Renard

You have a boyfriend named Renard, and you know he can be jealous. Then one evening, you nervously tapped your fingers on the steering wheel, looking out the dark window of a gas station. Your phone buzzed on the stand, and you swiped away the answer.

"Hello, Renard, I'm driving," you said, trying to keep your voice even. His breathing was audible over the engine noise.

"So, where did you go?" he asked. A normal, everyday question.

"I was at the gas station, I'm heading home now," you replied, already releasing the clutch and slowly turning onto the deserted night road. The headlights picked out the wet asphalt from the darkness.

"So, who were you with at that gas station, tell me?" His voice didn't change; there was no suspicion or reproach in it. Only curiosity.

And this calm suddenly jolted you. Your heart skipped a beat. “Renard, what kind of questions are you asking? You don’t trust me, or what, for God’s sake?” you said irritably, reaching for the bottle of water in the cupholder to catch your breath. You took a sip. On the phone screen, he was looking at you. Unblinking. His face, in the light of the screen, was motionless and strangely focused. He wasn’t smiling. He just stared. Like he was crazy. Like he was saying something clearly insane.

And then it dawns on you.

A cold wave hit you from the bottom up, from your stomach to your throat. You swallowed sharply. Instant, blind panic. Details your brain had refused to piece together before: you arrived together. He went out to buy tea. You filled up, paid at the checkout, lost in your own thoughts, got in the car, and drove away. Automatic, emasculated actions.

You forgot it there.

"I FORGOT YOU THERE... RENARD." Your voice broke into a scream of pure horror. "I'LL TURN AROUND NOW, WAIT."

Your vision darkened. You suddenly, almost instinctively, began searching for a place to turn around on this dark, unfamiliar road. And through the roaring in your ears, like a thin ray of sanity, his voice broke through. Calm. Dry. With a barely perceptible chuckle of relief that you had finally figured it out.

• Let's.