Read Online This Glittering World by T. Greenwood - Free Book Online

he really loved that she liked to sleep with him. He was surprised by how easy the sex was with her. No game playing, no pleading. She seemed to know when he wanted her, and a lot of times she wanted him first. Either way, she let him know. He loved to follow her into the bedroom, loved the way her soft wide hips swayed.
    He loved that she sang at the top of her lungs in the shower. He loved that the smallest things gave her pleasure: a pint of ice cream on a hot day, thunderstorms, a nice long hike in Oak Creek Canyon. She was so happy all of the time. She was optimistic, positive that everything would eventually go her way.
    What he finally realized was, her optimism was grounded in the fact that nothing ever, ever went awry in Sara’s world. She’d never been denied anything. She’d never been truly disappointed. She’d always had enough money. Good friends. Parents who were still married, a brother she adored. Not a single person she was close to had died. This might seem like a ridiculous reason to fall in love, but for Ben, something about the simple lack of sorrow in her life was almost magical. It was as if she were somehow blessed, golden. And maybe he thought that by virtue of being her boyfriend, some of this good fortune might rub off on him.
    But instead, he’d let her down. He’d been the first and only disappointment in Sara’s life. He was the curdled milk in the fridge. The weeds in the garden. The cloud shrugging off its silver lining.
    In six short years, he had systematically turned her life from sublime to miserable. From simple and contented to ordinary and mundane. Nothing made her happy anymore. She deserved better than this.

B en parked his truck near Jack’s and walked down to the Downtowner Apartments, where Shadi was standing out front smoking a cigarette. She had her bike with her, and the basket was brimming with pears. Her face lit up when she saw him. “Where’s your truck?” she asked.
    “It’s up the street.” He didn’t want to have to explain to Sara what he was doing if she, or anybody else, saw his truck down here. “Are those pears? Where did they come from?”
    “That tree over there,” she said, gesturing to a lone pear tree that, despite the weather, was replete with fruit.
    They went inside the apartment building and down the hall. For some reason, he’d imagined the place cordoned off with yellow police tape. Instead, there was nothing. Just an empty hallway that smelled vaguely musty and a lot of closed doors. She put her key in the lock and opened the door to Ricky’s room. Inside, there was an unmade mattress and box spring on the floor, a guitar stand with an electric guitar, and a laundry basket full of clothes. A fridge, a microwave, and a small TV. Next to the bed were a stack of books, all of them Stephen King paperbacks. Shadi sat down on the bed and put her face in her hands.
    He hadn’t seen her cry before. Not at the hospital, not at the funeral. But now, in this quiet room, she was falling apart.
    “Hey,” he said tentatively. He sat down next to her on the bed and slowly put his arm across her shoulder. Her entire body was quaking.
    “He was so lonely,” she said, looking up at him. “What kind of life is this?” she asked, gesturing to the monastic room. “I told him not to come here. That at least in Chinle he had friends. He had family.”
    “He had you here,” Ben offered. “Maybe he wanted to be closer to you.”
    “He drove me crazy!” she said, wiping her tears hard with the back of her hand. “I asked him to move out because I couldn’t stand him living with me. His music, all day and all night. He’s messy,” she said, pointing to a crumb-covered dish and a glass with a hard disk of orange juice at the bottom. “He always told the dumbest jokes. His feet smelled. He was so big! There wasn’t room for him.”
    Ben suddenly felt awkward holding on to Shadi, and he lifted his arm off her shoulders and coughed so he’d have