After a couple hours, the bartender came over. “We’re closing early.”

Nicole and Ant had been the only ones since they came in.

“That’s why I chose here,” Ant said shyly, pulling on his coat. “I can’t run into anyone.”

“Let’s go to the DH?”

She liked him too much to fuck him tonight, and a flushed wave of relief and delight washed over her as she understood this. They’d have this nice chaste first date, and then go over to his place for the second. This wasn’t how things usually went for Nicole, and it was something that felt lovely and new. It really had been a long time since she’d met someone she liked.

Five minutes at the DH and Ant wasn’t wrong. Two dudes sallied up looking straight out of Letterkenny central casting: “Ant! Buddy!” Nicole sat politely through one drink, and then turned to Ant.

“I’ve got work in the morning. But dinner next week? Friday? Maybe?”

“Absolutely!” Ant said, looking sad but saying nothing more.

Nicole drove home shrieking. Honest-to-God shrieking! How fucking long had it been?! She liked a guy for real, and the guy wanted to see her again. It had been. Such. A long. Time. Since both. Of those things. Had happened. She picked up Burger King on the drive home and ate it in bed watching Netflix, and then glugged NyQuil and hibernated. The next morning, she got ready in a sand-brained haze but was on top of shit the second she rolled in to work. Crushed it. It was a good life. It was a good life.

Next Friday. She got home and showered. Soaped and scrubbed her smelly holes. Texted Ant if she should bring anything? (No, just you!) Texted her sister that she couldn’t lend her more money this week, not after what she sent on Monday, but she got paid in a few days and she’d help then, sorry …

Maniacal laughter and the sound of a TV were coming from her neighbour’s place. Sometimes that guy was in a good mood. He was always friendly when Nicole ran into him in the hall, including the one time he was clearly drunk (it was in the morning, but the guy was a shift worker—the only thing she knew about him, really). Nicole could swear she’d never heard anyone else’s voice in that apartment. The maniacal laughter continued, clear over the top of actors’ voices, which were muted and inorganic.

She drove down Tecumseh in misting rain. Ant lived on the West Side in a brick fourplex. The driveway was empty, and the air stank, and Ant’s stubbled face lit up as he opened the door, like he hadn’t been sure Nicole would in fact be standing there.

She climbed the stairs after him, and Ant used the banister to hoist himself up quickly, taking stairs three at a time. Nicole’s eyes rested on the back of his jeans, his nimble grey-socked feet.