Lineage(37)

Without another word, Lance walked around the large table and out the door, which Andy held open for him. When it finally clicked shut behind them and their footsteps were the only sound in the hallway, Lance turned his head to look at his friend. Andy’s face was still contorted in what Lance imagined were thoughts of what he had wanted to say but hadn’t. Andy mouthed something angrily incomprehensible, and Lance couldn’t stand it any longer. His laughter sprung out of him and echoed loudly off the walls. Andy turned his attention to Lance, and the look of utter frustration was so complete and profound that another gale of mirth blustered in Lance’s stomach and he nearly doubled over with it.

“What?” Andy said, the irritation rising in his voice.

“You, you …” Lance gasped as he staggered with laughter. “You f*cking moronic cartoon!” Another fit squeezed Lance’s midsection until he had to lean on the wall near the elevator. Andy stood to the far side of the double doors, frowning at Lance, his hands deep in the pockets of his expensive suit pants. As the elevator doors dinged open and announced the arrival of the car, Andy finally spoke.

“You’re a f*cking loon, you know that?”



The car ride home was quiet once Lance’s laughing fit had finally passed. A quarter turn had been taken off the vice that pressed on the sides of his head. He could feel the pressure there each time his thoughts returned to the unfinished novel, like a tongue probing at a hole where a tooth used to be. At least telling Cole off had felt good. The laughter afterward had been even better. As the car glided around a long bend in the highway, keeping time with the other vehicles around it, Lance turned to Andy.

“Thank you again.”

“For what?”

“For standing up for me. You know you didn’t have to literally stand up.” Lance smiled, hoping to crack his friend’s oppressive mood. Andy merely looked sidelong at him before returning his eyes to the road.

“You’re welcome. I’m guessing we’re soon going to be on the receiving end of some angry calls from New York about this, so be prepared.”

Lance nodded while making a mental note to add an extra fifty thousand to Andy’s bank account this Christmas, and sunk back into his seat. Now that the laughter had escaped him, he felt hollow. His nerves were like unbraided cables, and a draining weariness began to settle over him. At that moment he felt sure he could sleep without interruption, without the feeling of water running over his feet and soaking his back, without the sounds of sliding footsteps just behind him.

“So what are you going to do?” Andy asked, bringing Lance back to the sounds of the car around him. Lance sighed and rubbed his face. Up until this point, he had hoped that the words would just return. He didn’t have a contingency plan other than waiting, but when he stopped to think about it, waiting didn’t seem to be such a great idea either.

“I don’t know. Sit down at the computer and stare into the abysmal whiteness of the blank page until my muse returns?”

Andy blinked abnormally long. “I think you should go on vacation.”

“What? Why? I can’t take a break now, I’m on a break.”

Andy tipped his head toward him. “Sometimes the best thing to do is just step back and get away for a while, get a different perspective on what’s bothering you. You should go somewhere warm, lie on a beach. Bring Ellen, do nothing but have sex and drink for a week, see if that gets things going again.”

The thought of Ellen’s last words and the slamming door caused Lance to grimace. “I’m guessing Ellen wouldn’t go to the park with me right now, not to mention on vacation.”

Andy looked over at him and then back at the road before speaking. “I never liked her.”

“God, Andy!”

“I’m just telling you the truth. She always treated me like I was mentally retarded, talking slowly to me and speaking a little louder than normal. I’ve got Asperger’s. I’m not hard of hearing.”

“Noted.” The harshness in Lance’s voice didn’t go entirely unnoticed as Andy fell silent and turned into Lance’s drive.

Andy threw the car into park and glanced over at his friend. “If you don’t want to go away, then go see Dr. Tyler.”

Lance shook his head and looked out of the passenger window, a flash of anger running through his stomach like a hot blade. “I don’t need to go see him. I’m fine. I just need to calm down and be alone for a while with my thoughts. Besides, he moved to Michigan a couple years ago.”