One knock. Her bracelets jangled. Another knock. No answer. He wasn’t home. That was OK, this wasn’t the right Mitch, anyway. Tomorrow she’d find him. And she’d find Tina. She’d get something to eat, find a place to sleep, start fresh. Forget about Arthur and the accident. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Suddenly the door flew open and there was Mitch, shirtless, his hair a mess, a cigarette dangling loosely from his fingers.

“Surprise!” The word sounded like a question.

“Sherri?”

“I told you I’d come visit. We talked about it.” She smiled her brightest, fakest smile and held the bottle of champagne in front of her. “You actually live here?” Sherri asked.

“What does it look like?”

“But the cars. I thought—”

Mitch paused, and suddenly his entire demeanor changed. She felt like he was leveling with her for the first time. “Look,” he said. “Those cars aren’t mine. I drive them for other people. Rich guys hire me to pick them up and drive them back here.”

“You lied?”

Mitch began to inch the door shut. “I never said they were mine, did I?”

“Mitch!”

He ran his hand through his messy ash-blond hair. “Sorry. Yeah, I lied. I did. You’re a Bunny. I wanted to impress you.”

Sherri couldn’t believe her ears. “You were worried about impressing me? You’re not a stuntman either, are you?”

Mitch took a drag of his cigarette. “I’m just me.” His expression softened. “I feel bad. You seriously drove all the way to California?”

Sherri nodded. It wasn’t so much that she came for him, it was that she needed to leave home. But it was too big and too complicated to explain.

“I’m just a fuckup, honestly.” He gestured at his messy apartment.

“I don’t even care. I’m a fuckup, too.”

She wasn’t looking for love. She didn’t care about being in a relationship. She didn’t think she deserved anyone especially someone as good as Arthur. All she knew was that she couldn’t stand to be alone. “Look, it took me two days to get here. Please. Can I come in and crash on your couch for a while?”

He shrugged and opened the door further. Sherri walked into his disgusting apartment, and stumbled into what would become a lost year in her life.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN