But lately things had been off-kilter with him. He was distant, preoccupied. Where we had once shared the responsibility of keeping our place presentable, now he was shirking his roommate duties and leaving me with all the grunt work. The biggest change, though, was in his sudden attraction to alcohol. He had never been a big drinker, but he went from having one or two beers a week to having enough to render him disgustingly drunk on a frequent basis, and then coming home sometime around dawn. I didn’t appreciate sharing a bed with someone who smelled as though he’d gone swimming in Guinness, and I appreciated even less his drunken advances; thankfully, I was usually awake in time to hide out in the bathroom until he had passed out on the bed.

On this particular morning, I arrived at work about an hour after awaking to Dylan’s stumbling entrance, bearing my usual breakfast from the café down the street. On my desk was a small stack of invoices left from the day before—data entry was one of the many dull facets of my job—but I ignored them as I ate, polishing off my donuts and tea with ritualistic devotion.

Dana, my cubicle-mate, showed up around nine with more donuts. She was younger than me, only twenty-two, and just out of college with an oh-so-marketable degree in Italian Renaissance Music. She was working here while she figured out what to do with her life—like the rest of us. “Happy Monday, my friend!” she sang. “And how was your weekend with Dylan, the king of charm?”

I laughed around a mouthful of donut. “Oh, just grand. Cleaned the castle—by myself, you know, since these days the king himself barely stoops to tie his own shoe, much less pick up his own trash.” Dana laughed. “Leftovers for dinner—twice—and the big, comfy bed all to myself since he didn’t come home until past five a.m. both nights.”

Dana’s face fell as the fun left the conversation. I hated to bring it down, but I didn’t want to lie, either. The whole thing was really ticking me off, and Dana was the only one to talk to. “Oh, Grace. Where was he?”