Isobel was tired, from her scalp to her toes. She was sore, from sleeping on that terrible cot, and from the sex with Evan, though she wasn't sorry for that soreness.

She figured that now things could go back to normal. She was ready to resume the everyday business of living without being obsessed with Evan. She wasn't stupid enough to think that she was "over him" but at least he was over her. When she got to the hospital, she had found Glory sleeping, and so she had gone to sleep too.

When she woke up, Evan and Glory were both awake. She asked them what time it was, even as she reached for her phone, just so that she could say something that wasn't completely lame.

After some snaky banter, Glory ordered Evan to hand Isobel the keys to Glory's SUV.

Isobel was struck numb. She wasn't sure she’d heard correctly, or more accurately, she wasn't sure she was understanding correctly.

She was borrowing the car. Borrowing.

Isobel got her things together and was about to leave the hospital room, when Evan stopped her. "Hey, Isobel, let me walk you to the car."

She nodded. She kind of thought she'd puke, and she was very stressed out all of a sudden, but she nodded. "Yeah, okay. See you, Glory."

Glory raised a hand in a limp, sarcastic wave. "Bring me dinner next time."

Evan followed Isobel to the elevators. She swore she was going to die of stress. "Um . . . So . . . What's up?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to go with you. Get out of here for a minute."

"Oh, okay."

I think I'm in love with you. . .

She didn't say anything. She didn't trust herself to speak. Evan didn't say anything either. They walked through the hospital together, out of the yucky green light. Outside, snow was beginning to fall.

Isobel walked to her car, with Evan following her. She decided, right then, that she couldn't stand it anymore.

"So, like . . . Last night was cool."

Evan's eyebrows went up. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. That's not usually the reaction I get."

"What’s the usual reaction?"

"Radio silence."

"Oh."

They stood awkwardly. This was new territory.

"Isobel, I don't think you should work with us anymore."

It felt like a gut punch. At first, her breathing stopped, and she wasn't sure what she was feeling. Then anger took over and turned her bright red. It roared up inside her and came out of her as a shout.

"What the fuck?" she demanded, her voice going shrill. Evan flinched.

"No, wait, that's not what I meant—"

"So, what, now that you got what you wanted, I'm dismissed? I'm fired because you got your night of fun?"

"What? No! NO, Isobel, that's not what I meant," he said rapidly, holding out his hands. "It's not because of last night."

"The timing is a little shitty, you had better come up with some pretty good reasoning for threatening my job."

"I—I just, after those guys . . . I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to work in a place where you're afraid."

This sent another flash of anger through Isobel's gut. "You seriously are using that as an excuse? No, I don't think so. You want me to leave, fine. But don't use some flimsy excuse."

"I didn't think it was flimsy, and it's not an excuse! I don't know if this is the last time this will happen—"

"So you're firing me, but you're not gonna worry about Glory?"

Evan shut up then. His brow furrowed, and his jaw worked. She thought he was angry, but when he spoke, it was different. His voice was low, and rough in his chest. He said, "I don't know if Gran is going to be around long enough for it to matter much."

Isobel turned pale. The anger, while still there, wasn't as bad anymore. "Wait, what?" she asked.

"Isobel, Gran's heart attack was bad. Very bad. They said she is lucky not to already be dead. And I don't know how much longer you'd be around anyway. I mean, I'm not trying to tell you you have to leave. And I don't want to fire you. I just don't want you to be hurt. I know that you love my Gran, and I know that she loves you. But you will live longer than her. I kind of feel like that makes your feelings a little more valid."

Isobel was quiet. She crossed her arms and scuffed her boot toes on the ground. "It's that bad, huh?"

"Yeah."

Isobel looked around. "Am I fired or not?"

"No. You don't have to leave. I just . . . We've already caused quite a bit of damage."

"It's a little early to be talking about damage. Look, I have to go fill out a report at the office, okay? Some bull shit about making sure the house is secure enough. You should hurry up and fix the door before the company gets wind that it's still broken. They want me to be safe too."

Evan went soft. "Isobel . . ."

"What?" she demanded. She was trying not to be hurt. It was hard though. She felt like she was being broken up with.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about . . . everything."

"Are you trying to apologize to me about the sex?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I wasn't expecting you to be blunt about it—"

"I've had sex before, Evan. I was engaged. I had a miscarriage. I'm not some small-town virgin. I'm some small-town white trash who learned the hard way that men are liars."

"I didn't want to lie to you—"

"Then why did you tell me you loved me?" she asked. "Because I meant it when I said it. I was hoping to avoid this entire—" she gestured between them with a wild hand, "confrontation. I didn't want to fight with you. I don't know what I was expecting."

"You deserve better than a man who is too afraid to quit his night job."

"I am the judge of who I deserve. That's not your place. But it would be nice if you weren't a criminal."

"Yeah, it would," he said. His voice was as wistful as she imagined it could get. "But I am one. I'm a brute, and a meat head, and I fight men for money. A lot of money. Men bet their kids' college funds on my fights. And you’re a college student with a bright future ahead of you."

* * *

Tanya had three very loud, very funny children. They were named Brooklyn, Eloise, and Jason. The last one, the littlest, had wee little glasses that still barely fit him, and he was so cute that Isobel could have died looking at him. There were other kids, but they were older.

