Chapter 10

Reluctantly, Paul climbed out of bed and got dressed in the semi-light filtering in from the hallway. He crept from the room and pulled the bedroom door closed behind him. He tiptoed to the kitchen and hunted about for some paper, which he found next to the telephone, and wrote Calvin a short “thank you” note. Then, after realising they’d left the back door wide open, he closed and locked it, let himself out through the front door, and walked to his car.

Driving home, he replayed what had happened while he and Calvin had been having sex over and over in his mind. Even now it seemed like he’d experienced some bizarre, lucid dream, yet on another level, it had felt just as real as anything else in his life at that moment. The whole thing had left him with a sense of having known Calvin for longer than a few days, as if they had a history together. Perhaps, finally, he understood why Calvin had initially asked him if they’d ever met.