Chapter 15

“Thanks. I love these old apartments, you know? Everything these days is getting ‘gutted’ and ‘rehabbed.’ I love the charm of places like this. I think this building was built around the turn of the century, and a lot of it is still just like it was originally. Come on.”

Sean showed him around the apartment, pointing out the claw-foot tub in the bathroom, the built-in hutch in the dining room, the big pantry off the kitchen. All of it was meticulously clean and ordered, so different from the cramped, filthy quarters Arliss shared with two other guys down in Boystown. Arliss jumped when he felt something rub against his leg. He looked down to see one of the fattest cats he had ever seen in his life purring and wending his way in and out of Arliss’s calves, never losing body contact. Every so often the black-and-white cat peered up at him with green eyes that Arliss thought already seemed adoring.