Julian
“Dad,” Simone said,poking her head into his office. “What are you doing? This is not what we agreed to.” Julian startled and shut his laptop too quickly. A child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Simone was back in town for the night for work and had gone out for a drink with her high school friends, and Julian hadn’t realized she was home already.
“It wasn’t work,” Julian said, swiveling his chair around to face her. “I promise.”
After the heart attack, he’d sworn to Simone that his retirement meant just that: that he was out. He took over Robin’s candy store business full-time and lived a quiet life that didn’t involve extra stress to his heart. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t dip a toe in to test the water temperature every once in a while. That didn’t mean that he could just stop thinking about the loose ends he still felt compelled to tie together. He still had friends in the game, still had contacts he was waiting to hear back from. Recently, things had gotten more urgent, and it could have been that he felt like his heart might literally stop atany time, but also, Julian’s instincts almost never failed him, and for the past few weeks, those instincts had been flashing red. He’d been rereading a LISTSERV on the unmarked, untraceable parts of the internet—he would know what he was looking for when he saw it—when Simone surprised him.
“Don’t tell me what my eyes didn’t see,” Simone said.
“Really,” he said. “I was just reviewing some of the budget for next year for the store.”
“Ummhmm,” Simone said, but dropped it because her point had been made, and Julian was rightfully chastened.
“Did you eat?”
“I did, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t again.” She smiled and looked so much like Robin that Julian’s heart nearly stopped right there.
They settled on Greek food from Simone’s favorite takeout place from high school and then sank into the couch, Simone watching some reality dating show, while they waited for delivery. He wanted to ask her if she could stay longer, more than just the one night for business, but theirs was not a relationship where asks like this came naturally.
“Dad,” she said during a commercial. “You know I am just trying to look out for you.”
“I know, but I’m an old man, I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Sixty is the new forty,” she said. “Don’t call yourself old. But also, maybe you do need a babysitter, because I don’t for a second believe that you were tallying invoices. Don’t make me call Richie and rat you out.”
Richie, Richard. Julian’s best friend from work. He already knew that Julian couldn’t just let things go; they used to argue about it in the office all the time. “Your gut is not enough to waste more resources, Julian,” he would call out to him at least once a month as he passed him in the hallway.
“Really, Simmy,” Julian said. “I know that work nearly killed me. And I have no interest in dying anytime soon. Okay?” He had a headache building from his restless night; he had to pretend to inhabit normal human hours while Simone was staying with him, so he hadn’t even had a chance to rest today.
His phone buzzed on the coffee table, and he reached for it only because he assumed it was the delivery guy. It wasn’t.
“Hey, Zeke,” he said, not particularly enthusiastically. Zeke had taken to FaceTiming him when Zeke was home alone, like he couldn’t possibly bear the weight of his own thoughts. Sybil usually kept Zeke company in the hours when Betty had to work her shifts or when he wasn’t in PT or being harangued by his management team, but Julian didn’t know where Sybil was tonight. Betty was at the diner; Julian did know that.
“Zeke,” Julian said to his screen. “My daughter’s here, we’re watching…what are we watching?”
“Love Island,” Simone said without shifting her gaze from the TV.
“Love Island. So can I call you later?”
“Oh, your daughter the spiker?”
Julian couldn’t believe that Zeke remembered Simone’s college volleyball career. He was not the type Julian thought of as remembering details.
“Who’s Zeke?” Simone asked, and since he had her attention for once, he made the mistake of tilting the screen toward her.
“Hey, Simone.” Zeke tried to wave, but since he was holding the phone in his good hand, mostly, the screen shook.
Simone knitted her eyebrows together then moved closer to the phone, resting her hand on her dad’s leg, giving him an abrupt glance, which Julian knew meant that she felt how skinny he had gotten. “Are you Zeke Rodriguez?”
“I am!” Zeke sounded delighted.
“Wait, why is Zeke Rodriguez calling my dad?” Simone grabbed the phone and was holding it with both palms now.
“Your dad didn’t tell you that we are friends? Not just friends, we aretight.”
“You and my dad are tight,” Simone repeated. “Is this…” She glanced around. “Is this some sort of prank show?”
“Simmy,” Julian said. “Zeke and I really are friends.”
