She had to pee soon or Jillian would think she was taking a dump.

After peeing, she looked at herself more. What an asshole, but what to do?

Jillian deleted the voicemails and took another two Tylenol T3s with codeine and decided that the courthouse must have had the wrong number, because she really didn’t have the money and wouldn’t have the money for another two weeks, at which time she would call the courthouse herself because she was a responsible person.

More dinner? She could make Randy another dinner? A very delicious dinner? She got the impression that something was on the horizon.

At 5:00 p.m., Elena came to pick up Adam and stopped to talk to Barb a second. They talked about how weird Adam was while Adam crawled around on the ground, apparently pretending to be a dog. Barb told Elena about the sister dog thing.

“Ugh,” said Elena, throwing her hands up.

“Adam!” shouted Barb. He trotted up to the women.

“Time to go home, sweetie,” said Elena.

IT WAS AROUND 5:00 P.M., so Megan would be home any second. What a nasty, burdensome feeling. Can you believe it, his hands were sweaty, even though he’d given himself an extension for thinking about this whole thing. “This whole thing.” He felt gross.

The downstairs door slammed and he saved his project. Megan walked in with groceries. “Hey, cutie,” she said.

ELENA THOUGHT ABOUT how Jillian would probably fuck something up this weekend at the church 80s party. She thought about it in detail, watching Adam fidget in her peripheral vision. She pulled into a parking spot on the street outside of Jillian’s apartment building, pumping herself up for the possibility that Jillian would not be home yet. She and Adam would wait inside or maybe she and Adam would take the dog for a walk and she would leave Jillian a note. “You were not here when I got here, and your dog needed out so we took her out.” She would not call the dog by its name in the note, she decided. She walked up to the building with the weird, kicking, spasmodic child’s limp, damp hand in hers and she wanted to bear down on his pudgy little baby fingers to teach them how to firm up like a normal person’s hands.

But Jillian was in, sitting on the couch with that dog. Adam let go of her hand and took a few steps to the side. The house smelled like piss.

“Hey, I just got back from walking the dog, great timing,” Jillian said.

Yeah, right.

“You might crack a window in here, the weather’s fine,” said Elena.

“Oh, I know. I just felt a little chilly on the walk home.”

“It’s not chilly,” said Elena.

“Hmm,” said Jillian.

“So, any word on when you’re getting your car back? We could really use your help driving this weekend. We need a runner.”