“Shelly went to the grocery store, but she could be back any minute.”
“Right.” We’d moved closer to the stairwell, and I had to back up against the wall to let a maintenance guy past.
She chewed her lip. “I might have an idea.” She didn’t look thrilled by it though.
“Hey, anywhere is better than here.”
“He might not be home, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“He?” I moved closer toward the stairs, but Jolene didn’t follow.
“Yeah. You’ve met him, the film critic. He lives in 6-2.” She pointed at the door one down and across from mine.
“Right, the homework guy.” I paused, still poised to head downstairs since I still didn’t understand what she was suggesting. “Do you need to pick up his recommendation letter or something?”
She was still biting her lip and staring at the door to 6-2. “He hasn’t written it yet, but he’s been busy.”
I frowned. “So then...you want to remind him about it?”
She shook her head. “He might let us hang out, if he’s home.”
“How is that any better than my dad watching us from over his laptop?”
“Because he’s not your dad.” She half rolled her eyes in my direction. “Or anyone’s dad. And anyway, I don’t see you coming up with a better idea.”
I silently walked back to her. In point of fact, I did not have any better ideas, but that didn’t mean I agreed we should start randomly hitting up neighbors we barely knew.
Jolene hesitated when we both stood in front of the door.
“He might not be home.”
“You said that already.”
“Oh, and his name is Guy.”
“Okay.” She must not have liked the way I said that because she looked at me and frowned. “Okay,” I said again, then before she could stop me, I knocked on the door.
“What are you doing?”
“Knocking. Wasn’t that the plan?”
Jolene directed her frown to the door and swallowed.
“Hey, we don’t have—”
The door opened, and I didn’t finish. The guy—Guy—saw Jolene first, and the way he smiled at her made me think of the stupid look on Jeremy’s face the first time he saw Shelly. Or maybe I imagined it, because a second later he noticed that Jolene wasn’t alone and his smile looked normal. His expression was friendly but curious when he turned back to Jolene.
“Hey,” she said. “We weren’t sure you’d be home.”
He held his hands up as if to say we’d caught him.
“Um, you remember Adam, right?”
“Sure. Paul’s kid.” He nodded at me and shook my hand, all the while casting glances at Jolene, which made me cast glances at Jolene. I felt like I was missing something.
“Okay, good. I was telling Adam how we’ve met a few times—”
Guy raised his eyebrow at her.
