“Thisis the only reason I haven’t called the police already.”
“Sorry,” Alex said. “I would have brought him back right away if I’d known he was AWOL.”
She held up the Post-it. “In his mind, he did tell me. I was in the shower.”
“We was readin’ comics.” Calvin rushed over with the book to show his mom. “I want a tiger.”
“You read himCalvin and Hobbes?” Julia asked Alex. Her robe was slipping open, and he tried to look away, but in vain. She wore a bra, but he caught a nice shot of cleavage.
“I can’t believe you haven’t.”
She crossed her arms, making the breasts he’d been admiring perk up even more. “You’ve read it, so you must know why I wouldn’t want him getting ideas from cartoon Calvin.” She noticed him looking and readjusted the robe to cover the goods. “The wagon and sled rides? The way he talks to his mom and his teacher? How he treats poor little Susie Derkins?”
Alex thought about all the mayhem comic book Calvin and his sidekick Hobbes caused. Taping wings to his arms and trying to fly. Fighting for his life to stay out of the bathtub. Counterfeiting money and tormenting girls on the playground. “Huh. I didn’t think of it that way. I see what you mean,” Alex said. “Oops.”
Julia gave him a smirk and rolled her eyes.
“He gots a place outside,” Calvin said, pointing to Alex’s balcony. “I can see the Statue of Liberby.”
“You mean Statue of Liberty?” Alex said.
“That’s what I said,” Calvin said, and Alex chuckled.
“Let’s go, buddy,” Julia said to Calvin.
“Ah, Mom,” Calvin started to complain, but the glare from his mom shut him up. “Come on, Sam,” he said, returning to Julia.
“I’m sorry to have bothered you this morning,” she said to Alex. “He’s never done anything like this before.”
“It’s all right.” Alex shrugged.
He walked them to the door and opened it. Two police officers stood poised to knock, and a little startled that he’d opened the door before they could.
“Shit,” Alex muttered.
“Alex MacDonald?” one of the officers asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“We need to ask you some questions about an assault last night. Can we come in?”
“I’m hiring an attorney. We can meet you at the station whenever he’s available. I won’t say anything until then.”
Julia’s eyes widened, and she wrapped her arms around Calvin, pulling him away from Alex.
Before Alex could explain, she had Calvin out the door, practically dragging him down the hall while admonishing himneverto go to Alex’s place again.
Great. Now she thought he was a criminal. Not his finest hour. Well, he clearly had bigger things to worry about.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was Saturday, which for Julia meant “date” night. Well, it was a date for the men she went out with. For Julia, it was a pretense for a job interview—a job to be Cal’s dad.
Each date went more or less the same. Over dinner, she would ever-so-subtly weave a list of questions or situations into the conversation. Answers were used to gauge their patriarchal abilities.
Tonight’s candidate was Wade. They’d agreed to meet at a restaurant in SoHo, and luckily, he recognized her because she never would have found him. His online profile picture was from forty pounds and a head of hair ago. According to the website, he fit her criteria, but he was crashing and burning on the cross-exam.
“Sorry, I’m a little blah tonight. I’m bummed because I didn’t get a sponsor for my show I was counting on,” she lied. Shehadgotten the sponsorship but needed to know how he would react to fluctuations in her income. “Which sucks because I’m saving for my son’s Christmas presents.”
