He’s your leader, Paul said, looking at me.

He’s not our leader, I replied, exasperated. We’re all equal, we all lead, we all contribute.

Right, Paul said, nodding, dismissive.

Well it all sounds majorly fucked up, Ashley said.

Why, because you don’t understand it? Kyle asked, in a measured tone. Do you think you understand the whole world? You don’t think there’s room for things no one can explain? Is there nothing left to discover?

Ashley turned to me, and said, matter-of-factly—Kyle’s here because his mom kicked him out of the house yesterday, and he had nowhere else to go, and I felt sorry for him.

What? I looked at Kyle. Your mom—?

Kicked me out. Yeah.

Kyle—

She found out about the meetings. You can’t hide shit from my mom, she’s like the CIA.

I told him he could crash here for the night, Ashley said. I figured you’d probably prefer that than letting him wander the streets.

Well of course.

And then I came home to find him on the couch, Paul said. And we had a pretty damn heated exchange, let’s say. Well I was heated.

Just hearing this was giving me stomach cramps.

But we had a talk, didn’t we, Paul said, looking at Kyle.

Kyle nodded.

What kind of talk? I asked weakly.

That’s between us men, Paul replied.

He actually said ‘us men,’ I kid you not, like he’d just given his son the sex talk, and I would have laughed if I hadn’t felt so close to stress-vomiting. In retrospect, Paul must have been unbelievably stressed as well, to have said something so dumb; he was never very good at performing calm when he wasn’t. Either way, I found his answer both disquieting and irritating.

And then, Paul continued, at the end of it, Kyle very kindly offered to help me with these boxes.

I see, I managed to breathe out.

You’re not thinking of letting him stay here, are you? Paul asked me.

Paul, I have no idea, I’ve just walked through the door. I haven’t even had a cup of coffee yet.

Because I don’t feel comfortable with him staying here.

Well it’s not your decision.

I still own half of this house.

Oh right. So what half are you taking with you?

You’re just going to let him sleep on the couch? Claire Devon’s House of Strays?

It was just a night, Ashley said, flinging her hands up.

Claire, do you get how this would look? After everything?

I turned to Kyle and asked him if he had somewhere else to stay. He puffed up his cheeks as he thought, then exhaled—I’m sure I can figure it out.

But do you? I pressed.

I don’t know.

What about Luke or Mohammed?

You’re joking.

Or Jay?

His family doesn’t have the room.