We All Sleep in the Same Room Read Online Free PDF

and swallow. The beer is crisp and delicious, even more so than I remembered. I can’t peel my gaze from Jessie. Her body in profile, a brand new angle for me, mesmerizes.
    I take another swig; then I’m talking. She looks straight at me with those reflective eyes. I’ve started without knowing what I’m saying until I start hearing myself. It’s as if I’m making a long-distance phone call with a two-second delay. I’m going on about my days in law school, how nervous I was about the bar. She’s looking at me, laughing occasionally. Really we’re gushing.
    At some point she turns to me, brushing my calf, intentionally or not, while resting her feet on the rung of my stool.
    â€œAnother round?” I ask.
    â€œI better start heading back to the office. Tyler should be here soon.”
    I make a quarter turn to her, lowering my hand toward her thigh, before dropping it in my own lap.
    She smiles. I feel myself blushing.
    On the stairs, she squeezes my hand and then lets it go before we reach the lobby.
    Outside, the circus is in full swing, the sky an indefinite orange. Neon colors illuminate her face. The sun is probably in the middle of setting but it makes no difference under the skyscrapers and billboards.
    We’re crossing over 8th Avenue, a short sprint from the office when I catch her hand, step into an alcove, and pull her toward me. Her tongue moves aggressively over mine. Then she slows—a moment of softness before it’s over.
    Back on 44th, we’re sitting on stone stairs a few buildings from the office.
    â€œYou like it here?” I say. “At the firm?”
    â€œYeah, of course I like it. It’s a great firm.”
    â€œDo you want to work on this next case with me?”
    â€œThe lady at the health clinic?”
    â€œDoreen,” I say.
    â€œOh, look. There he is,” she says.
    Tyler’s too far to discern us in the dusk. I press my lips against the base of her neck. But she doesn’t react.
    Tyler’s a baby-faced guy in tight, brand new jeans. Jessie greets him with a kiss on the cheek.
    â€œTyler, this is Tom,” she says. “Tom’s my boss. We’re working on a case together.”
    Tyler and I shake hands and with a wave they start off. I sit back down and watch them go. It’s my direction too, but I don’t want to leave just yet. The old warmth is rising over me like waves.

3
    T here’s rustling in my bed.
    â€œOh no. Baby...”
    I turn over and see Raina carting Ben out of the room. It’s wet beneath my hand. The scent of urine.
    5:32 a.m. I’m awake. And I feel remarkably good. To evade the puddles Ben has left on Raina’s side, I slither, crab-like, down the length of the bed as if her body were still lying there.
    I pull off our blanket and wrench the sheets and the pillowcases. Ben’s bed is damp and I strip it too. I gather everything, stuff it into a laundry bag, and go about making the beds with fresh sheets, tucking them in hospital corners the way my dad taught me. He learned in the army. I prop Elmo up next to Ben’s pillow.
    I expect to find Ben soaking in a bath, but he’s kneeling on the bathmat in his little robe, already squeaky clean, hair parted, babbling nonsensically and directing an interaction between a pirate and a dolphin on the lip of the tub while watching his mother shower through a part in the curtain. Eyes closed, head back, her sturdy body gleams beneath the rush of water, indifferent to our presence.
    â€œOff to the laundromat,” I say.
    I kissed my assistant. I kissed Jessie. Or we kissed each other. Already it seems a peculiar memory, thrilling and distant.
    * * *
    By eleven a steady rain rules out a trip to the Central Park Zoo. Raina reads the Times and Ben crawls in circles with his firetruck. WKCR plays softly from the radio in the kitchen. A dull pressure in my head undermines my efforts to concentrate, and gradually my