I do as he asks, and then look around the darkened, empty pub. There are no lights on except an old lamp by the bottles that burns with an amber glow.

“I’m going to run upstairs quickly,” he says. “You can come if you want, but you’re welcome to wait there, too, if you prefer.”

“What’s upstairs?”

He hesitates. It’s clearly strange that I don’t know. “It’s my flat. I live up above the place.”

“That’s so cool,” I say.

“It’s cool until the lock-in goes on ’til dawn and your mam is up partyin’ with the best of ’em.”

“Your mom is mad at me,” I say.

“You’ve seen her?”

I follow him up the steps and through the door at the top.

“When I saw your dad about my”—I look for the words—“mental collapse.”

“She’s not mad at you. She’s mad at us.”

He holds open the door for me and I go through. It smells comfortingly familiar, even though it shouldn’t. Like smoky peat and dried autumn leaves.

Inside is a large, high-ceilinged room of dark wood that’s been neatly divided into a bedroom and a sitting area. There’s a closet and a bathroom, and one of the walls has three windows that look down over the street.

This little flat is so idyllic. When I moved to LA I wanted a huge glass-and-marble house with an infinity pool. I wanted space. I wanted money so I could buy myself some augmented reality. One of the allures of Grayson had been his house. But seeing this place reminds me of the draw I’ve always had to drafty old buildings with rippled windows and flaws in the wooden floors. I wonder how long it’s been here. Probably a long, long time.

He’s a neat guy, I notice, which endears him to me even more. The idea of him keeping the place tidy makes me feel disproportionately fond.

On his coffee table, I see that he’s been reading The White Album by Joan Didion. I pick it up and look inside to see what I somehow knew would be there. An inscription from me.

C—

Read it. Maybe you’ll want to run away to LA with me.

—M

PS—I mean there’s some dark stuff in here, but you’ll see what I mean.

I set it down, making sure to leave it open to the page he was on, and keep snooping around.