“ARE YOU COMING TO BED at all, or are you going to sleep at your desk?” Alex shouts up from the living room where he’s putting the last touches on the pack for his climb tomorrow. He has a day off, and he would like to take advantage of the rare chance to sleep in with a late night with Paul.
“Yeah,” Paul calls back down distractedly.
“Yeah, you’re coming, or yeah, you’re putting Victor to shame with your insomnia?”
“Can you give me thirty minutes?” Paul’s voice is tight.
“You mean the thirty minutes that looks like an hour?”
“Alex —” Paul starts, sounding somewhere between guilty and warning.
“Okay,” Alex closes the last buckle on his bag viciously. “Waiting up for you.”
Alex falls asleep reading. When he wakes up in the morning his book is still open on his chest and the other sid
