Desmond checked his watch. In all likelihood he had another hour, hour and a half before Russell showed up, assuming he came straight from the store. There was time for Desmond to settle in and assert some dominance over the place, take back some of the space. Assert his right to be here. After all, he was the one who had bought this apartment. He took a swing through the bedroom—another dumping ground, laundry heaped up on a chair—then went out to the living room and circled into the kitchen. He made a stab at attacking the dishes, but as he was attempting to find the sponge under all those food-encrusted dishes, his back stiffened with resentment and he abandoned the project. Back to the fridge, but there was still nothing to eat in there. In the living room, he turned on the radio. Russell had it tuned to a Top 40s funk station—since when did he like this music?—and Desmond found the thumping bass a hammer on his skull. He looked in vain for the remote control and finally gave up and shut the thing off. He collapsed on the living room sofa and picked up a magazine called Hello, apparently a British version of People or maybe the National Enquirer. Desmond leafed through the pages, bored by the pictures of the Royal Family and the only slightly more attractive, unrecognizable British TV stars proudly showing off their grim London town houses. It was a mystery what Russell could possibly find interesting in this.

He looked at his watch. Seven minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked. He went to the kitchen, but nothing edible had materialized, so he decided to go out to get something to eat. As he was opening the door, he heard the young marrieds, Tina and Gary, arguing in the hallway. The last thing he needed was to attempt polite chitchat with those two. Now he was a prisoner in his own apartment. Except it suddenly didn’t feel like his own apartment; it felt like Russell’s. And Russell felt like a stranger.

A beer and a soak. He’d have to clean the bathtub first, no doubt about that, but that at least would eat up ten more minutes.