Wife of the Rock God

w that wouldn't quite close. The single bed sagged in the middle, its floral bedspread stained with a history I didn

o humiliate me, to reinforce the narrative t

han, it was somet

s a g

a college student working a dead-end waitressing job, renting a tiny, bug-infested room to sa

He crashed on my floor, and for one sweltering, secret summer, we shared that tiny room. We shared instant ramen, cheap beer, and d

motel room cast long, dancing shadows on the walls. It was

aniel. I didn' t want to listen, but the cameras

rry they' re doing this to you. You don' t belong in a place like that. You belong i

a way to make himself look like the ca

l bag in the corner, heard the whole thing. H

. "He' s offering you a palace. I' m o

hed my lips for the first t

ithout hesitation.

ut with a knife. The flickering light, the shared meal,

ht?" I asked, my voice tight

is dark eyes meeting mine. The sile

y said, his voice low and soft. "It remin

r night in room 207, the light flickering just like this

"Don' t fix it. From now on, every time a lig

y chest. He remembered. After all these

ust tension. It was a live wire, sparking in th