Beautifully Broken

“What were you doing there anyway?” I manage in between retching.

“I spotted your car in the lot as I was driving home,” he replies. “I thought I’d drop in to see if you had an explanation for sneaking out on me the other night. Considering the fact that you reek like a distillery and vomit, I’m guessing now’s not a good time.”

“Can we save the verbal spankings for later?” I ask weakly. “Like when I’m not heaving up a major organ?”

“Somebody’s ass definitely needs a spanking around here,” he grumbles.

“Oh, and let me guess…you know just the person for the job, right?”

“Are you done?” he asks impatiently. “Do you think you can handle the drive home?”

I stand up and walk fifty feet or so before reaching his car. “Yeah, I think I’ll be okay. You might want to keep the windows down just in case.”

He helps me into the passenger side and buckles my seat belt. “Where do you live?”

I fling my arm out in the general direction of my apartment. “That way.”

Gavin sighs. “That’s not very helpful. Give me your license; I’ll get the address from that.”

“No can do,” I say, “It’s a fake. My real address isn’t on that license.”

He furrows his brows. “What? What’s a fake? The address on your license? Why would you have a fake address on your license?”

Oh shit. Clearly I’ve become a little too loose-lipped in my drunken state. “Go toward downtown, take a right on Collins. Shitty white apartment building five blocks back from the main road. Can’t miss it. It’s right behind the old Baptist church.” I lean my head against the open window, gulping in the salty air.

“Kat, wake up.”

“Wha—” I jump awake, looking around to gather my bearings. Apparently I passed out on our short drive to my house.

“Is this the right place?” Gavin asks as we idle in the driveway to my complex.

“Unfortunately,” I mumble.

He pulls into the lot. “Which apartment is yours?”

I point to the left. “Number three. Ground floor.”

He heads toward the empty spot marked for my unit and parks his car. “Do you live with anyone? Is there someone home that can take care of you tonight?”

I laugh. “Cybil might be there but she wouldn’t know how to take care of me if her life depended on it.”

“Cybil?”

“My mo—, um, I mean, my roommate. She’s pretty useless.”

He frowns as he pulls his keys from the ignition and gets out of the car. I stare blankly as he walks around to my side and opens the door. “C’mon, Kat.”

“What are you doing?”

He sighs. “I’m making sure you get inside okay.”

I gesture to my building. “You can’t go in there.”

“Why not? Got something to hide?”

“You have no idea,” I mutter.

“What?”