*Chapter 4: The Line*
511 Words
Three days.
That’s how long they lasted.
Three days of pretending at breakfast.
Three days of Ethan talking about tile samples and retirement.
Three days of Lily’s hand “accidentally” brushing Adrian’s when she passed the salt.
On day four, Ethan had golf. Left at 7am. “Back late, boys’ night,” he said.
The house felt bigger when he was gone.
Lily was on the couch at 10pm. TV on. No sound.
Adrian came down for water.
She didn’t look up. “He’s not coming home tonight.”
“I know.”
“You coming up?”
Adrian stood in the kitchen doorway. “Lily. We said we’d stop.”
She finally looked at him. “And did we?”
He didn’t answer.
She stood, walked past him to the stairs. Paused.
“1am. If you’re not there, I’ll get it.”
She went up.
Adrian stayed in the kitchen for an hour. Staring at the sink.
At 12:58am he went upstairs.
Her door was already open a crack.
It wasn’t about love. It wasn’t even about liking each other.
It was about the risk. About being in the same house and doing the one thing they weren’t supposed to.
After, the room was quiet except for both of them breathing.
Lily sat up, pulling the blanket around her. “This is bad, right?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re gonna get caught.”
“Probably.”
She laughed. No humor in it. “Then why’d you come?”
Adrian didn’t have an answer. He looked at the door instead. “You should go. Before he gets back.”
“I will.”
She didn’t move.
Neither did he.
Around 4:30am she slipped out. Back to her room. Back to Ethan’s bed.
Two nights later it happened again.
Then again the night after that.
It became a pattern.
Tuesdays when Ethan had poker.
Thursdays when he stayed late at the office.
Any night he was tired and went to bed early.
They never talked during the day. Never texted.
Just knocks. Just 1am.
Until the night it almost ended.
Adrian was half asleep when he heard the door. Lily came in, but she was shaking.
“Someone was up,” she whispered. “I heard him in the hall.”
Adrian sat up instantly. “Ethan?”
“I don’t know. I hid in the bathroom for 20 minutes.”
They didn’t touch that night. Just sat on opposite sides of the room. Listening.
At 3am, footsteps.
Slow. Right outside Adrian’s door.
A pause.
Then they kept going. Down the hall. Into Ethan’s room. Door closed.
Lily let out a breath she’d been holding. “He knows.”
“No he doesn’t,” Adrian said, but his voice was thin.
“Yes he does,” Lily said. “And next time he won’t just walk past.”
She left before sunrise.
For the next week, nothing.
No knocks. No texts.
At dinner they were perfect. Polite.
Adrian told himself it was over.
On Sunday night, 1:03am.
Three soft knocks.
- Writer
