Adam wondered how long it would take her to calm down. Seeing Lili this overwhelmed, he questioned whether confronting her like that had been the right thing to do.
I didn't think she'd react this way.
To avoid eye contact, he looked over his shoulder at his ravaged apartment; someone had stolen everything of any value. That place meant the world to him. Yet as the shock dissipated, Adam found curious that he felt more numb than sad.
Women lie when they laugh and lie when they sob, he said to himself. Why is seeing her cry making me feel hollow?
Lili had promised him to speak the truth, but she hadn't been able to utter a word. Why? Was she stalling to come up with a lie? Adam noticed that she was nervous as soon as he saw her standing under the door frame, but could he blame her?
Who could keep a steady hand when a wounded man is screaming in front of your home?
Adam produced his smartphone and tried to turn it on. The screen blinked and died.
"Sadness doesn't get my tears. That's too trite," Lili explained, forcing herself to smile. "Anger is what breaks me."
"Anger?"
"It upsets me when someone makes a fool out of me."
"I don't understand what you're saying."
"Then read my lips: It is my fault, Adam." Lili stopped herself from crying again. "I asked the super, and he didn't call any plumber. That guy was full of shit, and I ate it up like an idiot."
She doesn't strike me as the type that's easily fooled. Is she lying? What's in it for her?
"I'm calling the cops," Adam insisted, walking towards the elevator.
Lili grabbed him by the arm.
"Stay with me tonight."
"What?"
Adam stopped.
"Tonight. Stay with me. Tomorrow we'll find your stuff. Cross my heart and hope to die."
Adam thought about it but pushed the elevator button, anyway.
"Damn it! Don't make me beg," said Lili. "My guilt is heavy enough to cause scoliosis; I don't wanna drag my pride all over the floor too."
"You don't get it," Adam made her let go of his arm. While he waited for the elevator, his right hand touched the wristwatches under his sleeve. If he wanted Bianca and Dario to walk on Carlos Cruz Diez's multicolored walkway, the same way Dorothy followed the Yellow Brick Road to make her wishes come true, he needed his computer. "My PC—"
"Your PC will be back in your hands at dawn's first light. Sleep on my couch. Tomorrow will be a brand new day."
"I'm not sleeping on your couch."
"Well, you're not sleeping in my bed."
Whether he blushed or his face turned white, Lili clarified that she was joking.
"I better get back."
"You can't spend the night at your place, dude."
She was right. The plumber still had copies of all his keys. Besides, Adam didn't want to set foot in that place ever again. The thought of that man going through his belongings, groping his things, was more than he could stomach.
"A hotel it is, then."
"This late? So you don't want a straitjacket but a casket."
"Lili..."
"Come on! I don't bite."
"The thing is—"
Lili pressed her back with one hand, pretending to be in pain.
"Guilt ... so heavy."
Adam rubbed his eyes, tired.
"Lili, you don't know me."
"Sure, I do. You told me about your grandma last Mother's Day—I think."
"Are you going to let a stranger that looks the way I do right now sleep in your living room? Seriously?"
"Adam, don't take this the wrong way, but you could be on fire and still wouldn't scare me. I can defend myself. Trust me. If you don't do it for me, do it for my scoliosis."
The elevator door opened as Adam thought about her offer.
"I won't sleep a wink all night," she said. Her eyes were urging him to stay.
His apartment was in shambles, someone had nearly run him over with a car, and a hellhound had almost bitten his fingers off. What else could go wrong? Plenty! Adam had a natural gift to imagine the worst-case scenarios. Lili could wait for him to doze off, call the plumber and kill him in his sleep, or perhaps she would drug him and steal his kidneys. Evi once told Adam that he was paranoid. He took it as a compliment. Picturing the worst outcome was the main reason he'd saved enough money abroad before the Venezuelan economy took a nosedive. His paranoia had never failed him.
Except for today, he thought bitterly the moment the elevator door closed.
"How comfortable is your couch, miss Good Samaritan?"
"You are staying? For real?" Lili asked, amazed.
Was she not expecting him to accept her invitation? Was she only trying to be polite? Maybe. Because what kind of woman in Caracas would invite a stranger to spend the night?
That's what Adam wanted to find out. He couldn't stop thinking there was a strange symmetry to the events of that night. What were the odds she had knocked on his door mere minutes after he'd received that cursed email? Had she inadvertently helped him get robbed? Adam wasn't buying that.
She showed up right when I found out that someone had broken in my apartment, he realized. And now she's inviting me to spend the night at her place. Odd.
Something didn't add up, and he wanted to know why this was happening to him.
Don't fall asleep. Find out what she's hiding.
Lili didn't turn on the lights when they walked into her apartment and told him that the ceiling lamp was busted. They both had to make do with the weak light from a lamp covered with a red tulle cloth.
The white couch, a half-decorated Christmas tree, the round table all the way to the back of the dining room, the painting of the Red Sea on the wall, the Persian carpet on the ground—Everything had a crimson, dreamlike quality to it. Adam feared he wasn't awake when a small white rabbit with ruby-colored eyes hopped into the living room.
Lili cuddled the small animal and pressed her nose against her pet's.
"Her name is Alice. I hope you don't mind her."
Adam shook his head.
"Want a glass of water or something?"
Drink nothing she gives you, he reminded himself, even though his throat was sandpaper.
"I'm good. Thanks for letting me crash here."
"You're not crashing anything," she smiled. "I invited you."
Adam's face was stony.
"It was joking," Lili said, raising one eyebrow. "Crash as in crashing a party instead of—"
"I got it. It's just that your joke was so bad that it put Jewish jokes in a concentration camp."
Lili thought about it for a second and then laughed.
"You have a dark sense of humor."
Adam shrugged.
"Dark, light ... Don't care. I'm the same way about meat."
"Well, we have a Jerry Seinfeld in our house," Lili told the rabbit before turning back to Adam. "The kitchen is that way, and the bathroom is over there."
There was no need for a tour. Adam knew where everything was. Once more, the thought he had walked through a mirror crossed his mind.
"If you need anything—"
"Phone charger," Adam showed her his cellphone. "It's dead."
She snapped her fingers, understanding. Not long after that, she came back with a mini USB cable and a power adapter. Adam thanked her, made sure his phone was plugged in, and laid back on the couch.
"Good night," said Lili.
Adam didn't reply. He was already asleep.
To be continued...