Sunlight streamed in through the sliding glass door of Christian's house. Cristina sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes. It took her a moment to place herself and to remember why she had awakened in a stranger's house. The wall clock read 10:05. It was quite late for Cristina who was accustomed to waking up early. In her defense, the previous night had been a long one. Even after discovering that she would have to stay at Christian's house, Cristina was not able to fall asleep until after 4:00 AM. Her biggest hurdle to getting some sleep was Christian himself, who after having had way too much to drink was still buzzing around the house like the Energizer Bunny hooked to a car battery.

She looked around, and to her surprise, saw no sign of Christian. He must have finally gone to bed. She opened the door of the refrigerator and found very little beyond a raw steak and a jar of kimchi. She peeked in the freezer and found it full of chocolate ice cream.

"Oh, well, I guess steak for breakfast it is," she declared. She set about preparing the steak and she put a couple of cups of rice into the rice cooker. A half an hour later, she had quite a nice little meal prepared. She divided the steak into two portions and scooped out a bowl of rice for each of them. She put some kimchi out into a dish.

It was 10:45 and there was still no sign of Christian. She didn't know whether to wake him to eat or whether to let him rest. She decided to knock on his door to see if she got a response. She knocked several times but heard nothing. Cristina shrugged her tan shoulders.

"I guess he'll eat when he gets up," she said to Lori who had decided to join Cristina in the kitchen. She found Lori's food and scooped a cup of it into her feed bowl. She also refilled her water.

Cristina ate her breakfast silently at the small table, slipping Lori little bites of steak along the way. It wasn't long before Lori began to pace by the glass door.

"I bet you need out," Cristina said, wary of letting Christian's dog out without his knowledge, but he has still not awakened. She found Lori's leash and took her out on the unfinished deck. In the light of day, she saw that the mess Christian had made of it was far worse than she had imagined. There were gaps between some of the boards and there was a serious leveling problem. The ground under the deck must be uneven, she thought.

"Who tries to do something like this without a professional?" she asked Lori who just stared up at Cristina adoringly. "Well, at least, there is one reasonable person living in this house," she said to Lori. "That's you. I'm counting you as a person," she clarified.

After tying Lori's leash to a sturdy wooden post, Cristina set about undoing the mess of a deck Christian had erected. Once she had removed the ill-fitting boards, she could see that the ground beneath the deck had never been leveled, as she suspected.

When she decided to take a water break and to let Lori back inside, Cristina realized with a sinking feeling in her gut that the glass door had gone shut, locking her out of the house.

"For the love of Pete!" Cristina semi-cursed as she tried to jiggle the door open, but it was no use. She and Lori were locked out. She looked through the glass door and saw her phone lying on the coffee table.

"Of all the worst moments to not be surgically attached to my phone!" she groused. "Oh well, Lori, there's no option but to bang on the door," she reasoned with the dog.

At first her knocking was just a normal tap, but as the time wore on with no response, she began to hit the glass door with more force. Nothing.

She took a little walk around the house, finding the window that had to be the one in Christian's bedroom. She found a small stone and threw it at the window. It hit with a sharp click against the glass. Nothing.

"Ugh!" Cristina grunted in frustration. "I'm just going to have to yell," she decided. So, she screamed Christian's name repeatedly. Nothing.

Finally, she resigned herself to sitting with her back against the house and waiting. The time passed. She wasn't sure what time it might be, but she figured it had to be past noon already. She began to feel the urge to pee. As it is wont to do, the urge grew until it was literally all she could think about. At one point, she had even considered popping a squat in Christian's yard, but she couldn't take the risk of him waking up and seeing her peeing in his yard.

After what seemed like ages, Christian finally appeared plodding slowly past the glass door. He didn't even notice Cristina until she banged on the door. He struggled to open the door, as if he were not fully awake yet. When he finally got it open, Cristina pushed past him.

"I gotta pee like a freakin' race horse!" she yelled as she ran to the bathroom. When she emerged, she was much calmer. "Thank God that's over," she breathed, relieved. "Where the hell have you been all day?" she demanded.

"Asleep," he said. One word. Cristina found his demeanor quite changed from the night before when he had spat out word salads way faster than Cristina could process them. "I'm going back to bed," Christian announced, pulling himself to his feet with great effort.

"Aren't you going to eat? I made you food. It's out there in the kitchen," Cristina said.

"No, I'm not hungry," he mumbled as he staggered to his room.

Cristina was puzzled. She knew bipolar caused pendulum swings in mood, but it seemed like this Christian wasn't even the same person as he was yesterday. In fact, she suspected that neither of the two Christians she had seen were the full picture of this complex man's personality.

Cristina heard a phone ringing. It was Christian's. He had left it in the living room. Christian had labeled this caller as "Pain in the ass." Cristina smiled. If nothing else, he was real. Finally, the person hung up only to call again several seconds later. Cristina pondered whether to answer the phone. Finally, she decided that she had to answer. It seemed urgent.

"Hello?" she said hesitantly.

"Who's this?" the caller demanded.

"I'm Cristina. I'm a friend of Christian's," she replied, wondering if they really were friends yet or not.

"Where's Christian?" the man asked, cutting to the chase immediately.

"He's in bed. He won't get up," Cristina admitted.

"Dammit!" the man cursed into the phone. "Did he take his medication?"

"How should I know?" Cristina replied defensively. "He's a grown-ass man!"

"Listen, I'm Christian's business partner/caretaker. I called to check in because he's not responding to my texts. For all I knew, he could have been dead or had Covid. That man is infuriating," he muttered, mostly to himself.

"Well, what am I supposed to do about it?" Cristina asked. "I'm not his mommy," she groused.

"You are now!" the man replied. "Listen, Christian is an incredible talent and a beautiful soul, but if he doesn't take his medication, things can get dark. So, if you are going to be in his life, you have to understand his condition."

Cristina sighed. There was no point in explaining that she wasn't technically "in his life", that she was only here because of a weird twist of fate.

"Okay," Cristina sighed as she heard that the man had already hung up. "This is dog water," she muttered as she stood in front of Christian's door. It was not fully closed. So, she tiptoed in and looked on his nightstand for his medicine. She found two bottles of medicine and squinted as she read the Korean instructions. She took one of each pill and held them in her hand.

"What do I do next?" she wondered. "Christian." "Christian," she tried again a little louder. He opened one eye. "You need to take your medicine," Cristina instructed.

He sat up obediently and took his pills. When Cristina was about to leave the room to give him some space, he suddenly wrapped his arms around her.

"Don't go," he pleaded. "It's dark in here," he added.

Cristina looked around the room which was flooded with daylight. "It's not dark at all. What are you talking about?" she said, stroking his hair gently.

"No, I mean, it's dark in here," he repeated, pointing to his chest.

"I feel that," she said as she stood beside his bed and held his head to her belly.