The Good Neighbors

by Kiersten Modglin

  He nodded. “Is it possible your husband called them? How is he handling the news?”

  She frowned. “I haven’t told him yet.”

  “Why do you think that is?” he asked, crossing one leg over the other and leaning forward.

  “I’m just…waiting for the right time.”

  The doctor pressed his lips into a thin line. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to talk to someone? There’s no pressure, but Doctor Ambrose is excellent. It’s completely covered since you’re an employee. There’s really no downside, and she can help you work through everything.”

  She smiled sadly. “Thanks, really. I’m okay, though.” She stood from the exam table. “Thanks for answering my question.”

  “Of course,” he said, standing as well and pulling open the door. “Good luck, Harper.”

  When Harper got back to her desk, Devon had a funny look on his face. The rest of her coworkers had been strangely cold to her since she had returned to work as well, and she definitely felt like more of an outsider than she had in a long time.

  “Everything okay?” she asked, sliding into her seat and tossing her cup in the trash.

  Devon nodded, not bothering to say much. Savannah mumbled something under her breath that made Collette laugh. Harper signed onto her computer, trying to ignore them. She felt as though she were in high school again, with the same catty girls that caused her to eat lunch alone in the bathroom stall, pretending she would rather be alone than with anyone else.

  Truth was, Harper didn’t like to be alone. She never had. Growing up in a big family, being alone felt strange. She wasn’t entirely comfortable unless she was surrounded by others.

  When she opened her computer, there was an email from the head of Human Resources, asking her to step into her office when she had the chance.

  Harper slid her chair out from under the desk, standing up. No one would meet her eye. She tried to smile at the coworkers who had once been friends, tried to get some reassurance from anywhere at that moment, but they weren’t offering.

  She walked quietly toward the end of the hall, where the office was. Janine Fremont was a short, plump woman in her mid-fifties with kind eyes and graying red hair that sat atop her head in the same style every day. She wore bright pink lipstick that always ended up on her coffee-stained teeth.

  Harper had seen her a few times, but only spoken to her on the day she was hired. So, as she walked into her office, knocking on the open door, she tried desperately to read the expression on her unfamiliar face.

  “Hello,” she said, “you wanted to see me?”

  “I did,” Janine said politely, standing up and holding out a hand to gesture for her to sit down. “Come on in.” Harper sat. “Now, Harper, when you arrived, you were made aware of the hospital’s sick and vacation time policies, correct?”

  “I was,” Harper said, swallowing. “I can get a doctor’s excuse as to why I was out for so long.”

  Janine held her hand up to stop her. “You were also made aware that we monitor employees’ social media accounts, correct?”

  “Of course.”

  She frowned, turning the computer around for her to see what was on her screen. It was a photo of Harper laying on the beach, her red bathing suit against her pale skin. She gasped as she realized it was taken not so long ago when they’d gone to Myrtle Beach. She hadn’t realized anyone had been taking her picture. Upon further inspection, she noticed the picture was from a Facebook post with the caption “Living my best life. This trip has been all I needed and more! #FunNSun”

  Looking even closer, she gasped as she saw the picture had been posted just three days ago, from her own account. “I didn’t post that. I’ve been sick all week. I swear to you I have.”

  Janine folded her hands across her desk. “Even so, it’d be hard to prove. Your coworkers are all, understandably, upset. Several of them had to work extra to cover your shifts over the past few weeks. To find out that you lied to us, to them, well…I’m sure you understand why we’ll have to let you go. We have a zero tolerance policy with this sort of thing, especially since you’re so new.” Her eyes were soft, yet her voice was firm. “I’ll have to ask you to clean out your locker today and go home.”

  She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t…I don’t understand. I was here just two days ago in the hospital. I have horrible morning sickness. Doctor Andrews can vouch for me.”

  “Two days ago?”

  “Yes,” she insisted.

  “What about the week before that? Unless Doctor Andrews can verify that you were home sick for the week before, I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do.”

  “I could sue you…” she threatened, feeling herself get worked up. “I’m pregnant.”

  She woman’s eyes wavered a bit, and she stood up. “I’m afraid you’ll have to get into contact with our legal team for anything further on this matter.” She held her arm out toward the door. “You may clean out your locker now.”

  Harper stood, feeling as though she were going to be sick. She couldn’t be sure if it was the baby or the situation causing it. She glanced down, pulling her phone from her pocket and clicking on the blue Facebook app. She waited as the dots spun, and then gasped when the screen changed.

  What the hell?

  She stared down at the gray screen, red letters warning her that something was very, very wrong.

  Sorry! You’ve used an old password. Please try logging in with your new password.

  Thirty-Seven

  Bryant

  Bryant watched anxiously as Harper walked through the front door. It was embarrassing to admit that he’d be waiting for her so impatiently. Since his confession, each time she was away from him, he grew incredibly worried that she may never come back.

  She set her bag down, hanging up her keys and brushing the hairs that had come loose from her bun out of her face.

  “Hey, babe,” he said, watching her as she made her way across the room. “How was work?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly, sinking into the couch next to him. “I…Bryant, I got fired today.”

