Chapter 1
MALLORY
“Dan?” she called out from the doorway. “I’m here! You better have my coffee. And you better be wearing pants.”
Mallory stepped just far enough into the apartment downstairs to close the door behind herself. Every morning before work, she stopped in to have coffee and bullshit with her neighbor. Her mornings started early, and so did his. They had become an accidental family to each other, so they always made time, somehow.
Dan emerged from the kitchen, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and had his shoulder-length dreads pulled up into a sad excuse for a bun. “Why do you insist on stopping in the doorway if you’re only going to make a racket anyway?”
“Well, I don’t want to interrupt if you have company,” Mallory answered with a grin.
“With all that noise? You’d definitely be interrupting.” Dan rolled his eyes and chuckled under his breath. “Get in here, girl, before you make me late for work.”
She made her way to the kitchen and sat at the small table. They lived in a newly constructed two-family home that looked like every other house on the street. A single car garage and shared laundry room took up the ground level, while the second and third levels boasted nearly identical apartments. Mallory’s had an island in the kitchen instead of space for a table.
“If you’re late for work, I’m late too. We work together, remember?” she joked.
“Yes, but the lab is on the first floor. I have to take the elevator furthest from the parking garage in order to get to pediatrics,” he pointed out. “Anyway, have you gotten back with Aiden yet?”
Mallory accepted the coffee cup Dan offered and took a careful sip. “No. Why are you so worried about him? It’s been over for a few months now, so you need to let go of all that hope. I’m fine.”
He grinned. “I know you’re fine, but so was he.”
Mallory nearly spit out her coffee. She swallowed down the hot liquid just in time to avoid dribbling it down the front of her blue scrubs. It was no surprise that Dan had been checking out her ex-boyfriend, but she wasn’t expecting the conversation to go that direction. Not before they’d finished their coffee, anyway.
Dan crossed his arms and sat back with a satisfied smirk on his face. With his arms crossed, his muscles were clearly visible. She wondered how he stayed in such good shape when she knew he didn’t spend much time working out. It was especially impressive at his age. He was far too vain to tell her his exact age, but she figured he was in his early fifties.
“Is that why you’re walking around here half dressed? Hoping I’d have Aiden with me?”
His shoulders shook with laughter before he took a drink from his coffee cup. “You know I don’t need to take my shirt off if I want to steal your man. My winning personality gets them every time.”
“Okay, Mr. Personality, what time are you getting off today?”
Her relationship with Aiden hadn’t been serious. That’s why they broke up. He wanted more, but she didn’t. After the nasty breakup that had been the last puzzle piece needed to throw her into a depression, she was determined to avoid finding herself in a situation where someone else was the cause of her happiness. Without giving the topic of Aiden much thought, she easily shifted gears back to real life.
“I work until 3:30. Want to ride in together? I’ll drive; my car is nicer,” Dan responded.
“It should be, with all the money you make. Hurry up and get dressed, before we really are late. I’ll put your coffee in a travel cup,” she suggested.
She made a fresh travel mug of coffee for herself and for Dan even as she continued to sip on her original cup of coffee. Mornings would always be a struggle. Even with the routine of having coffee with Dan before work, she needed several cups before she felt human; and at forty-two, it wasn’t likely to change.
Dan came from his bedroom fully dressed in less time than it took Mallory to finish her coffee. She thought she would have time to run up to her apartment to grab a few things, but she was wrong.
“That was fast. Do you have a hair tie I can borrow? I was going to grab that and a few snacks while you were getting ready.”
She had barely finished her request before he brandished one from his pocket. “I always travel prepared.”
She knew he did. There was a time he wouldn’t have been allowed to wear his hair in dreadlocks and work at the hospital, so he had to be careful to make sure he kept his hair tied up. It was stupid, since child life specialists weren’t directly involved with any medical procedures, but Dan never complained.Mallory put her light brown hair into a messy bun and followed him out the door.
She was sure people tried to figure their relationship out, but she never had been one to care about appearances. Dan was a gay black man in his fifties, Mallory was a white woman in her forties, and they were completely inseparable, riding to work whenever their schedules matched, and meeting for coffee even when they didn’t.
By the time they pulled into the parking garage, her coffee was beginning to kick in. It wouldn’t be long before she felt human. They walked through the parking garage in comfortable silence, knowing it would be the end of the road for their little commute.
“I’ll text you. Maybe our lunch breaks will match up,” Mallory said before making a left down the hallway toward the lab.
She hadn’t worked at the hospital for very long, but she was able to get to her department from any entrance with her eyes closed. Phlebotomy was supposed to be a steppingstone. The course was short, and she could earn a living wage. When she straightened her life out, a stable job and place to live was her first priority, but she ended up loving the job. Dan helped her to get a job at the hospital he worked at which was a step up from the lab she’d started at right after school, and the rest was history.
“Good morning,” she greeted as she walked through the doors to the lab.
