Part 10 (1/2)

”Thank you,” she said. Noah seemed to have some kind of effect on her. She felt safer with him around. Softer, happier. She felt like the Alexis she'd been before Mark had died and her mother had picked up the bottle, and the falling-out with her father over quitting the law. She'd still had her convictions about diet and exercise then, but hadn't she been a little less ... strict? The private workout sessions, the scale, the constant weighing herself, the app on her phone that counted calories. That had all come ... after.

”I'll see you in the morning,” Noah said, and he surprised her by leaning down and kissing her on the cheek. Warm with the smell of him, Alexis fell asleep five minutes after Noah quietly eased the door closed. She could swear at some point she'd heard Vanya standing near her door whispering, ”Great catch,” but surely she'd imagined it.

In the morning, Alexis's alarm clock clicked on and Billy's voice screeched into her ears. ”Aleeeexiiis, it's me, Billy. I know you're sleeping, but it's time to wakey-wakey. I know you want to lie around in bed for another two hours, but you know who lies in bed, don't you?”

”Fat girls,” she whispered into her pillow.

Suddenly her door burst open and Noah came storming in, wearing only blue-and-white Yankees boxers with a rip in a suspicious place on the back. His body was even better than she could have dreamed. His nipples were a brown sienna, his six-pack prominent, his legs long, calves strong, probably from all that biking, Alexis mused. She raised her eyebrows at him and suddenly remembered she was wearing last night's clothing. Her one earring was tangled up in her frizzy mane of hair. She had cat-food breath. Her top was askew, which she quickly fixed.

”What the h.e.l.l is that noise?” Noah asked, glaring at her alarm clock. ”It's not even five o'clock!”

”I get up now and eat breakfast,” Alexis said defensively. ”And then I go work out.”

”Now?” he gasped. ”I didn't even get up this early when I was a professional athlete and trained every day. I mean, it's just freakishly early. The only person I knew up at this time was my grandfather, who was a lobster fisherman. And he only got up that early because he had to earn his bread that way.”

”Well, this is me,” Alexis said defensively, scooting out of bed. She realized that at some point in the night, Noah had put an extra blanket on her.

He followed her into the kitchen, then watched her slice her banana. She kept peering over her shoulder at him, feeling uncomfortable to be observed so closely. ”Is that it?” he asked, after she'd finished her banana and milk.

She sighed. ”Yes. I told you, I'm really careful about what I eat.”

”Well, that just won't do,” Noah said. ”Stay here. I'm going out to get some groceries. I'll be right back.”

As he turned, Billy, who had woken up to pee, shuffled down the hallway, still half asleep and rubbing his eyes. He wore blue silk pajamas, and Alexis saw he'd gotten his hair cut in a slight Mohawk. It looked very nonthreatening on Billy.

He glanced at the kayak, then the bike. Then shrugged.

When he saw Noah he stood still and stared. Alexis realized Noah was still half naked, and as Billy looked from her to him and back again it occurred to her it looked like they'd slept together. Billy gave Alexis a wink.

”h.e.l.lo, delicious naked black man,” Billy said, extending his hand.

Alexis closely watched Noah's reaction. If he didn't like Billy's flamboyancy, she'd drop him like a hot stone. She was very loyal to Billy. But Noah just did his deep, booming laugh and leaned across the breakfast bar to shake Billy's hand. ”You must be Alexis's roommate Billy,” he said. ”I'm the random guy she met last night who was teaching a cooking cla.s.s that she decided to commit suicide by knife in.”

Billy, with great reluctance, tore his eyes off Noah's physique and truly saw Alexis for the first time. ”Babe!” he said. ”What the h.e.l.l happened to your hand?” He gently cradled her hand in his own, examining it.

She waved him away. ”It's nothing.”

”She got fifteen st.i.tches and a prescription for painkillers,” Noah informed Billy.

”Well, hooray for the painkillers. I might take one myself for fun. Has she had one yet this morning?” Billy asked. ”She seems to be sore. I can tell, she didn't even finish her banana.”

”I'm standing right here, you know, guys,” Alexis said drolly. They were discussing her like two surgeons standing over an open chest cavity, ready to begin surgery.

”He's right,” Noah said. ”You should probably pop one of those babies right after I make you some breakfast. With no food in your stomach they'd make you really nauseous.”

He sauntered over to put on his clothes, which, as Alexis could have guessed, were strewn about in the living room. One sock was hanging from a lamp. She pictured his apartment again, and added dirty laundry hung about to her vision. Definitely not her type.

”I'll be right back, guys,” he said, and after tucking his phone and scruffy brown leather wallet into his back pocket, he was gone, carrying his sports equipment downstairs on both shoulders. She felt the absence of him. The room was better with him in it, she decided.

”Wow!” Billy exclaimed, when the door shut behind Noah. ”That guy is gorgeous. Chocolate that melts in your mouth. Yum.”