  The words slammed into his chest, causing him to do a double take. “You what?”

  “I got fired,” she repeated. “I’ve just been driving around, trying to make sense of it all. I don’t understand. Someone hacked my Facebook and posted this picture of me at the beach. They made it seem like we’d been there this week—like that was why I’d been missing work. Everyone’s furious. I can’t even access my Facebook to take the photo down. Not to mention that I don’t even know how they got the picture. It’s like someone was following us, Bryant. My password’s been changed. I’m really trying not to freak out here, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “What are you talking about? What picture? They just fired you without a warning? How could they do that? How would someone have hacked your account? You didn’t click on any weird links did you?”

  “No! Of course not,” she said angrily, tears in her eyes. “I don’t understand how any of it could’ve happened. I just…we really needed me to have that job. The next nearest hospital is an hour away, at least.”

  He reached for her, surprised when she fell into his arms without a struggle. He rubbed her hair, rocking back and forth and trying to pretend he wasn’t freaked out. “Okay, well don’t panic. There’ll be some sort of explanation. Photoshop or something. Hacking does happen. It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay. We’ll figure it out. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” she said, her eyes closing as she pulled away from him.

  “What don’t I understand?”

  She looked down, her fingers running across the fabric on her shirt. “Bryant, I’m pregnant.”

  He swallowed. Blinked. Opened his mouth. Closed his mouth. Coughed. What? What the what? “You’re…”

  “Pregnant,” she repeated. He knew he had to be wearing a dumbfounded expression, his entire worl
d flipped on its side at the moment. How could that be possible? All this time he’d been worried about Tori being pregnant, and Harper was the one to end up that way. Was he happy? He couldn’t tell. Was she?

  “How…” Words. You just need words. Any words will do. Something. Anything. “How long have you known?”

  “Since I went to the doctor for my wrist.”

  “But you said—”

  “I wasn’t ready to talk about it.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what it means for us. I still don’t. I don’t know where we stand anymore. This baby doesn’t change what you did.”

  “I know that.”

  “But I do love you,” she said firmly, squeezing his hand.

  He pulled her hand to his mouth, kissing her fingers. “I love you so much, Harper. I love this baby. I just want us to go back to the way we were.”

  She blinked back sudden tears. “I don’t know if that’s possible…”

  He inhaled sharply, his eyes begging her to reconsider. He could still see the old them. He could remember the way he could make her laugh without trying. He remembered the nights he spent painting her toenails when she’d pinched a nerve in her shoulder and couldn’t stand to move it. He could picture them dancing in the kitchen their first night in their Chicago apartment. He remembered asking her dad for her hand in marriage. He remembered the man Harper made him, and the woman he loved more than anything in the world. He’d been blinded momentarily, but that didn’t take away from what he felt for her. “Please don’t say that.”

  “I don’t, Bryant. I’m sorry. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to give us a chance. For the baby.”

  His heart leapt. “Really?”

  She nodded, not meeting his eye. “I need to learn to trust you again. Trust has never come easy to me, and you’ve,” she sucked in a breath, “you’ve really hurt me. But I do love you. I want this baby to know how good we used to be, you know?” He leaned in, ready to scoop her up and give her every piece of him again, but she stopped him, leaning back. “I’m…not ready for…that. I just can’t.” She shook her head.

  He nodded, feeling a bit slighted. “Okay. Just…just let me know what you need, Harper. Anything.”

  “I just…I need time. Space. A bit of air. I need to get my head together and figure out exactly what I want here. What I want from you. From us. From all of it. I need to figure everything out.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Just be patient with me,” she said. “I want to get back to who we were, but I need to figure out who I am again.”

  “What does that mean…exactly?”

  She closed her eyes, running a finger across her bottom lip. “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I think I want to go back to Chicago for a bit. I miss it. I think being home would give me some clarity.”

  “But…this is your home now. That’s what you said. Your home is wherever I am.”

  “I know I said that, but this is…it’s just something I need to do. For me.”

  “Okay, when? I’ll let the school know.”

  She placed a hand on his chest and then she said the words that let him know she was slipping out of his grasp before his very eyes. “No, Bryant. I need to go. Alone.”

  Thirty-Eight

  Bryant

  The next morning, Bryant woke up early. He hadn’t been able to sleep much the night before, so maybe woke up is an exaggeration. He rolled over on the air mattress, surprised to see Harper standing in the doorway.

  “Good morning,” he said sleepily.

  “Good morning,” she greeted him. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I wanted to see about checking on flights.”

  He nodded, watching her glide across the room and take a seat at the computer desk. “Of course. Hey, listen, are you sure you don’t want me to go with you? It might be good for us to get away for a bit. Kind of like our Myrtle Beach trip. That was good for us, right?”

  “The one that got me fired?” she asked, not looking his way.

  “Well, that’s certainly not my fault,” he argued.

  She sighed, smoothing out her forehead wrinkles with her palm. “I know it isn’t. I just…I really think this is something I need to do alone. I appreciate the offer, though.”