"So, you fell into the dick trap, huh?"

"I think Evan fell into the dick trap. Because a vagina is—"

"You're over-thinking this, Isobel," Tanya said as Isobel very carefully painted her nails. It was a nice change, although Isobel was terrible at painting nails. But she had wanted very badly to try.

Tanya's house was a little small given its population. It was full to bursting. Her mother, her children, and her sister, her brother-in-law, and her sister's children lived in the house all together. But it was cute, and it was warm, and it had little shabby chic decorations all over it, as well as framed photos and decorations that her mother's family had sent from Vietnam. They even spoke some Vietnamese to each other, although Tanya switched to English when she wanted to make sure Isobel knew what she was saying.

"Sorry. Anyway, yeah. Dicks were trapped. I got laid."

"Good job."

It had been over a week since Isobel and Evan had spent the night together. They hadn't spoken much since then. Isobel had been in the hospital to see Glory a few times since then, but Glory wasn't doing so well, and so she had decided to stay away most of the time so she didn't get in the way of the doctors.

It was torture. She had gotten so used to seeing Evan every day that she felt antsy not seeing him. At the same time, though, she was glad. Glad she didn't have to look at his face, or hear his voice, or have a conversation with him that would inevitably make her laugh, or blush.

"Good job on that one," said Tanya, holding her hand up to inspect the party nail Isobel had just decorated with pink.

"Thanks. I just don't really know what to do now, you know? I know I should forget about it, but—"

"Why?"

Isobel wasn't so much taken aback by the question as she was lacking in answers to it. It seemed like a cut and dry deal—Evan wasn't stable, Evan was technically doing illegal stuff, Evan was kind of a bastard. Since he was bigger and stronger than her, that last one seemed pretty important.

Tanya elaborated patiently. "Just because you guys can't be together, that doesn't mean you guys can't, like, remember each other. You're allowed to have feelings for someone. You can't change the way you feel."

"Do you have feelings for Evan?"

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "No. I really did just want to bang him. Now, I'm done. I mean, we're still friends, but we were friends before I had carnal knowledge of him. He's funny. He's nice. Kind of. He loves his grandma. That's wildly attractive."

"Yeah, it is."

One of the children ran up to Tanya with a bright pink horse toy. She handed it to Tanya, obviously expecting her to fix whatever it was that was wrong with the horse. Tanya took it with the flat of her hands, looked it over, and slammed it once, hard, against the table. Isobel jumped. Tanya pressed the glittery pink button again, and the horse lit up, and began talking about its magical fluttery kingdom in the sky. She handed the toy back to the child, and said, "Do you need Momma to fix anything else?"

"My Xbox isn't working."

"I'm not slamming your Xbox on the table, honey. Any other toys?"

"No, I don't think so. I'll let you know."

With that, the child toddled off, set down the horse, and immediately forgot about it. Tanya was not bothered, she was probably used to children immediately forgetting things she did.

Back to the conversation, Tanya said, "His grandma's cool too. Is Glory okay?"

Isobel shrugged. "She's still in the hospital."

"That's not good."

"Nope."

"Well, I'm sure we can hire you for something at the salon if you lose your job."

Isobel quirked her eyebrow, dubious. "Like what?"

"Designated coffee fetcher. Or maybe we could make you one of those in-shop baristas like they have in the big cities."

"I don't work for pennies. You'll have to actually pay me."

"Sounds like you're already too demanding. Maybe you could be a stripper? I was a stripper. It didn't suck. Too much. The money didn't suck for sure though."

"Maybe. I think I'm too short to be a stripper."

"No, you are just short enough. You're one of those little petite things."

"Speaking of strippers and the night life," Isobel began, dipping the brush back into the nail polish. "I was wondering if, maybe, you would be willing to take me out?" she asked as she began the work of painting the rest of Tanya's nails.

Tanya carefully pressed her already finished hand to her chest. "Isobel Keller, are you seriously suggesting that I, a morally upstanding citizen, take you to a den of iniquity such as a bar, brothel, or strip club?"

"Yes. If you want to. You don't have to."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Isobel, I am going to take you to get utterly trashed. You ever had tequila?"

"No."

"Good, that's a good place to start. But are we partying because you are hiding from your feelings?"

"Yes."

"Then we start at vodka."

"I don't know if I have any partying clothes."

The corner of Tanya's mouth pulled down. "I mean, I'm skinny, but you're tiny. I might have something stretchy."

Isobel began to freak out a little. Her heartbeat picked up a little bit. She wasn't sure how she was feeling about this. She hadn't actually thought that Tanya would go for it.

"So, wait, we're going tonight?"

"Yes. We are going tonight. Hurry up and finish painting my nails and I will find you something slutty to wear. MAMA!" she shouted, before asking something in Vietnamese. Her mother responded, and Isobel looked to Tanya for a translation.

"Oh, I just asked her if she wanted to come with us. She doesn't. She wants to play video games after the kids go to sleep."

Isobel nodded. She carefully but quickly finished painting Tanya's nails. She had a long night ahead of her, and she was kind of excited to wear something slutty.