Chapter 40

He was lying on Thomas’s bed, in the beautiful room with white walls where they had moved after they made love on the sofa, to make love again in bed between the white sheets, his pale skin like a shadow of the fabric. The ceiling had a delicate silvery edging running around it, and the overhead light was created by many steel arms and finished with a little LED light. It looked like a still octopus, a strange witness to their sexual encounter.

Thomas was in the bathroom, having a shower, and Elias lay there for a few more minutes before making a decision. He stood up fast, put on his trousers and his T-shirt, looked for a piece of paper, and left a message for Thomas: “I’ll fix a couple things and then I’ll come back. And let’s hope for your sake that what you said was true because I won’t be leaving anymore.”