Even with the pillow Nick lent me, his couch isn’t a great place to sleep. It’s too small and too puffy. My feet hang off the end of it, and my left side sags downward, unsupported.

***

Nick gently shakes me awake. The light in the room is hardly brighter than when I went to bed, and my eyes ache with sleepiness. The way he looms over me startles me for a second. “Oh,” he says, like he’s talking to a nervous puppy. “I didn’t mean to scare you. ...