Lizette returned to the apartment with tacos late that night, making a joke that Cotija’s was out of human
meat and he’d have to settle for al pastor. Things between them were pretty much normal after that.
Confiding in her had halved Emmett’s burden, but the part that remained still weighed on him. After two
days he still hadn’t heard back from Aaron. This wasn’t totally unusual. Maybe he was still feeling
awkward after seeing him naked. Still, Emmett worried something was wrong. Had Aaron seen the same
article about Emmett’s car Lizette had and gotten suspicious?
Emmett checked in and was relieved when Aaron blamed his radio silence on a “crazy week.” He said
he’d been working behind the scenes so that Emmett could start sooner at the museum, pending the
successful clearance of a background check (he and Lizette had a good laugh at this—if only HR knew).
He wasn’t sure Aaron was being totally forthcoming with his feelings, but he seemed to want to move
forward, and that was what mattered. Emmett tried to enjoy his last few days off work, but it was hard
when he couldn’t stop refreshing the news sites, and every siren outside his window left him sick and
winded from fear.
The anxiety accelerated his weight loss back to a couple of pounds per day. He’d recently entered the
healthy weight zone and looked better than ever: not just average, but handsome. The kind of
good-looking you wouldn’t dream of covering up with baggy clothes or magenta hair. The kind of weight
loss most people, normal people, would kill for.
It made him resent his excess skin even more, the last bastion of ugliness holding him back from perfect
days at the beach. It made him regret letting
Lizette convince him to destroy his remaining doses, snapping the injector pens and pouring the serum
down the sink. Yes, he had to get off Obexity. Yes, it was evil. Yes, it had driven him to kill.
But it had also given him a chance at life.