by Chloe Garner
Lizzie nodded and stood. She couldn’t believe how emotional she’d gotten in front of this stranger. She was even more shocked when Michelle crossed the room to hug her.
“You have my number, on Lara’s phone at least. You should feel free to call, if you ever need someone on the outside to talk to. I don’t think there are many of us.”
Lizzie nodded, and then brushed her hair away from her face.
“Let’s get back to work.”
“Yes.”
***
Robbie and Trevor didn’t get back until nearly five. Michelle was sitting at the counter with a cup of tea, composed, but Lizzie was growing angry because she’d already called both Robbie and Trevor twice to warn them that Michelle was going to miss her flight if they didn’t get back soon.
“Sit,” Lizzie said, grabbing Robbie’s shoulders and coaching him to one of the counter stools. Trevor went to lean against a wall to watch. She glanced at him again. No, she wasn’t mistaken. He was covered from shoulders to knees in some faintly green goo.
“You go wash,” she said, and he saluted.
“Yes, ma’am.”
He kissed Michelle’s cheek quickly on the way by - Lizzie noted how the woman leaned forward to keep from touching him - and then he was gone.
“What am I doing?” Robbie asked.
“We’ve marked them all,” Michelle said, coming to stand on the other side of the counter from him. “All you have to do is sign.”
“I don’t have to keep anything, do I?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” Michelle asked.
“Her stuff. I don’t… I’m not keeping any of it.”
“You can do whatever you want with any of it,” Michelle said. “The house and the car are in your name, now, as is the insurance on both.”
He nodded, taking the pen from Michelle and gripping it awkwardly two or three times before settling on how he wanted to hold his fingers. He glanced at Lizzie.
“I don’t have to do anything,” he said. She shook her head.
“None of it requires anything from you,” she said. He nodded and signed, looking at Michelle again.
“I’m sorry about Lara.”
She nodded, putting a hand in front of her mouth in her first show of grief since she’d gotten there.
“Me, too, honey. I’m going to come check on you, okay? Just every once in a while. For her.”
Robbie nodded.
“Lizzie lives in the guest room now.”
Michelle smiled.
“I can sleep on the couch if it’s convenient, and if it isn’t, I have no problem getting a hotel room. I just want to know you’re okay. She loved you so much.”
“I know,” Robbie said, looking at Lizzie and standing. “I’m going to…”
He looked at his feet and left.
Lizzie put her hand on her chest. It hurt.
“He’s not coping well,” she said. “He doesn’t show any of it, but he isn’t.”
“He doesn’t need to prove anything to me,” Michelle said, scooping up the paperwork and stashing it back away. “I know how much they loved each other. I’ll send a copy of all of these to you by mail, once I get them filed.”
“Thank you,” Lizzie said, and Michelle hugged her again.
“I meant it, about you calling if you need to,” she said, and Lizzie smiled at her.
“I know. You’re going to miss your plane.”
“I don’t have any baggage, and I have a rapid pass for security,” Michelle said. “I’ll be there with plenty of time. Watch over them.”
“I will,” Lizzie said, and Michelle shook her head.
“I don’t mean as a good person. You’re their angel now. Do a good job. Watch over them.”
Lizzie nodded.
“I’ll try.”
Michelle nodded.
“Better. Bye.”
Lizzie walked her to the door and watched as she walked down the pathway to her rental car. There was a moment’s pause as she looked at the dent in Lizzie’s car door, then she went on, unlocking her car, methodically putting her paperwork away, and then getting in, putting on her seatbelt, and driving away.
Lizzie closed the door again and went back to her room, sitting on the bed. A few minutes later, Robbie peeked through the gap in the door.
“She’s gone?” he asked.
“She left,” Lizzie answered, glancing at the bathroom. She hoped Trevor didn’t do anything dumb.
Robbie edged into the room and leaned his back against the wall, looking at the floor.
“She was a good mom,” he said.
“I can tell,” Lizzie agreed.
“What did she want?”
“Do you not know?” Lizzie asked, and he twisted his mouth and shook his head, taking two steps forward to crouch in front of the bed.
“The house is yours,” Lizzie said. “And the car. The way she said. And there’s going to be money so you can take care of yourself.”
“The trust,” he said.
“Yes,” Lizzie answered. “You did know.”
“No,” he said. “Lara just talked about it, sometimes.”
“Robbie, she’s going to take care of you for the rest of your life, the very best she can. Her parents still care about you.”
He nodded.
“What do they want?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just there.”
He turned his face away.
“Okay.”
“Are you okay?” Lizzie asked. He frowned and buried his face into the bed, then stood.
“I miss her.”
“I’m sorry,” Lizzie said.
“We lost today,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” Lizzie said. He nodded.
“We need you.”
“I guessed that.”
He looked up, meeting her eye.
“You need to get strong,” he said. “Like Lara was. She wouldn’t like us losing all the time like this.”
