夏至 [8] / [17]
"We went back to my place, as I said,"
he began, then stopped.
He downed the rest of his drink in one, and signaled the waitress to bring another beer and more vodka. When the drinks came, were mixed, and he took another swig, he continued where he left off. He was starting to slur his words.
"Anyway, we got back to my place and . . . Damn, you should've seen her man, she was drunk as a skunk. But then again, so was I!"
he said it aloud, almost in outrage, as if he were rebuffing some insulting insinuation.
"Yeah, we had sex, so what? We were both consenting adults? Right? So what if we were a little fucked up―"
Alexander interrupted him,
"That may be true for you, but I'd say she seemed a lot more than just 'a little fucked up' when you guys left."
"It doesn't matter,”
he said, slamming his drink down on the table after taking a swig as Alexander spoke,
“We were both drunk and it was consensual."
Again the repetition, the assertion, the desperate desire to make Alexander believe this one point as if this was what he was concerned about; and the averted eyes, looking down and away from Alexander as he spoke: the tell-tale sign of a liar, if ever there was one.
Ed got up from the table, nearly falling over himself.
"I need to take a pee,"
he said, as he began wobbling towards the bathroom near the rear entrance of the bar,
"I'll be right back."
When he left, Alexander noticed that he left his phone behind on the table. He wasn't sure what possessed him to do it, but he picked it up, and began to look through Ed's phone with only a vague idea of what he was looking for. Lucky there was no pass code; just a swipe, and he was in.
He didn't know how much time he had, so he acted quickly. He looked though his text messages for anything more about Anna but, with the exception of the message Ed already showed him, there was nothing. While he kept searching, his eyes wandered toward the bathroom. He was still in there, but he could be back any second. He's probably puking his guts up right now, thought Alexander.
Alexander was on the verge of giving up when he saw several pictures and a video in Ed's phone gallery. The pictures were of Anna, and so was the video. It was only a short clip (45 seconds) and, though Ed could emerge from the bathroom any second now, Alexander felt it was worth the risk. He needed to know.
The video showed the person taking the video, presumably Ed, crawling on top of a naked and unconscious Anna, and, phone in hand, having sex with her as she slept. This disturbed Alexander greatly, and he didn't know what to make of it. How could she consent if she wasn't even conscious?