Chapter 7

• After the conversation with his parents, Patrick went up to his room, showered, and got into bed; however, sleep did not come. His mind kept spinning around the issue of Meghan, which led him to think again about Astrid. Patrick sat up, leaned against the back of the bed, took his phone, and called his girlfriend, but got no answer. He tried a couple of times with the same result. Resigned, he left the phone on the nightstand and lay back down. He would try to contact her first thing in the morning, and that's what he did.
• When the morning sun filtered through the large heavy curtains of the bedroom window, Patrick called Astrid again.
• "Darling?" he said, after the silence on the other end of the line.