“Jacob,” Audrey said, “we can’t stay long.”

“I’ll fix you a drink,” he said.

He left for the kitchen and Audrey scooted closer to me.

“Check this out,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

She picked up an unplugged lava lamp from the adjacent shelf and balanced it on the cat. She took her hands away. The lamp listed slightly to one side, but didn’t fall. The cat lay still as though stuffed.

“I always do this,” she said. “He likes it, I think. I put a bowl of cereal on him for an hour one time. He never moved.”

We heard the whir of a machine from the kitchen, and Jacob emerged with three dark gray smoothies garnished with parsley stems. He set one in front of each of us.

“New juicer,” he said. “It’s amazing.”

“Jacob, what the hell is in this?” Audrey asked.

“Uh, carrot. Beet. Pear. Blue-green algae. And a splash of rum. I invented it.”

We took experimental sips.

“It’s gross,” Audrey said.

“It could use some salt,” Jacob said. “I’ve also been making a meat drink for Oliver. He loves it.”

He bounced into the kitchen again and returned carrying a ceramic salt shaker shaped like a fried egg, with two holes poked in the yolk. The condensation on the outside of my glass had attracted quite a lot of cat hair.

“J,” Audrey said. “Do you have what you gave me before?”

“Right. Yes. Oliver, come on, old man. We need the table, here.”

Jacob scooped his arms under the giant blob of cat and set him on the carpet. Oliver’s head flopped to one side, but he seemed otherwise unaffected by his new location. After a minute he scooted towards the hall, surprisingly fast, his belly swaying between his legs. Meat juice.

“It’s not what we had,” Jacob said, “but it’s good, very good.”

He wiped the table with a wet rag and brought out a little bag of white powder. Audrey saw the damp swipes of cat hair on the table and dug in her purse for a tissue, which she licked and wiped across the glass. She dried the table carefully with the sleeve of her sweater, leaving a clean patch the size of a dinner plate.

“An oasis!” Jacob said.

He tapped the coke out. The harsh light made him look waxy. I could see Audrey’s pores. She snorted a line and handed me the rolled bill. I did my line and let the rush creep and build, like fluorescent light in my bloodstream. The dim apartment, Jacob and Audrey, everything took on a strange cast, refreshingly unfamiliar. I relaxed into it, waited to see what might happen. I could leave the past behind, make new friends. I felt better than I had since Michael dumped me.

Audrey was telling some story about this rich dude she knew who kept a polar bear cub for a pet in a climate-controlled room, and when the cub got too big he’d trade it in for a baby one.