Chapter 29

It was a weird sort of déj¨¤ vu.

Emma stood at his sink, studying the brands of the various objects displayed on the countertop and inside his medicine cabinet. He used Crest as his toothpaste, Listerine for his mouthwash. His cologne was a glamorous sounding Tom Ford brand, his deodorant a mundane stick of Degree. He and Steve used the same shave cream, but he used disposables where Steve had always insisted on a refillable type of razor.

She could remember doing this once, shortly after she and Steve had become romantic and he left her alone in his dorm room. She remembered touching his toothbrush, smelling his cologne, and then finding a drawer full of condoms that turned out to belong to his roommate. There was no such drawer in Dante's bathroom. Only a box of cotton swabs and a forgotten package of Band-Aids.

Emma caught her own reflection in the mirror and was surprised by the naked look of need on her face. Her lips were swollen, the little bit of lipstick that had been left