The best thing to do was to ignore the call from Holly. She only would've asked when Adrian had left and if I had told her the time, I would've opened myself up to questioning and the conclusions she would inevitably jump to.

  
    I took the call from Christian to absolve myself of guilt but I couldn't understand why I felt guilt. Yes, Adrian had spent the night but nothing physical had happened. It was no different from Holly staying over... but it felt different and when I thought about that, the sound of Christian's voice made me feel worse.
    I hated this; these people were supposed to be my friends and I had never put myself in a position where I had to answer to anyone, let alone them.
    The third call was from a blocked number.
    "Audrey."
    I recognized the voice without question.
    "Adrian," I exhaled easy breath, "Hi, how are you?"
    "Up one turntable. How did you sleep?"
    "Not at all. What did you get?'
    "Uh--," I heard him move about the room, "It's some old Denon... are you okay? I'm sorry that I kept you up.'
    "You apologize a lot. You apologize for not arguing, you apologize for forcing me to stay awake..."
    He let out one quiet laugh,
    "Only to you. Usually I'm heartless."
    "You didn't keep me awake. It's stupid, really."
    "Go on," He urged.
    "When they moved my apartment, they bought me this high tech television but forgot to set it up."
    "And that's what's keeping you awake?"
    "Not exactly. I have this weird thing where I can't sleep without the television on."
    "Have you always been that way?"
    "Not always, just a few years."
    
    Since my brother died.

    "Do you want for me to take a look at it?" His offer seemed uneasy.
    "Oh believe me. I've tried looking at it and looking at it won't make it so. It will take action. Noah said that he'd come over after we're done here. He's very tech. Thanks, though."
    "You've inadvertently dodged catastrophe. If I would've tried to set it up, you'd have found a white screen and projector in its place."
    I laughed, "And the television sticking out of the garbage?"
    "I'm better at covering mistakes than that. I would have, at the very least, taken it off premises... saying that the thing couldn't be incinerated...you don't have a fireplace, do you?"
    "I'm afraid not, but it's probably best not to set fire to a television."
    "And now you know everything that I know about technology. It's pathetic. When I was growing up, my mom wouldn't let us watch TV because she was really into holistic, earthy everything."
    "You're joking."
    This seemed to be the opposite of my growing up which was totally reliant on television as entertainment.
    "I'm absolutely serious. I had never had fast food until I moved to California and I just got my first computer, like, two years ago. Spencer had to dumb everything down for me onto index cards."
    "Wow."
    "That's all anyone can say."
    "What are you doing right now?"
    "Burning the record players that I couldn't figure out how to set up."
    I smiled, "I have a break for a couple of hours. Do you want to come down?"
    "Give me twenty minutes."

***

    Adrian showed up in dark blue jeans, a white v-neck t-shirt, his black leather jacket, a black fleece scarf and black Keds. His arms were filled with misc. boxes and I was curious as to how he managed to knock on the trailer door.
    "What have you got there?"
    "Mystery Date and something that I rescued from fire."
    I ushered him in and shut the door behind him. He set the boxes beside the rosebush on the table and opened the door.
    "We should leave it open. It'll cut down on gossip."
    "Do you care if anyone gossips?"
    "Not about me. I don't want anyone to say something about you. If Christian heard the wrong thing, he'd probably be hurt."
    
    Adrian's dear heart.

    "I brought you something... do you mind?"
    "Who am I to turn down a charitable donation?"
    "Good," He smiled and pulled off his coat, tucked hair behind his ear and started to adjust one of the boxes on the table.
    It was a bright tangerine-color cardboard suitcase with an opaque plastic handle. He unlatched the metal clasp to reveal a while 1960s Imperial record player.
    "Hmm..." He made the noise from his throat as he searched for an outlet. He found one just under the table and ducked beneath it.
    Next to the record player there was a powder blue cardboard box, much smaller in stature than what it rested beside, with a clear plastic handle. Adrian unlatched its metal clasp and pulled from the box a seven-inch single. He placed the record on the tiny turntable, selected the 45 rpm setting and moved the plastic arm over.
    In a warm scratchy tone akin to singing through a soup can, Joan Jett's 'I love rock and roll' flooded from the device.
    "Unreal," I murmured, moved by this gesture of kindness.
    "Now you can listen to records while you're here."
    "Adrian... thank you," I walked over to the player and watched as the record spun round.
    "I wouldn't thank me. I only found three records that I thought you would even remotely like. Two of then have rock and roll in the title and the other is completely selfish."
    I looked in the box at the remaining records. Roky Erickson's 'Wake up to Rock and Roll' and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 'Get ready for love'.
    I pulled the Nick Cave from the box.
    "I don't own many records," Adrian told me, "But that's one that I had two of."
    I handed it to him.
    "Well, go ahead. Put it on."

    As we played Mystery Date on the trailer floor, we divulged the details of our day. My utter lack of sleep resulted in hours of marathon bathing, reading a biography of Suzi Quatro and playing guitar through a recently acquired Headrush pedal. Adrian had gone straight from my apartment to a couple of record stores in search of a good set up and had literally spent the rest of his day attempting to do just that. Also, as it happened, Holly had called Adrian and Adrian had the nerve to answer.
    "What did she say?" I asked.
    "She asked when I left your house."
    "And what did you say?"
    "I told her that I left early."
    "But you didn't leave early.'
    He gave me a mischievous look, "Correction. I left early. I just left out how it was early in the morning," He cleared his throat, "Now, I'm about to win this game of Mystery Date and I would like absolute silence as I open the door."
    "Are you sure you wouldn't like me to tell him that you'll be ready in a minute?"
    "Shh...," Adrian opened the miniature door with his thumb and forefinger, then moaned and placed his forehead in the palm of his hand in dismay.
    "You got the nerd!" I teased, peeking around at the door, "He kind of looks like you."
    "Next time we're playing Mall Madness," he quipped.
    "Electronic?"
    "Of course."
    Noah walked by with furrowed brow.
    "What's going on in here?"
    "Adrian got the nerd in Mystery Date."
    "People still play that?"
    "We just did. What's going on out there?"
    "Humh... Nothing is going on out here. We're behind schedule... something with the...you wouldn't understand...well, you would understand and... thirty-six fucking days...," He trailed off, recalling where he was, "Get back on set, Moriarty."