“As fast as I can,” Lizzie said, and he nodded, leaving without saying anything else. She watched the dark hallway after him, then lay back on the bed. It was still early. She should go work on dinner, or go out and get groceries. She needed to get back to her apartment and get her things. Maybe she’d do that tomorrow.
“Is she gone?” Trevor asked from the bathroom.
“She left,” Lizzie called, getting up to close the door in case… yup, he came out of the bathroom in his birthday suit. He grinned.
“Good win today,” he said. She shook her head.
“Who lost a roof today?” she asked.
“Library,” he said.
“You’re kidding,” she said and he raised his eyebrows at her. She closed her eyes and sighed.
“Really?”
He shrugged.
“Lots and lots of books on their shelves?” he asked. “Perfect.”
She shook her head.
“I’m thinking about driving back to my place tonight to get more clothes that fit me,” she said, not actually thinking about it until she said it, though it made good sense after she said it. “Do you want to come?”
“See your normal person house?” he asked. “Of course.”
“Get dressed,” she said. “Not letting you in my car like that.”
He smirked and went back into the bathroom.
“What was the goo, then?” she asked. “If you were at a library?”
“You don’t want to know,” he called back, coming back out a moment later dressed. He wasn’t exactly clean, but it was good enough for her car.
“The towel is going to be a loss,” he told her, and she shook her head. She’d see about that.
She tapped on Robbie’s door on the way by.
“I’m going back to my apartment just to get some things,” she said. “Trevor’s coming with me. Make sure you eat something, okay?”
He opened the door.
“Keep your hands off my sister,” he said and closed it again.
“No promises,” Trevor called, and Lizzie elbowed him in the stomach. He doubled over playfully and trudged down the hallway like that.
“Does it count if she puts her hands on me first?” he asked. She glowered at him and he straightened, grinning.
“That’s all right,” he said. “Plenty already today.”
She went to get her purse and they were on the road. She watched him from time to time as he leaned with his head against the window, watching out and around them.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he said. She nodded. They were on the interstate in twenty minutes.
“What did she say?” he finally asked.
“Who?” she asked. “Lara’s mom?”
He nodded.
“She always has good things to say, even when she’s wrong.”
He rolled his head to look at her, and she shrugged.
“Good things,” she said. “I can’t just marry you.”
“Robbie?”
“No,” she said. “I want to celebrate it somehow,” she said. “I want to get dressed up and be pretty and special. I want you to wear a suit.” That surprised even her. “We don’t have to go anywhere or do anything, but I want a picture.”
He propped his temple on one long finger, watching her with a sort of quiet smug.
“What?” she demanded.
“All right,” he said. She nodded.
“How did today go? Really?”
“They need you,” he said. “But you aren’t ready.”
“I didn’t see any furlings today,” she said. He grinned.
“No. They don’t like Michelle. She’s an angel, too. Just doesn’t know it. Never found out.”
“Never made out with a demon,” Lizzie observed wryly and Trevor tipped his head back, laughing.
“No, I expect she didn’t. She’s a powerful one, if she’d ever actually done it. Tells Robbie what to do the way Lara did.”
Lizzie ran her fingers through her hair and then put her hands back on the steering wheel. The sun was just about down, now, and cars were turning on their headlights.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “She offered to pay for my life. I don’t…” She gritted her teeth. “I have a job. I just…”
“You can’t go back to it,” Trevor said. “Not like it was.”
She nodded.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Robbie always did this to her. She was shocked to have the thought flash through her head, but there it was. He put chaos into her life, whether or not she was settled in and on a routine. Every time she got close to him, she came away feeling like she wasn’t in control and she didn’t know what she was going to do, with the exception of the brief days she spent with him over holidays with Lara.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. Trevor put his knees up on the dashboard.
“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I’ve gone my whole life without knowing what was going to happen next. Like it that way.”
“Can we really work?” she asked.
“If you were really wondering that, you wouldn’t be telling me about the tuxedo I’m about to wear,” he said. She glared at him and he grinned at the road ahead.
“It’s a real question,” she said.
“From where I’m sitting, we already do work.”
He’d meant it. She was so sure he’d meant it, and she still believed it. But he was so much the opposite to her in every way she could think of.
Trevor rolled his head to look at her, weaving his fingers behind his head.
“Look, if the answer is no, the answer is no. We can keep doing whatever it is we’re doing, or we can not. I’m not going to fight you on it. I just got the impression that having a box to put it all in was important to you, and as it turns out, you’re important to me.”
“But you could leave or I could leave and then…”
“Then we did what we could with the time we got,” Trevor said. “Don’t be so dramatic. There’s plenty of drama everywhere else.”
He grinned and looked back at the road, and she dropped a hand off of the steering wheel to trace up his wrist. He unwove his fingers and took her hand, resting it on the console between them. He gave her a short glance and a real smile, then he tipped his head against the glass.
“Besides, it’s driving Robbie nuts.”
