The company offered burial or cremation and said they could hold the body for twenty-four hours before needing a decision. He’d ask Julia once she felt better.
Calvin’s head slid down Alex’s chest, and he carefully scooped him up and took him to his room.
His only experience with kids had been his ex’s little girl, who constantly pitched fits, cried when she didn’t get what she wanted, and sassed her mother. The one time Alex suggested something about discipline, Amber had jumped down his throat, telling him to mind his own business—that he didn’t have a kid, so he couldn’t appreciate how hard it was to raise a child alone. Alex hadn’t said a word after that, but continually second-guessed the way Amber handled the kid’s tantrums. Compared to Calvin, she’d been very high maintenance. Was that because she was a girl? Or just the product of bad parenting? Alex bet on the latter.
Calvin stirred when Alex laid him down. “Pj’s,” he muttered.
“Um, okay. Where are they?” Alex said.
Cal pointed to a dresser next to his bed, and Alex opened the top drawer. “Superman?”
At Cal’s nod, Alex stripped off his little jeans and shirt, and he wiggled into the pj’s before falling back asleep in under a minute.
After Alex put Calvin to bed, he pulled an emergency blanket out of his trauma bag and wrapped Charlie in it. He didn’t feel right about leaving Calvin and Julia, so he called downstairs to let the night shift doorman know someone was coming for the dog, and asked him to send the person up when they arrived. Within the hour, two people from the company came and respectfully hauled away Charlie’s body.
Well after midnight, Alex checked on each of them. Julia was breathing, but otherwise still. Calvin had curled up into a little ball and snored softly. Could he leave them? Should he? Kids sometimes woke in the middle of the night. And what if Julia wasn’t better in the morning? Maybe he should stay. At least for a while.
With nothing else to do, he snooped around Julia’s apartment. It was a mirrored version of his, but without a balcony. Unlike his, everything was clean and tidy. Bookcases dusted, kitchen counters uncluttered, and papers on her desk neatly corralled into a decorative inbox. Toys littered the living room floor, but Alex would bet good money that the big canvas drawers in the nearby cabinet housed those when not in use.
He studied the pictures on the walls and the knickknacks on the bookshelves and fireplace mantle. Photos of Calvin from infant to present day were interspersed with obvious made-by-a-kid art projects.
Back at her desk, he moved the mouse to snoop at her calendar. When it jostled, the monitor came to life, and a password screen popped up. Even without entering a password, he could see the notifications. Several messages from an online dating site showed. Not surprising.
In the corner of the living room, he found a stack of cardboard boxes. The box on top was open, so he took a look. Protein bars, collagen powder, and various supplements. Maybe they had something to do with her business.
He flopped onto the couch, exhausted, as though he’d fought fires all day. Amber had always complained about how taxing it was to be a single mom, but he’d never lived it until today. Itwashard.
About an hour later, a noise from the hall woke him. He turned to find Calvin, a tired, sheepish look on his face. Alex got up and went to him. “You okay?”
Calvin nodded but didn’t say more. The unmistakable smell of urine caught Alex’s attention. The front of Cal’s Superman pj’s were wet.
“You have an accident?” Alex asked.
“It was Sam,” Calvin said.
“Hm. You know, big boys own up to their mistakes. Take responsibility for things they do.”
Calvin seemed to think it over for a minute. “It was me,” he admitted.
“Eh. I hate it when that happens,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“You’re not mad?” Cal asked.
“Nah. Thanks for being honest, kid.”
Once rinsed off and in clean pj’s, Cal lapsed back into sleep quickly. Alex, on the other hand, remained wide awake. He threw the soiled sheets and clothes in the washing machine. To kill time while they washed, he searched for Julia’s name online. She had a social media channel with over a hundred thousand followers. He tapped to start the first video that came up. It was a demo explaining how to make a sugar-free banana-nut muffin. After watching a little of that one, he clicked around some more and confirmed her brand was “healthy living.” Nutrition, recipes, exercise, general wellbeing—stuff like that. The no sugar theme stood prominent, which explained the dry, flavorless cookies in the kitchen.
The only video he watched all the way through was one of her doing yoga. Her tight yoga pants and tank top revealed what he suspected had been hiding under the winter coats and hoodies—a smokin’ hot body.
While scrolling through the comments, he found the majority were positive. Someone named DaddyMack01 was the exception and only had rude things to say. Alex went back and started looking at feedback from other videos, and sure enough, this guy’s two cents lurked everywhere.
On the older videos, his remarks were complementary, verging on stalkery, gushing over how fantastic and helpful Julia was. Then, out of nowhere, his statements turned nasty and accusatory. The most recent ones were actual threats. From what Alex pieced together, Julia’s advice about letting go of toxic things in your life had made this guy’s girlfriend break up with him. He’d taken offense and blamed Julia.
Other than DaddyMack01 and a few other creepers whose comments focused on her body, everyone seemed to love her content. He “hearted” her channel and clicked the button that would give him updates on when she released something new. Once the washer stopped, he transferred the sheets to the dryer, then fell back to sleep on the couch.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Now that Julia felt better, she had the self-awareness to be mortified that Alex had been called into action to babysit her and Calvin. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Charlie up and dies while he’s on watch.