  “Are you leaving me?” he asked, voicing the fear that had filled his mind, running on repeat for hours now.

  She looked at him then, her eyes filled with sorrow. “Is that what you want?”

  “Of course not,” he insisted, scooting toward the end of the mattress so he could reach for her hand. She didn’t extend it, but she didn’t pull away as he took it, either. “All I want is for us to be better. All I want…is you, Harper. Just you. Us. Our baby. Our family. I want it all with you.”

  She squeezed his hand when he squeezed hers, and when he leaned in for a kiss, she didn’t pull away. Her lips remained closed, a clear boundary drawn, and he respected it. It was better than nothing. It was progress.

  “I never thought I could have kids, Bryant. I’m not sure I ever even wanted them, but it was never a possibility, so I didn’t worry about figuring that out. I’m…I’m really scared. We aren’t ready for this. This wasn’t in the plan. I still want my career. We’re… shaky at best. Everything’s so messed up.”

  He pulled her onto his lap, breathing in the warm, honey scent he’d missed so much. “Harper, everything’s going to be okay. Do you hear me?” He stared into her almond eyes with hope. “I promise you it will. I’m going to take care of you. And our baby. You’re going to have the high-powered hospital administration career you’ve always wanted. You’re going to have everything. I promise.” She nuzzled into his chest, and for a moment, it felt like his indiscretions might be forgotten. “I love you so much,” he whispered, a piece of her hair teasing his lip as he breathed.

  “I love you, too,” she promised.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist, resting one hand on her belly. “How are you feeling? Any more morning sickness?”

  “The doctor gave me medicine for it. It seems to be helping.”

  “Did you…did you get to see it? Did they do an ultrasound?”

  She shook her head. “No. It’s still too early. But soon.”

  “Will you let me come?”

  She twisted her mouth in thought. “Do you want to?”

  “More than anything,” he said honestly.

  She nodded. “Okay, then. I still have to schedule the appointment. I guess I can do that today…not like I have anything else to do.” She sucked in a breath. “Oh, no. Insurance. With me out of a job, we don’t have insurance.” Her eyes filled with worry.

  He kissed her fingers. “I’ll get us both added onto mine. It may be a few weeks before it’ll kick in, but it’s going to be okay. I’ll do that today.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll hold off on an appointment, then. Until we know more.”

  “Is that safe?” he asked.

  “What choice do we have? It’s not like we can afford a few thousand dollars in medical bills from one appointment. Especially not with me out of a job.”

  He swallowed, trying not to let her see his fear. That was the last thing he could worry about at the moment, though he knew they were going to be in trouble if she didn’t get back to work soon. His salary would hardly cover their basic bills. “Okay. Well, I’ll see what I can find out today. Speaking of,” he glanced at his phone on the floor, “I need to go hop in the shower.” He kissed her quickly and stood up, helping her back into the chair. “You can join me if you’d like.”

  She smiled softly, looking at the computer screen. “Thanks, but I need to look at tickets. Mom’s going to pay for it, so I need to get the dates and times lined up.”

  He bit his lip, afraid to say anything else that may cause a fight, and walked out of the room. He darted across the hall, trying not to panic as his wife planned her escape from him. He turned on the water and jumped back as the high pressure stream of the shower nearly hit him.

&n
bsp; What the hell?

  He walked back out of the room, hurrying toward the office. “Harper?”

  “Yeah?” she called, not looking back over her shoulder.

  “The shower is messed up again.”

  “What do you mean messed up?” She stopped typing, turning to look at him finally.

  “Someone messed with the shower stream. That’s the second time this has happened.”

  “Someone who?”

  “I don’t know,” he said angrily, starting to feel paranoid. It wasn’t like he’d forgotten about the nightgown and subscriptions, but things had been quiet for a while. He was starting to think he was being overanxious. But, not now. Something was definitely wrong. “Are you sure you didn’t do it?”

  “Of course not. Why would I? I rarely take showers, anyway. You know I prefer baths.”

  He shrugged. “Well, what else could it be? Someone’s breaking in here.”

  “Breaking in?” She let out a sudden laugh. “And what? Changing our shower head? That’s it? C’mon, you don’t honestly believe that.”

  “Why don’t you? It’s not like it’s the only strange thing going on around here. Slashed tires, the lingerie, the magazines.”

  She ran a finger over her lip. “I don’t know, Bryant. It just seems a little crazy, that’s all.”

  He shook his head. “Watch out.”

  “What?”

  He moved toward her. “Let me see the computer for just a second.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I want to look up who lived in this house before us.”

  She wiggled her fingers in the air, standing up obligingly. “What—do you actually think there’s a ghost haunting us?” She giggled, obviously trying to seem more calm than she felt.

  “I don’t know what to think, Harper, but I’m going to find out the truth about what’s going on around here.”

  She didn’t laugh any more as he typed, instead, she watched him search—trying desperately to find something, anything, that might explain the strange things that had befallen them since they’d moved to Lancaster Mills. Even more so since they’d met their neighbors.