She snorted.
He just couldn’t leave it like that. Just. Couldn’t. Do it.
***
She pulled up into her accustomed spot in the parking lot and shut off her headlights.
“I should go get the mail,” she said.
It was what she always did when she got home. Put her keys in her purse after she locked her car, walked down the driveway to the communal box to get her mail, and then walked back to her apartment while she leafed through it.
“By all means,” Trevor said, looking up at the two-story apartment building as it sprawled around the property. “What a depressing place.”
“Says the guy who has to worry about rats eating his eyebrows while he sleeps,” Lizzie said, starting down the walkway. He grinned.
“Do not. Furlings eat rats.”
“They do not,” Lizzie said, sneaking a glance to see if she was right. He wasn’t giving it away, by his face.
“I’m serious,” he said. “What makes you come to a place like this and say, hey, this is where I want to live for the foreseeable future?”
“They’ve got a pool,” Lizzie offered, and Trevor snorted.
“How long have you lived here? I bet you’ve never been in it.”
Lizzie shrugged.
“I go to the beach.”
He nodded.
“I mean, maybe I can see the attraction for you, but how do they keep the place full?”
“Decent rent, carpet’s in good shape, cabinets aren’t made of particle board,” Lizzie said.
“You’re a cheap date,” Trevor said.
“Hardly,” Lizzie said. She was, in truth, but she didn’t want to own up to it. They got to the end of the drive and she got her mail. It felt like, after she’d been gone so long, the box should have been stuffed, but it was only about eight envelopes and a postcard from her dentist reminding her she was past due on her cleaning.
“Anything interesting?” Trevor asked, standing on his toes to peek over her shoulder.
“Bill, bill, bill, past-due, bill. Switch cable companies.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Trevor said. Lizzie looked at him and pursed her lips in slightly-annoyed disbelief, and he brightened.
“We could go skinny dipping in your pool, just to make a splash on the way out.”
“Pool closed at nine,” Lizzie said, opening her credit card statement. This one was going to be interesting. He was staring at her when she looked up.
“You think that the fact that the gate is closed is going to dissuade me when I’m planning on getting in naked, anyway?”
“I think that what I’d do to you, if you did it, would dissuade you,” she said, and he grinned.
“Oooh. The imagination runs wild,” he said. She glowered and he skipped.
“So which little cell is yours?”
She pointed. Directly in front of her car. Where else? She’d picked it in part because her assigned space would be absolutely as close as possible to her front door without having upstairs neighbors. She got to be the upstairs neighbor, though she was very considerate. Didn’t play loud music or movies after nine, or hardly at all, lifted all of her furniture rather than dragging it when she moved it, took off her shoes when she got home.
She led the way up the stairs and got her keys back out of her purse to open the door. It was strange not having her laptop on her other shoulder, but that was still back at Robbie’s house, waiting for an e-mail to her boss to try to explain things and make a new plan.
She had no idea what that plan would be.
&n
bsp; Standing in the doorway, she also had no idea why she was here.
It was perfectly reasonable. She needed more clothes so that she didn’t have to wash them all the time, and more of her personal goods that she hadn’t brought when she thought she’d just be staying with Robbie for a week or so. Her own shampoo, for one. But the place was empty, sterile even to her eyes. It was comfortable enough, sure. She’d sat on the couch there watching the TV up on the wall while she ate take-out for dinner and continued working on whatever she hadn’t finished at the office, and the treadmill was well-used. She liked her dishes better than Lara and Robbie’s, even though Lara had demonstrably impeccable taste in such things, and Lizzie’s had come from a garage sale while she was in college.
Trevor was wandering. Lizzie resisted asking him to take his shoes off, though she did take hers off by way of example.
“This is home sweet home?” he asked.
“It’s home, anyway,” she answered. He whistled.
“There’s nothing about this place that I’d even remember.”
“Certainly not the smell,” she answered and he flashed her a grin.
“Do you keep stuffed animals on your bed?” he asked, darting away toward the two doors at the far side of the main central room - the bedroom and the bathroom.
She raised a hand to argue with him that he shouldn’t just go running off, then thought better of it. She went to the kitchen and got out a trash bag and started going through the fridge. All of the perishables were done. The bread, the orange juice, the fruit, the vegetables. All in the bag. She went through the rest of it, figuring out what she wanted to take with her. Some of it wouldn’t make it another month, and some of it she just liked and wanted to eat. She got a shopping bag out of the closet and loaded it up, leaving it next to the door.
She was going to have to move out.
If she was seriously going to plan on living with Robbie, if she wasn’t going to be here at all, she couldn’t afford to keep paying for it. Especially if she couldn’t work out her job. She was going to have to break her lease. She’d never broken a lease in her life.
The furniture, she had no idea how to get rid of. Put an ad in the paper? She wouldn’t be here to let people pick it up. Just put it on the curb? She rejected that out of hand. She wasn’t that kind of person.
