HE LEFT HIS OLD PHONE UNDER THE BED AND I FOUND THE KEY
Dust motes danced in the single beam of afternoon sun cutting through the bedroom window as I reached under the bed for his missing sock. My fingers brushed something cold and hard that wasn’t fabric, not a sock or anything else I expected to find down there. I pulled out an old, cracked Samsung phone I hadn’t seen Mark use in over a year, maybe more, a model I thought was long gone. It was off, dead weight, but felt heavy and solid, oddly significant in my hand.
I turned it over curiously in the dim light from the window, wondering why he’d kept it hidden like this instead of selling it or just leaving it out like his other junk. Taped tightly to the back, almost invisible against the dark plastic case, was a small, tarnished brass key, the kind that didn’t belong to our house or car keys hanging by the door. My stomach twisted immediately into a hard knot; what on earth was this for? Why conceal it under the bed?
He walked into the bedroom just as I was pressing the power button, hoping desperately to see something, anything that made sense, maybe a familiar contact or a picture. The colour drained from his face instantly when he saw what I held, his eyes widening in a way I hadn’t seen before, pure panic. “Give me that, Anna, *now*,” he demanded, his voice tight and low, taking a quick, sharp step towards me, hand outstretched. I automatically flinched back, clutching the phone tighter, feeling the smooth, cool metal key digging hard into my palm, a sharp physical reality in this sudden nightmare. The air suddenly felt thick and hot in the small room, pressing in on me, utterly suffocating under his gaze.
“What is this key for, Mark? Why is this old phone taped to it and hidden?” My voice trembled, much weaker and higher-pitched than I wanted it to be, barely a whisper. He wouldn’t meet my eyes at all, completely avoiding my gaze, shifting his weight nervously back and forth by the doorframe like he was cornered. “Just… something old, Anna. From years ago. Doesn’t matter now, it’s nothing.” But the frantic, trapped energy radiating off him, the absolute refusal to even glance at the phone screen, screamed that it mattered everything. This wasn’t “nothing.”
The screen flickered on and the last notification was for a storage unit rental reminder due tomorrow.
👇 *Full story continued in the comments…*The notification, stark against the dusty screen, burned itself into my sight: “Your storage unit rental at Unit #[some number] is due tomorrow.” My gaze snapped back to Mark, the phone trembling in my hand.
“A storage unit, Mark? You have a storage unit?” My voice was still thin, but there was a new edge of cold certainty to it. This wasn’t “nothing.” This was a secret, actively maintained, important enough to hide a key and a phone for.
He took another step forward, hand still reaching, a desperate plea in his eyes mixed with rising panic. “Anna, please. It’s… it’s just stuff. Old stuff. Nothing important.”
“Nothing important that you need to hide the key under the bed and strap it to an old phone?” I countered, a hysterical bubble rising in my chest. “Mark, what is in that storage unit?”
He paled further, his jaw clenching. For a moment, I thought he might try to physically take the phone, but he stopped himself, running a hand through his hair instead. “Okay. Okay, just… calm down. Let’s talk.” His voice was low and strained, a million miles away from the relaxed partner I knew.
“We *are* talking,” I said, my voice shaking again. “Tell me. Now. What is this key for? What’s in the unit?”
He let out a shaky breath, his shoulders slumping slightly. He wouldn’t look at the phone, wouldn’t look at the key, just kept his eyes fixed somewhere over my shoulder. “It’s… it’s a lot of things from before. Before us. Before I… I changed.” He hesitated, searching for words. “Stuff I was… I was really embarrassed about. Things I didn’t think you’d understand. Hobbies, collections… things I thought I had to leave behind completely to be the person I am with you.”
He finally met my eyes, and the raw vulnerability there was startling. “I didn’t want you to see it. I didn’t know how to explain it. I kept meaning to go through it, get rid of it, but I just… I kept putting it off. And then I’d forget about the key, and then I’d remember and panic, and I put the phone with it because the rental details were on it and I didn’t want it in our shared accounts… It just became this stupid, secret thing.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking utterly miserable. “It’s nothing bad, Anna. Nothing like… like you’re thinking.”
The intensity drained out of the room slightly, replaced by a bewildered ache. Embarrassing hobbies? Collections? Was that really it? The elaborate hiding, the sheer panic… it seemed so over the top for something like that. But his face, etched with shame and regret, seemed genuine.
“You hid all of this… because you were embarrassed?” I asked slowly, processing the absurdity of it. “Mark, you could have just told me you had some old boxes you needed to sort through.”
He flinched. “I know. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But… I guess I built it up in my head. I was afraid you’d think I was weird, or that I hadn’t really moved on from my old life.” He finally looked at the phone again, then the key, a rueful smile touching his lips. “And then trying to keep the secret became harder than whatever was actually in the unit.”
I looked down at the old phone, the tarnished key. The dramatic discovery, the fear, the tension… all apparently for a secret stash of embarrassing junk. It was almost comical.
“Okay,” I said softly, the tension finally leaving my body. “Okay, Mark. Let’s go. Let’s go to this storage unit. Together. And whatever is in there, we’ll deal with it.”
He looked up, relief washing over his face, quickly followed by a flicker of apprehension. “Really? You don’t… you’re not mad?”
“I’m not thrilled you kept a secret from me, and I’m definitely annoyed by the drama,” I admitted. “But if it’s just… old stuff… I think I can handle it. What I can’t handle is thinking you’re hiding something dangerous or hurtful. Embarrassing? We can work with that.”
He nodded, stepping closer. “Thank you, Anna. Seriously. I’m so sorry I scared you.” He reached out tentatively and gently took the phone and key from my hand. “Let me get the car keys. We can go now.”
An hour later, standing in front of Unit #[some number], Mark fumbled with the lock using the small brass key. He looked like he was facing a firing squad. When the door finally slid open, revealing a densely packed space, a faint scent of stale air and cardboard filled the air. And right at the front, stacked neatly, were boxes labeled in faded marker: “Star Wars Figures – Mint Condition,” “D&D Manuals – 2nd Ed,” “LARP Gear – Elven,” and a large, slightly dusty box simply marked “The Orb of Zarthus.”
I stared at the contents, then back at Mark, who was watching my face with the anxiety of a condemned man. A small smile started on my lips, then grew into a full laugh. It wasn’t just a chuckle; it was a deep, releasing belly laugh that echoed slightly in the metal corridor.
Mark looked utterly bewildered. “What? What’s so funny?”
“Oh, Mark,” I managed, wiping a tear from my eye. “All this drama. The hidden phone, the secret key, the panic… for an Orb of Zarthus?” I gestured into the unit. “This is what you were so afraid I’d find out?”
He looked sheepish. “Well… yeah. I mean, look at it. It’s… a lot.”
“It’s endearing,” I said, stepping past him into the unit. I picked up a box labeled “MTG Cards – Beta,” shaking my head with a smile. “You were so worried about this? About being seen as… whatever you thought I’d think? Mark, I love *you*. Your past hobbies, even the dorky ones, are part of who you are.”
He relaxed visibly, a genuine smile finally breaking through the tension. “So… you’re not going to leave me for the guy who role-plays as an elf?”
“Not today,” I laughed, reaching out to take his hand. “But you are going to tell me the full story of the Orb of Zarthus. And maybe,” I squeezed his hand, “you can teach me how to play Dungeons & Dragons. Seems like I’ve already found the key to your secret life.”
He grinned, pulling me gently towards him amidst the boxes of his hidden past. “Deal.”