Page 104 of No Cap

“I don’t want him in here,” Alana said. “It’s time. The guilt is eating me alive.”

Devin made sure two more times before he resumed his seat and Alana started from the beginning.

“We weren’t allowed to be best friends,” Alana said softly. “Her parents didn’t like me. I didn’t have any parents. I lived at a foster home. I was a bit wild, and Tansy was very sweet and kind, and took me under her wing. Tansy wasn’t wild like me. She was a great kid, and I dragged her under every single time we went out and did things. Eventually, Tansy’s mother didn’t want us around each other, so Tansy and I met in secret. That night she died, the night I pushed her in front of that train, she’d had a fight with a friend because Tansy had been accused of stealing from her friend. But I’d been the one to do that, and Tansy knew it. She confronted me. We met up at the end of her road, and we drove. Eventually, we wound up at one of our favorite spots to go—we’d sit there for hours in that turn and talk about what we wanted our lives to be. But that night, when she got mad at me for stealing her friend’s money, I just lost it. I was so broke. I couldn’t even afford a pair of shoes. So I just… yelled at Tansy. She took her shoes off and threw them at me. I picked them up, then threw them on the ground in front of her, then pushed her. She fell, and that was when the train hit her.”

An accident.

A horrible accident.

“I took her shoes, her phone that somehow landed on the ground at my feet, and just ran.” Alana shook her head. “It was later on that I realized that the phone had her f-finger still attached to it. I threw it in the river, tossed her shoes at the end of her driveway on the way home and left town the next day.” She shook her head. “I should’ve said something. I should’ve done anything… but I was traumatized.”

There was more after that.

But I shut it off and tossed it on the bed between us.

“What are the odds?” I asked Hollis.

She cleared her throat, then tried to get her hair under control before looking at me.

She was so fuckin’ cute.

“I think the universe likes you, Quincy Carter.” She shook her head. “She could’ve taken that to her grave, and no one would’ve been the wiser.

Agreed.

“Wow,” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Nothing to say, I guess,” she murmured. “Now you get to go tell that family what happened.”

I shook my head, still stunned. “They’re going to lose it.”

I was right.

Hours later, when I delivered the news to Tansy’s family, they did, indeed, lose it.

And when I went home an hour later, I found Hollis at my kitchen stove cooking for me.

“How do you feel about checking out my house tomorrow?” I asked.

Hollis whipped around. “I’d love to.”

I grinned, then walked toward her, lifted her up onto the counter, and kissed her.

When she pulled away, she was panting.

“Stupid periods.”

I agreed. “Stupid periods.”

I want to know why my clothes only get stuck on door handles when I’m in a bad mood.

—Text from Hollis to Quincy

HOLLIS

I learned that Quincy’s job was a real bitch.

For three mornings in a row, he’d had to go into work.