“Hmm. Yes, I am sure you were very receptive to any offer of help.” She sat down on the ground next to him, arranging her tight skirt, taking off her tailored blazer. He didn’t know what to say to her. He never wanted her to see him like this. “You going to share, or what?”

He handed over the bottle of whiskey.

“Ugh.” She swallowed, disgusted. “I don’t know how you drink this stuff.”

“I like it.”

“Yes, well,” she leaned her shoulder against his, “You always did have terrible taste.”

He snorted. “God knows that’s true.”

She studied the chaos in the room, all the fractured heirlooms now worthless. “I’m assuming this is a Gardner-shaped breakdown.”

“Fuck, Genni...”

“I would be more than delighted to kill him for you.” She did not sound like she was joking. “And I represent some great properties, you know—places to hide the body.”

He laughed soundlessly, shaking. “God, I love you, Genni. Tell me again why I didn’t marry you?”

She reached for his pack of cigarettes, tapped one out and lit it, blowing coils of smoke. A breath. “Probably because I am such an unremitting cunt.”

“Have a cunt, more like.”

“That too.”

He held out his right hand. “Light another, will you?”

“What am I, your servant?”

“I’m having a meltdown.” He wiggled his hand. “Help.”

She snorted, very unappealingly, and lit his cigarette. They smoked for a while, silent.

“I fucked him.”

She looked around at the mess again. “You shock me.” Stretching her long legs in front of her—and flashing the lacy tops of her stockings, the vixen—she sighed. “How exactly did that happen?”

“You curious about the mechanics, or—” He could practically hear her roll her eyes. “Sorry.” He tensed up, then tried to relax. “There was a problem at the school, so I contacted him to discuss it, and—”

“Not so much with the talking?”

“Ha.” He took a swallow of whiskey. “Not so much.”

She stared at him, sighed again—much more heavily—and looked away. “God, this has been a long time coming.”

He couldn’t say anything. He still carried—he wished for a different life.

Genni scowled into her lap. “You should know, I’m saying this entirely against my better judgment.” Turning his head to look at her, he watched her face. She looked conflicted and not a little pissed off. “I think you didn’t notice, when we were looking at the apartment, the way Gardner looked at you.”

A pain in his chest. She ground out her cigarette on the carpet. He frowned. “Nice, Gen.”

“Yes, you so obviously care about the rug.” She lifted an eyebrow, gesturing to the destruction around them.

He laughed, shrugged. “All right. So...”