“Hello, beautiful people—and Theo.” Laura, the dog groomer from apartment three, strolled outside in a burgundy hoodie and matching pants.?“How’s everyone today?”
My shoulders loosened, and my smile came easily. “Same old, same old, just like your Crocs and socks ensemble.”
“Hey.” Her face broke into a grin as she sidled up next to me. She was tall for a woman, her dark blonde hair pulled into a clip,with a few stray wisps brushing her cheeks.“Show some respect. It’s lockdown chic.”
Laura exchanged a friendly hello with Sadie and a less amiable one with Dustin.
The four of us fell silent and took in the latest Ultimus update playing on the TV. ?
Cases were climbing at an alarming rate, and the time between infection and death continued to shorten. Now, there were reports of people being gone inside of forty-eight hours. It was grim. End-of-the-world grim.
“Did you see we have a ten percent chance of recovery now?” Laura said. “Ten. It’s basically a death sentence.”
Sadie nodded absently and draped her towel over the handrail, a report from a foreign correspondent grabbing her attention.
“I saw that when I was having breakfast,” I said.
Our chances were fifty percent at the beginning. A couple of months in, they dropped to thirty. By the time we got through the second wave—ifwe made it—I had a suspicion we’d be down to zero. The only way to guarantee survival would be to stay away from anyone who showed even a hint of sickness, which was a fantastic fucking way of ramping up the paranoia.
After watching a stream of distressing footage from countries even worse off than us, Laura sighed long and loud. “Okay, this is awful. Nothing changes—not for the better, anyway.”??
She gave me a pointed look and tilted her head in Sadie’s direction.??
I nodded. We were all aware of Kerger’s behaviour, but other than throwing him off the roof, there wasn’t much we could do. The building owner hadn’t been contactable for weeks, and with no legal avenues to give him the boot, our only option was to keep a close eye on him.?
He hadn’t moved from his original spot, but he’d gone back to staring at Sadie rather than the news. When hisattention dropped to her breasts and lingered, my jaw clenched. “Something you want, Kerger?”?
His features tightened. “Why do you ask?”?
“You’re hovering around like a fly.”
“Why would my movements be of any concern to you?” He appealed to Sadie, but she was too engrossed in a report coming out of America to care.
“Just curious,” I said, “and bored.”
The gears were turning behind his eyes. His skin turned a mottled red, and my heart pumped a slow, steady rhythm while I waited for his next move. Even someone as self-important as Dustin had to know he’d been backed into a corner.
“This is a communal space,” he said. “One I can shut down any time, I might add. It would behoove you to remember that.”
I gave him a quick grin to get under his skin. “Consider me behooved.”
Laura snorted.
A tense beat passed, and Dustin’s expression turned thunderous. When it finally clicked he couldn’t stand his ground without making the situation supremely awkward, he huffed and stormed off, heading straight back to his lair.?
“Wowza.” As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Laura’s posture relaxed. “There are thoughts going on in that head of his that none of us wants to know about.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” I said. “He seems like a sweet guy. Devoted. Dedicated. I bet he’d even watch you while you sleep, and you wouldn’t have to ask.”
“Ha.” She shoved me out of the way and wandered over to the wall to do another pointless check of the street. As with all the images on the news, nothing changed down there either.?
Left alone with Sadie, I waited a beat, torn between leaving and staying. There was no good reason for me to be here, but my feet wouldn’t move.
She gripped the handrails on the treadmill, tracking every detail on the screen as if it were a lifeline. I wished I knew enough about her to understand why the news in America had upset her.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
She jumped as if she’d forgotten I was close by.
