Last Wish Part 4

Last Wish Part 1
Last Wish Part 2
Last Wish Part 3

Tory told himself it wasn't breaking in if he had a key. Still, he winced at the squeak of the apartment's door hinges and glanced surreptitiously down the hall for any signs of movement from the other apartments. He knew Jodi would be at work at this time of day, but he was still nervous of what he'd encounter inside. Perhaps she had the day off for some reason or had called in sick.

The apartment was dark, and the only movement was Annabelle the cat jumping off the end table and scurrying into the next room as her collar bell jangled. Tory suddenly had a strange overwhelming sense of warmth towards that cat. It had never yelled at him, or worse, given him a cold look of disappointment (well, no more than any other cat). No, the only memories he had of the cat was waking up to it purring in his face or kneading his scrotum for a bed. He was always unclear why the cat liked his balls so much.

Tory closed the door softly behind him and flicked on the light. Jodi's apartment was always messy but not dirty. He was never sure how she cleaned the dirt without cleaning the clutter, but somehow she did. Tory picked up some clothes laying around, hoping to see his lucky boxers. Then he spotted the suitcase he'd put them in which was still half full and shoved in a corner.

At first he tried to search it without leaving any trace. But finally he ended up dumping all the contents on the ground and rummaging through them. He was sure it was there! Would Jodi already have thrown them away? But why bother to do that when it still had an empty water bottle and sandwich wrapper? Of course, he supposed Jodi had no personal vendetta against the water or the sandwich so reminders would not be as troublesome.

The thought that she had dumped him and needed to make extra sure to get rid of reminders made him grind his teeth. But finally Tory just sat against the wall and covered his face. Why was he doing this? Why did this even matter?

Behind his eyelids he saw father's ashen face from when he had visited last time and Tory pried his eyes open again to see Jodi's messy apartment. He just sat there for a while, too afraid to close his eyes again.