Thank you for reading!

He couldn't let it go. Major went about his daily routines—some legit training clients, his own workout, scouting out the next suspected zombie on his list—and tried to just relax and trust that Ravi was going to work his scientific magic and come up with another cure. But he had come so close to this being over! Now it felt farther away than ever, and he twitched at every unusual sensation in his body, every food craving or hunger pang, wondering if this was the moment, and he had lost his life for good, gone over to the dark side, the brain-craving side. He felt vaguely disloyal to Liv for still being this disgusted at the thought … but it was only because of her that he was in this situation to begin with, so he decided he was okay with a little vague disloyalty.

On the other hand, he loved Liv. Always had. And if something happened to him, if turning back into a zombie didn't go well, he wanted her to know—well, either way, he thought it was time she knew who he was and what he had done. For her, yes, but that was beside the point, which was that he was tired of lying to her, trying to pretend to her and to everyone that he was a good man when in actuality he was … whatever he was.

He went to her apartment, preparing himself to tell her all the things he hadn't wanted her to know.

Liv opened the door with a big smile. "Hey!" The smile faded a bit when she saw him, though she held on to it valiantly, and Major tried to pretend that he didn't know she was waiting with that smile for another guy. "You."

"Got a couple minutes for a doomed man?" he asked, walking past her into the apartment.

"Um, sure."

"I've—I've been thinking a lot lately about death and whatnot, and I—" He stumbled over the words, knowing what he wanted to say but not how to say it, and scared of how she would react. "I keep thinking about, you know, what if—if I just, out of the blue, bit the big one."

Liv looked distressed. He could tell she wanted to comfort him, but they both knew what he was saying was possible.

"There are things I've done," Major went on. "Things that—things that someone needs to know about." He thought of Natalie in the freezer, buried there, thought of the freezer failing in his absence and all of them thawing out, clawing at the inside … He pushed those thoughts, the visions of his nightmares, away.

Liv's wide eyes studied his face, her distress and her worry for him written on her face. "Okay."

"Look, last year I was upset with you 'cause you didn't trust me with your big secret."

"I … was just afraid of what you might do with the information."

"No, you see, I—I get that now. I mean, more than you can know. So here it is."

A sound came at the door and Liv whirled toward it and looked back at him, speaking quickly. "Listen, Major, there's something I've been meaning to tell you, too, uh …"

She looked like she was getting at the new guy, whose key was turning in the door. Major couldn't believe she'd given this guy a key already … but then the door opened and they both saw that it wasn't a guy. It was Liv's roommate—a very beautiful redhead whom Major knew. Biblically. Rita stopped in the doorway and stared at him, clearly not having expected him to be here.

As far as lack of expectations … well, this was a doozy. So this was how Max Rager knew so much, how they kept track of him, how they spied on Liv. Rita was living in her apartment! Those absolute utter bastards. He thought immediately back to the texts he'd received out of the blue after he'd ended things with Rita, on a night when she knew he was with Liv. That had been on purpose. It had to have been on purpose.

His first reaction was a dark, heavy rage. But his second was to wonder how he could use this to his advantage, to wiggle out from under Max Rager's thumb, at least a little bit.

Liv sighed with relief, totally unaware of the unspoken recognition between her ex and her roommate, just glad that it wasn't the new guy. "Major," she said, "this is my roommate Gilda, Gilda, this is Major. How weird that it took this long for you two to finally meet," she added brightly.

"Yeah. Weird," Major echoed, his eyes still on Rita—or Gilda, if she wanted to be called that here.

Rita had decided to gut it out. She collected herself, closing the door that had kept her stunned face hidden from Liv, and stepped toward Major, holding out her hand to shake. "I've certainly heard a lot about you. Nice to finally meet you in person."

Major shook the hand, keeping his eyes on hers. "I'm sure it won't be the last time." It certainly wouldn't be. He'd have some words for her at the office.

Glancing at Liv, Rita said, "What a day. I'm gonna take a shower." And she was gone, headed down the hall toward the bathroom.

When she was on her way, Liv turned back to Major. "I'm so sorry, Major. I was going to tell you I'm expecting company. Could we talk some other time?"

Behind Liv, Rita turned to watch, and listen. But Major had had enough of that. And the revelation of who Liv's new roommate was had knocked all his intentions of confessing right out of his mind. Not that it didn't sound amusing to out Rita at the same time that he was telling Liv everything … but it also didn't sound particularly safe, especially not for Liv. "Yeah. Yeah, definitely," he said. "You know, I … I should have called." He gave Liv a hug, holding her tenderly. He really didn't want anything to happen to her, but she was only safe as long as he took care of Max Rager.

"'Night, Major."

"'Night, Liv."

Then, as the door closed behind him, he called out, "'Night, Rita!" A slip of the tongue … but one that would tell Liv quite a few things. Maybe enough to convince her to get rid of her new roommate while she still could.