David opened the door to her that afternoon, and she entered only to slow her steps as she sighted Graham asleep on the couch. David glanced toward her in her observation before retreating to his desk where he continued to gather up his lab notes. For several moments, he mentally rehearsed the subject matter he planned to teach that afternoon until he was drawn back to Rebecca’s persistent concentration upon his brother. His anger at her was mounting by the week. Couldn’t she tell? Didn’t she know? She used to hate Graham for the things he did. Now, she paused and reconsidered, it seemed to David. David could not care less about Graham’s magnetism. He cared about Rebecca’s capitulation. She knew better, yet she was failing him. Traitor. He faced her, forcing her eyes to meet his. He read the question she was preparing and answered it before she spoke.
“He was working on my computer all night,” David explained. “Then he had classes this morning and tennis practice after that, so he waited until now to pick up the books he had left here.”
“What’s wrong with his computer?”
“It’s being repaired.”
“Why didn’t he use one of his friends’ computers instead of yours?” she persisted.
“They all have the same deadlines. I don’t.”
“Mm. So he decided to take a nap while he was here?” she queried in a near whisper.
“I don’t think it was a decision,” David deferred.
She glanced again at Graham on his back, whose one arm spilled off the couch, his hand on the stack of books on the floor. His other arm rested above his head on the end of the couch.
“I have to go,” David interrupted, “or I’ll be late.”
He surveyed his desk once more for anything he might have forgotten. “Your groceries are in the bag on the kitchen counter,” he noted to remind her of why she had come. “You can pay me back later.”
“Okay,” she agreed, turning at last her full attention upon him as he pulled open the door. “Do you want to go to Jessie’s party tonight?” she asked suddenly to his pensive features, hoping to hold him a moment.
He nodded. “Sure, if you want.”
“Come over after your lab. I’ll be back from the library by 6:30 tonight.”
“All right,” he said pulling the door closed behind him, frustrated that his schedule forced him to abandon Rebecca and Graham in his apartment.
Rebecca stared at the empty space David had left for several seconds before pivoting and once again discovering Graham before her, the prize of the undergraduate campus, sequestered in David’s apartment, alone with her.
A.M. Shaw 