Eileen woke to bright sunshine the next morning. She was in her bed, alone. The stack of boxes was gone from the door, and the chair in the corner was empty. The shower next door was running.

She stretched luxuriously, enjoying the feel of the sun's warmth. She pulled her robe from the end of the bed, opened her door, and let herself in to the room next door.

The blanket from her room lay on the bed. Henry's T-shirt and shorts hung, damp and freshly washed, over the back of a chair by the bathroom. She smiled to herself, picked them up along with his jeans and shirt, and put them in her room, then returned to Henry's room and stretched out on the bed. It hadn't been slept in, she noted.

She flipped on the TV. Nothing good on at this time of day. Figures...

The shower stopped, and she heard the stall door open. After a few minutes, a hand snaked out of the bathroom door and fumbled around the back of the chair.

Eileen waited.

"Good morning, Henry."

"Uh, Eileen..."

Henry's ruffled head poked out of the door.

"You know I don't have anything else."

"Yep. So I've got you captive. For now."

He huffed, and the door closed again. A moment later, he came out with a towel around his waist, and another over his shoulders.

"What gives?"

"Well," she said, "I have an idea."

Henry sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm listening."

"You'd better. You're not getting your clothes back until I'm done."

He made a face. "You're not very nice sometimes."

"From what I saw down there, neither are you."

"Thanks."

"Hey, I mean it in the best way. Nice guys finish last, anyway."

"Thanks...I guess."

"Anyway, here's the plan. This morning, I'm going to take you to get some decent clothes. This is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your wardrobe, since you don't have one any more, and I'm going to make sure that you come out looking good. Lunch will be at Luigi's, where I'm going to have some more of that tortellini. This afternoon, we'll go apartment hunting, and tonight, fishless sushi at the best place in town. We're worth it."

Henry rubbed his hair with the towel.

"You didn't need to take my clothes to sell me on that."

"Yeah, but the look on your face was worth it."

The tortellini was just as good the second time around. Even better, actually, in that Henry wasn't vacuuming it all up today, which left more for her.

Eileen took a bite of salad and sneaked another glance at her companion. Henry did clean up nicely. He wore dark blue jeans, an emerald green shirt that matched his eyes and a brown corduroy jacket.

He had been receptive to her advice in the stores they'd visited, letting her pick out things and showing them to her as he tried them on. The bags in his truck contained the better part of a moderate-sized, easy-to-care-for, idiot-proof wardrobe, and she was rather proud of her work.

"After all," she'd said as he showed her the outfit he ended up wearing out of the store, "if you're going to start over again, you might as well do it right."

But there was still a lot to do. They hadn't found any new shoes yet, and he needed a coat...

"This is taking longer than I thought it would," she said.

Henry raised an eyebrow.

"We can take the rest with us."

"What?"

"The food. We can take the rest for later."

"Oh," Eileen said. "No, I didn't mean that. I thought we'd be done with the shopping by now, but I still have to take you to at least two more places. We're not going to have time to look at apartments today."

"That's fine," he said. "We can do that tomorrow. After we find a good place, we can have sushi."

"We can celebrate. Sounds good to me."

Henry speared and chewed. Eileen did the same, and noticed a couple of girls in the corner booth eyeing him and giggling. She looked out the window in thought as she chewed. He'd be quite a catch for any girl, if only she saw past the shyness, she thought. He's a nice, sweet guy who would go to the ends of the earth for you. She knew that first-hand. Nice to look at, too...

"Did you have anywhere in mind?"

Eileen sat up, startled. "Huh?"

"Remember? Apartment hunting tomorrow. Anywhere in particular?"

"Uh...I guess there are a few places. What would you be looking for in an apartment?"

Henry chewed thoughtfully for a minute.

"The best thing about South Ashfield Heights for me was the space in the apartment. That was a decent amount of space for one person."

"If Walter hadn't walled himself up in the back, there would have been even more."

He nodded. "I'd like enough space to set up a little darkroom."

"That makes sense. I liked the space, too. Not too big on the, uh, 'unadvertised features', though."

"Yeah. Could have done without the hidden dead roommate, myself."

They both laughed.

"Hope my next one will be more amenable. And alive."

He smiled at her.

Now it was Eileen's turn to be taken by surprise.

"If you don't mind."

Eileen poked at her tortellini.

"I...uh..." she stammered.

Henry's smile evaporated. He put his fork down.

"Eileen, I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean it like that..." His hand reached for hers, then pulled back. His expression was closed. "Please accept my apologies. We can look for apartments separately, if you want." He moved to slide out of the booth.

"No." She grasped his hand, and pulled him back into his seat. She met his eyes. "I'd love to be your roommate, Henry."

"If you're not comfortable with it..."

"Henry, it's OK," she said. "Really. It would be wonderful."

He looked at her closely. "You don't owe me anything, you know. If you'd rather..."

"I do owe you, but that's nothing to do with this." She squeezed his hand. "I like spending time with you. We get along so well...and you're the only other person who understands what happened to us down there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

The mask dropped, and relief showed on his face. She squeezed his hand.

"Henry?"

He leaned forward. "Yes?"

"Are you going to eat the last piece?"

He grinned at her. "It's all yours."

Dinner that night was...Italian and Chinese. Take-out. She had lo mein, and Henry had garlic shrimp. They split a huge box of fried rice. "Why not?" Henry had said, as they were putting the last of his new clothes into the back of his truck, and Eileen did her best to hide her smile.

Yes, she thought, why not?

They sat on her floor like kids, watching stand-up comedy and having a grand time. She stole Henry's shrimp when he wasn't looking, and she noticed her box of lo mein getting emptier without her help. The six-pack of good beer they'd picked up at the convenience store across the street from the motel gradually emptied as well. They were both content, well-fed, and a little wobbly.

I haven't had fun like this in so long, she thought. This is way more fun than that party I was supposed to go to would have been. She took another sip of her lager and then snorted part of it after an especially good joke. She sputtered and coughed, and Henry laughed and smacked her lightly between the shoulder blades.

Eventually, the food was gone and the shows were over, and they put the empty boxes and plastic forks into the take-out bag. Henry took it to the dumpster at the back of the building, and returned quickly.

"Um...are you going to be OK tonight?" he asked her.

Eileen shrugged. "I want to say yes, but I don't know. I think so."

"I can stay again if you need."

She shook her head. "No. I appreciate it, I really do," she said, looking him in the eye, "but I can't keep you here forever."

She couldn't read the look that was gone almost before it had begun.

"OK. If you're sure."

"I'm not," she smiled, "but I have to try."