Alexis laughed. ”He's super ... nice. He wants to open his own restaurant. He kind of reminds me of a Labrador.”

”Well, woof!” Billy said, making them both giggle like schoolchildren. He plopped down next to her on the couch and put her feet in his lap, ma.s.saging her ankles. This was why he was her best friend. Billy just went with the flow. He didn't ask what Noah was doing here, or why Alexis broke her steadfast no-sleepovers rule. Billy was entirely nonjudgmental. At least of her. He made fun of other gay friends, for example: ”Oh, you know those queens. So gay. Always having the same argument over what country to adopt a baby from. It's silly. They should just adopt me.”

He also had zero tolerance for lesbians. ”Terrible haircuts and oh, my G.o.d, when they fight they punch each other in the face! It's despicable.” Alexis would try and point out that probably not every lesbian couple went around punching one another, certainly she couldn't imagine Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi DeGeneres socking each other in the eyeball on a daily basis, but when she brought up these points Billy would wave his hand at her or change the subject. And yet, he was nothing if not a walking contradiction. Alexis had several times caught him crying over gay or lesbian wedding announcements in the Style section of the newspaper. ”We've come so far,” he'd say, when she pressed him.

In addition to his various prejudices, Billy had steadfast opinions about which he never wavered: Asian women caused the most traffic accidents. If you see a blond person in Manhattan they're from Sweden. Going out drinking when you have a cold cures you faster than cold medicine and rest. If you play golf you are a Republican.

Alexis peered at Billy more closely. ”You look tired.”

He ran his hand over the frayed edges of his Mohawk. He had blue circles under his eyes. He put down her foot, looking distracted. ”Yeah, I don't know what my deal is lately. I've been bartending nights for five years, and I never used to get tired.”

”Did you go out after?” Sometimes Billy went what he called ”gay dancing” after work. She'd gone with him a few times. They'd dress up like David Bowie, affix silver glitter lightning bolts to their cheeks, strap on platform shoes, and head out to Billy's favorite West Village bars, where they'd drink and dance themselves silly. Once Billy had talked her into wearing a skintight white bodysuit he'd taken home from the set of a future-themed movie that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. ”You look like a s.l.u.tty Princess Leia!” he'd exclaimed, clapping his hands at the sight of her.

”No, that's just it,” Billy said. He rummaged around in their cupboard for a few moments, and then pulled out a box of Raisin Bran. ”I went straight home after work and I still feel like s.h.i.+t.” His forehead had a light sheen of sweat on it.

”Maybe you should go to the doctor,” she said, leaning against the kitchen doorframe. The room was so small that she could have reached out and touched his silk sleeve. ”You might have mono.”

His head was inside the refrigerator looking for the milk but she still heard his snort. ”I don't have mono,” he said. ”Korean people are immune to it.”

”Billy! Anyone can get mono.”

He turned to her, his left hand perched on his hip, and gestured with the milk carton. ”Seriously, babe. Have you ever f.u.c.king heard of a Korean person getting f.u.c.king mono?”

She shook her head. She walked toward him and put her hand on his forehead and gasped. ”Billy! You are burning up. Let's go, I am putting you back to bed.”

He poured his cereal and milk into the bowl, took a few bites, and sighed, putting his bowl in the sink. ”Not hungry. But if I go back to bed I don't get to see more of Noah. And I want to see more of Noah. Nice, naked Noah.”

She smiled. ”You can after you take a nap. I'm serious. I only have one of you.”

He let her lead him into his room, which he'd decorated with thick red-and-green-striped wallpaper, a Jonathan Adler headboard he'd been given as a gift from the set of The Young and the Restless, and the stuffed head of a deer they'd found at the h.e.l.l's Kitchen flea market two summers ago. He had a portable bar straight out of Mad Men in the corner, and six-hundred-thread-count sheets from Barneys. ”Fabulous Prep” was how he'd described it over the phone to Alexis, as Billy had found the apartment and moved in first, when she was still living in Connecticut and applying to law school the summer after college.

He took off his pajama top and Alexis had to cover her mouth to stifle a scream.

”What? Oh, I know. Gross, right?”

Underneath Billy's left arm was a plum-sized lump.

”Why didn't you say anything?”

He slowly lifted his arm and inspected it casually, like it was a freckle or speck of dirt. ”I don't know, it just seemed to materialize there a week ago. I was hoping if I ignored it, it would go away. You know how that sometimes happens,” he said, laughing weakly.

He avoided looking at her.

She swallowed, not wanting Billy to see how scared she was. ”Sarah from the gym is married to a doctor at NYU,” she said. ”I'll call her.”

”Fine,” Billy said. His voice didn't have an ounce of its usual att.i.tude as he climbed into bed. ”But come in here and get me if Noah takes his s.h.i.+rt off again.”

”I will, I promise,” Alexis said, smiling, and gently closed the door behind her.