Owen has been struggling with addiction since he was a teenager, but it takes a DUI involving another vehicle for him to finally face his issues. The road to recovery is a rough one, and for Owen it's a journey made harder by bankruptcy, loneliness, and repressed memories.<br><br>His new apartment doesn't help either. It's small, worn, and hot as hell. The only way to reach it is a tedious stretch of stairs that seems like the final insult on top of a whole pile of misery.<br><br>Thankfully, the mess comes with one bright spot: intense, pretty Sebastian, who seems to have a knack for keeping his head up and finding the beauty in everything.

Forty-Two Stairs

Craig was just trying to do his best to be a good sponsor. Owen took another breath and smiled. “I promise you, as little weight as that phrase probably carries with you, nothing happened, and nothing is going to. I told him it was a bad idea, I explained why, and I asked him to stop. So, he stopped. And we watched another movie.”


Owen sputtered a set of deity-heavy expletives that had the customers at the tables to their left turning their heads. “Of course not!” Craig lifted both hands, though if as a sign of surrender or warning, Owen wasn’t sure. “Relax, Owen. You’re a very quiet person. If I don’t drag this out of you, I don’t get anything. And good. I’m glad. I’d give you a big gold star or underlined A-plus if I had the ability to do so. You didn’t fall back on your crutch and you’ve found a new friend. I’m happy for you. But I’m also trying to look out for you. Relationships at this juncture are—”


“Yeah, I’ve read the pamphlet,” Owen deadpanned.


Chapter 14