There has to be another way

On paper, it made sense. If I was open to sleeping with him before, what had changed? Just because he'd shown himself to be an ass? Like I hadn't slept with assholes before. Sometimes it was something I discovered after the fact, but on more than one occasion (on too many occasions) it was just your run of the mill delusion. "Oh, he's not so bad, he must seem like a nightmare because he secretly has a gentleman deep inside him." Keep dreaming, sister.

I stared at my phone, willing myself to do something. As the seconds crept by I was becoming more and more desperate to know whatever Luke might have to tell me. Conventional wisdom held that a missing person was sure to be dead if they were gone for more than 48 hours. I assumed the same held true, more or less, for memories. The longer I went without remembering what sort of shit I got up to last night, the worse my odds of learning what it actually was were.

This all made sense. But still, I was just staring at the phone.

"You okay, babe?" Eden asked, looking worried. She was thinking I was going through another episode of fugue. I could tell. Telepathy was an upside of losing your mind. Or, it's obvious when someone is looking at you like you've got your head on backwards.

"This asshole is trying to get some," I sighed. She had been looking over my shoulder, she knew the score. But I needed to say it out loud to structure this brainstorming session.

"So, what? Are we going to burn down his house, or something?" Eden asked. Always a team player. This was why I came to her.

"Maybe after," I said. "I have to know what the fuck was going on last night."

"Then, I dunno, we'll track down some CCTV footage. I'm sure the club has security cameras. We can tell them you got robbed or something. And on the way to Le Mythe, we burn down his house."

What a delightful idea, and that isn't sarcasm. I let myself daydream for a second. More than any moral objection, I thought the biggest barrier to that plan was that I didn't know to burn down a building without getting immolated along with it. Plus, it was a whole condo. They had extinguishers somewhere. And dogs. I wouldn't want the dogs to get caught in it. Alas. A solution for another day.

"Alright," I said. "Here's what I'm thinking..."