Read Rooms: A Novel for Free Online Page B

shook her head. “Nope, sorry.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I know you. You want to be there.” Julie walked over to Micah’s windows and tapped on the glass. “But you don’t want me to be there with you.”
    Micah coughed out a laugh. “I just said come with me.”
    “‘Come with me’ is very different from saying ‘I want you to come.’ ”
    Micah slumped into his chair. “Do we have to play the semantics game every time we talk? It’s exhausting.” He leaned forward and waited for her to answer. She didn’t.
    “Fine. I want you to come.”
    “Why do you let things come out of your mouth that your eyes tell me are a lie?”
    Micah snatched his cedar letter opener off his desk and tore into the pile of envelopes sitting next to his laptop. “I thought you said you didn’t like the ocean.”
    “I don’t, but I still wanted to see what you’d say.”
    Micah slapped the letter opener down on his desk. “Do you think you could serve me up a nice slice of guilt pie with that side of manipulation?”
    “You don’t get it, do you, Micah?”
    He sighed. “What do you want from me?”
    “You really want to know?” Julie leaned in till their faces were inches apart.
    “Yes.”
    “A decision. Take your next three or four weekends, fine. But when they’re over, you’d better be able to tell me if there’s a ring in my near future.”

CHAPTER 6
    Freedom. Sweet freedom. Micah walked out of his office Thursday evening at six thirty and took a deep breath. Free of having to give Julie an answer he wasn’t ready to give, free of the grind. He used to love the rush of RimSoft—seventy-hour workweeks were never a problem. Were, past tense. He could get used to a forty-hour workweek.
    Plus it would feel good to get away from what had become Seattle’s version of Bizarro World. The missing racquetball game and the cross-country trip his car took by itself gnawed at his mind like a gopher on steroids. Not to mention the framed Inc. cover that decided to do a Houdini vanishing act. Wait. Houdini was the escape artist. Perfect. That’s exactly what Micah would do. In the morning, when he woke up to the roar of the ocean, his escape from the unexplained weirdness in Seattle would be complete.
    There was no plan for the weekend. His Seattle life was so scheduled and under such control, having no agenda unsettled him for a moment. But as his car chewed up the miles with Jack Johnson’s soothing guitar and vocals purring in the background, he allowed himself not to know what the next three days would bring.
    When he reached Astoria, he shot up a quick prayer. Couldn’t hurt. The first two times it stuck in his throat. The third he said, “God, I don’t know if You hear me anymore. But this house . . . it draws me. It scares me. Both at the same time. Can You explain why Archie built the place there? Plus the strange stuff going on in Seattle . . . I . . .”
    He didn’t know what else to say. “I hope You know what I’m trying to tell You. Amen.”
    God was silent, but Micah had expected Him to be, so it was all right.
    When Micah arrived, he set down his bags and went straight to the master bedroom and crashed. He didn’t move again till just after seven the next morning.
    As he sipped a cup of dark roast coffee from his French press, he watched seagulls dive through the air like Star Wars tie fighters. To fly. What a rush that would be. The thought gave him sudden inspiration. Running. Back in high school he’d flown, running the eight hundred meters faster than anyone in his school ever had. His senior season he finished first in state, which the paper deemed extraordinary since it was only his second time to compete in the event.
    But it didn’t impress his dad. Not even when KING 5 TV did a feature story on Micah. His dad didn’t watch when the piece aired.
    He hadn’t run consistently for years, not from lack of desire but lack of time. Now, at least for two days, he had an abundance.
    He