It jumps on your back and sucks hard. I’d managed to pry the beast off just enough to get a little of my mojo back, but I hadn’t noticed the one holding Garrett so tightly around the neck that he’d choked that day at Rizer Technologies. It hadn’t let go of him. Shortly after the disastrous job interview, he called Carly to quit his job as Maura’s tutor. “Let him go,” Carly said after I’d insisted we call him back. She ran a hand through her limp curls, which looked every bit as exhausted as she did. “He’s not your problem anymore. I know that sounds harsh, but don’t you think you should let him lick his wounds in private?” I nodded, but still I found myself parked in the library lot as day slipped into night, slumped down in the driver’s seat, spying on Garrett as he diligently collected the garbage other people carelessly tossed into the air without a thought. He tied off the refuse bag and lobbed it into the Dumpster, shrugged on a jacket he’d pulled from his duffel bag, and stood, still and watchful, under the uncertainty of a blinking street lamp.
