Read Rooms: A Novel for Free Online

three straight. Would’ve been four if we’d played another.”
    “Ignoring the fact you were beat like a rug won’t change history. After that session last week, I even had to go to the bone crusher to straighten my spine. Remember?”
    Brad’s grin drained from his face. “We didn’t play last week.” He blinked.
    “You okay, buddy? Of course we played.”
    “No, I was in San Fran last week. The whole week.”
    “So, your twin stood in?” Micah laughed. “That’s your excuse for losing!”
    Brad reached into his briefcase and pawed through it. He pulled out a rumpled piece of paper and held it at his side. “Tell me you’re kidding, Micah.”
    “About?”
    Brad held up the paper. It was an Alaska Airlines itinerary. “Take a look at my flights. What’s the first date?”
    “April 6.”
    “And the second?”
    “April 10.”
    “So blow my brains out and tell me how we played racquetball on Wednesday, April 7, if I was in San Francisco?”
    Micah stared at the paper.
    “CAT scans are amazing these days. Check it out maybe?” Brad tapped his head. “When you’re stressing, the memory always goes first. I’ll beat you again Friday morning if you’re free.”
    A shiver sprinted down Micah’s spine. He stared at Brad, then Shannon.
    “Micah, want to play?”
    “Yeah, sorry.” Micah turned to Shannon. “Am I open?”
    “Let me look . . . yes.”
    He flashed a thumbs-up as Brad walked away. “Shannon, what did I do last Wednesday?”
    She licked her finger and pawed through her calendar. “Conference call at nine, a quick meeting with the bank at ten fifteen, then you got ready for an afternoon board meeting.”
    “No racquetball?”
    She studied her calendar and smirked.
    “You find this amusing?”
    “Only a little.” She spun toward him. “You have to admit, Mr. Never-Miss-A-Beat, Always-In-Control, missing a beat and being out of control is slightly comical.”
    “Hilarious. But that’s the point. I don’t ever miss a beat. There’s not a sliver of doubt in my mind that Brad and I played racquetball last Wednesday. But apparently my memory is the only one in which it exists. That’s more than missing a beat.”
    “It wouldn’t hurt to take a day off.” She adjusted her glasses.
    “I just did take a day off. Last weekend. Cannon Beach?”
    “Oh yes, that’s right.” Shannon grinned. “Did it help?”
    Micah glared at her. They walked toward the elevators, their tennis shoes squeaking on the polished faux marble floor.
    “So tell me about the place at the beach. Like it? Don’t like it? Somewhere in between?”
    “I like it slightly more than I hate it.” He punched the button for the top floor.
    “That makes no sense.”
    “No question about that.”
    Shannon tapped her lip with her forefinger. “Julie tells me you’re going to sell it.”
    “Yep.”
    “You want me to find a real estate ag—?”
    “Nope.”
    “So you really don’t want to sell it.”
    He watched the elevator numbers light up from 16 to 17 to 18. “I do want to sell it. But I need to get a better feel for the area first, get a feel for what it would go for.”
    “Isn’t that what an agent does?”
    Of course it was. It wasn’t rational, his wanting to go back down. But something about the house felt so . . . He couldn’t name the emotion.
    “Do me a favor okay? The next four Fridays, can you clear my schedule?”
    “Interesting.” She raised an eyebrow. “You do like this place.”
    “No.” Micah looked at the ceiling. “I’m intrigued.”
    He walked into his office and pulled up his appointment calendar on his computer. He stared at it for more than a minute as a thin layer of perspiration grew on his forehead. He swallowed twice and kept his eyes riveted on the screen. But it didn’t matter how long he stared.
    The racquetball games he knew he’d played with Brad had vanished.
    ||||||||
    Two hours later Micah stood at his office windows and studied the ferryboats chugging