of fresh food, and plac
