Liam's eyes opened.
The ceiling of the lake house looked back at him. Dark wooden beams.
Warm morning light coming through the large windows on the far wall, the lake visible through them, flat and pale blue in the early hour.
He lay there for exactly one second.
Then he grabbed his phone off the nightstand.
The screen lit up.
"Holy shit." He sat up fast, the covers falling away. "Holy shit holy shit holy shit—"
Thirty two minutes late to his first lecture.
He threw the covers back and swung his legs off the bed and stood up and started moving around the room at the same time, his eyes going to the floor, the chair, the corner, looking for his bag and his clothes and his shoes all at once.
Then he saw Elena.
She was standing in front of the mirror on the far side of the room, her back mostly to him, a small brush in her hand, finishing her makeup with the unhurried focus of someone who had been up for a while.
