2
________
Connor
Today I had ignored every instinct that usually kept my life drama free. I didn’t have time for drama. I had dental school finals to study for, and a closet full of junk to sell so I could pay my mortgage, and neither of those tasks had anything to do with my neighbor—my beautiful, unconventional neighbor who happened to be best friends with a maniac, and had a trouble-making, albeit well-meaning mother.
I know everyone believes it’s women who jump ahead in their thinking to marriage the second they meet someone, but women don’t have the exclusive right to that sort of obsessive thinking.
Guys do it, too. Right when they meet a girl’s overbearing mother and slowly back away. Or maybe it’s just me. I worry about the type of mom I’d like my future children to have because my mother walked out on us when I was ten. My step-mom has been amazing and loving—the perfect example of providing roots and wings. My younger brother gives her a hard time because he doesn’t remember the difference. I do. There is a huge difference between emotionally checked out and someone who’stherefor you.
But the fact that I was thinking about all of this instead of studying is exactly why I should’ve said no the second Mrs. Cooke asked if I’d come to her daughter’s surprise birthday party. I should have said no for a lot of reasons.
1. Last week, I hid in my house studying while Melissa’s family helped her move in, knowing if I went outside, I’d get roped into moving couches and making conversation. My exams have been social-life killers in every way possible.
2. Melissa didn’t know I purposely avoided helping her move in, and I’d like to keep it that way. She also didn’t know I was totally checking her out through the blinds before forcing myself back to my test questions. For the record, she’s very fine.
3. This one I had no way of predicting, but I couldn’t let Natalya Peabody (aka Melissa’s best friend) back in my life under any circumstances. It took a lot of work to get her out the first time. I wasn’t sure if she’d made up that story about Melissa having a forever fiancé out of pure territorial jealousy, or out of protection from me, but either way, Melissa was off-limits.
4. My roommate, Rob, would love nothing more than to get to know someone like Melissa on a personal level, so the less we all interacted, the better. I told Rob that Melissa was not hot. Thankfully, he hasn’t seen her for himself yet.
My phone buzzed and I checked the message from a total stranger. Most of my texts were from total strangers. It was sad, really, when I let myself think about it.
Still have the metal bingo cage for sale?
Yep. $20.
Cool. Txt me your address. I’ll be there in 10.
My last roommate before Rob was a major EBay seller (his words) and even though he couldn’t afford to pay me the last few months of rent, it was all okay (again, his words) because he’d left me all his crap to sell. Yay for me.
I went to go find the bingo cage and put it on the arm of the couch before returning to studying. Rob would be home any minute, and his new hobby was going to make me lose my mind. I had to find a way to talk him out of the concert thing he wanted to do next weekend.
3
________
Melissa
Like clockwork, I got two letters from Damien in the mail on Monday with no return address. This time, they were postmarked from Louisiana. I wasn’t sure how Damien managed to change up the postmarks every time, or why he bothered to go to all that trouble.
Did he think I was so stupid that I still believed he was in the witness protection program? I sighed. Yes, yes he did. The fact that I’d once been that gullible filled me with the same deep embarrassment it always did. His lie was now my lie. Because I’d told people. Because his fiery, yet deeply loyal granny still believed it.
That was why, after coming home from work to feed, love on, and walk Damien’s dogs—no,mydogs now—I took her letter and drove over to the retirement home where Granny lived. We had three hours before visiting time was over, and she’d want to make the most of it.
Sure enough, Granny was all dressed up and waiting for me in the foyer when I arrived. She had her sunglasses on and a flowery scarf around her head to protect her new hairdo. She never missed Makeover Mondays, and today must have been no exception. With her fire-engine-red lipstick and newly blonde hair, she looked sassier than ever.
I gave the security guard at the front desk a little salute and held open the door for Granny, who was always in a hurry, with only a walker and stiff legs to hold her back from whatever it was she’d set her mind to.
“Did Damien write?” she asked, glancing around as if we might be overheard.
“He did. I’ll give you the letter in the car. But right now, we have more important things to deal with.”
“Oh.” Granny’s eyebrows raised, her interest piqued.
Technically, I wasn’t even supposed to take Granny out of the retirement home at all, and I’d almost been arrested the first time I did it. They let me go after a long discussion with both the police and the staff of the retirement home. I was her only visitor, and Granny needed adventure, something to look forward to, and family ties. I could provide all those things safely. So, as long as I had her back by eight p.m. nobody bothered us about pesky things like felony endangerment and kidnapping anymore.
I got Granny into the passenger side and folded up her walker, stuffing it into the backseat before getting in on the driver’s side.
