Glitter

Chapter Ten

Henry

“Henry…” My twin brother, Daniel, sounded exasperated with me. I wasn’t all that surprised, as it was a common state of being in our interactions. I knew he loved me dearly, but he tended to be a tad overprotective. Not that I could blame him, given how he’d beat up anyone who had made the mistake of bullying me when we were both in high school. “Don’t you think you’re taking things too fast?”

I rolled my eyes, thankful that he couldn’t see me. He was literally halfway across the country, but we made do with ad hoc phone calls at least once every week. He was a single dad to an adopted twelve-year-old daughter who lived to push his buttons, which I took great delight in. Couple that with working on his small farm out in South Dakota, and he didn’t have a ton of spare time on his hands. We spoke to each other when we could. I’d tried to call him yesterday morning, but he’d been too busy until now to chat, so I’d taken the opportunity to go for a quick walk down the street from Eckersley’s. “Honestly? I don’t think I’m taking things fast enough.”

Initially, I’d wanted to ask him for advice about patenting my food dispenser. Seeing how Blue had been so enthusiastic about it on Saturday morning had made me wonder if it could be a viable side venture. Daniel owned a mixed breed dog, so I was curious to see what he would think of the idea.

But then Blue and I had gone out on our first date, and after everything he’d told me, I’d shifted my focus to asking Daniel what he thought about me giving Blue a key to my house with the goal of him moving in with me down the track.

“It’s only been, what? A weekend?” he asked, the distant sounds of cows mooing in the background.

“He’s been working at Eckersley’s for a year now.” I slowed to a stop out the front of the store I’d been looking for but didn’t enter. I wanted to finish this conversation with Daniel first.

“Yeah, so you said. Remind me how long you two have been talking to each other, though?”

I bristled. This wasn’t quite how I thought this conversation would go. I thought he’d be more supportive than this. “A few weeks.” It had actually been ten days, but I wasn’t admitting that.

“Right.” He drew the word out like he didn’t believe me. “And you went out on your first date…?”

I remained silent. I knew what he was getting at. It didn’t mean I’d play along. He was supposed to be sympathetic, damn it.

A few agonizing seconds of silence went by before, “Henry? When?”

“Yesterday,” I grumbled under my breath, low enough that I hoped he hadn’t heard it.

He let that settle for a moment, letting me know that he had, in fact, heard me. “And you don’t think that asking him to move in with you the very next day is taking things too fast.” He didn’t pose it as a question because he knew as well as I did how it sounded. In fact, he sounded disappointed.

“Look, I know how it sounds, okay?” I did. I really did. But Blue couldn’t keep living like that. If he didn’t think it was safe for me to visit , then it certainly wasn’t safe enough for him to live there. “And I’m not technically asking him to move in with me. I’m—”

“Just giving him a key to your place. I know.” Daniel’s voice started echoing, so I assumed he’d moved into the barn to muck out the stalls. “It’s the same thing, Henry. How can you not see that?”

I grumbled louder, letting the sound roll around my throat before I released it. “I have a spare room. If I suddenly advertised for a roommate, you’d see nothing wrong with me getting a key cut.”

“You can run background checks on potential tenants, Henry. Don’t you dare try to compare gifting a key to your home to someone you barely know with getting a roommate.” I could almost see him standing tall with his hands on his hips, glaring at something in the barn and imagining it was my head. “How much do you know about this guy? Really, truly know about him?”

I knew how Blue looked last night when he was telling me what had happened in his past, how he expected to have me dismiss him just like every other family member and so many friends in the past, how he’d tried to make the choice for me by walking out on our date before I caught his wrist and pulled him back to me.

He was hanging on to life by a thread. And no one knew, except me. How could I turn my back on that? I understood Daniel’s concerns. I really did. But he didn’t know Blue. He didn’t know how Blue simply needed a chance to catch his breath. If I could give him a room to stay, even if it was only for a couple of months, wouldn’t that help?

Irritated with his logic, I sighed. “I know enough,” I said, continuing right over the top of him when I heard him scoff. “But I hear what you’re saying. If I can get references for him, would that make you feel better?”

It was his turn to grumble. “It’d be a good fucking start.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

We let silence reign for a few moments, letting each other settle. I could hear the scrape of his shovel against the concrete flooring in his barn, letting me know he was using his work to get his annoyance at me out of his system.

“How’s Rose?” I finally asked, figuring a change in topic wouldn’t hurt. And if there was one thing that I knew about Daniel, it was that getting him talking about his daughter was a surefire way to lighten his mood.

The scraping stopped, and he sighed, but this time it was happy rather than annoyed. “She’s doing good. So good. She’s spending the day in town volunteering at the local animal shelter. I swear that kid is going to end up being a vet or something when she grows up.”

I smiled at the delight oozing from his every word. She’d had a rough childhood before Daniel and his now ex-husband had adopted her, but with a lot of love, care, and therapy, she’d blossomed into a wonderful young girl that Daniel was beyond proud to call his daughter. I had no doubt that whatever career path she pursued in the years to come, she’d thrive, and Daniel would support her every step of the way. “Oh, yeah? Is it a full summer thing?”

“Not yet. They won’t let her do a full summer for another couple of years if she’s still interested, but they said they could take her one day every week for now. So far, she’s loving it.”

“Good on her.”

“She’s such a good kid, Hen.” The tension that had spread through my shoulders eased when he called me the nickname that he’d had for me when we were growing up. Our argument was now over and in the past. It may not be forgotten, but at least it was finished. For now. “I truly lucked out when she was put in our care.”

“Yeah, you really did,” I said, smiling softly, my eyes on the ground in front of me as I paced back and forth on the sidewalk. “You’ve done well with her, Dan. Real well.”

“You think so?” he asked quietly, lingering doubt still clear in his voice. Such was the lot of a parent, especially one who was single. If he needed reassurance, I’d be happy to provide it to him.

“I know so,” I responded quickly and firmly. He may doubt his parenting skills, but I definitely didn’t.

“Thanks, Hen.”

“Anytime, Dan.” Glancing up at the storefront, I figured I should probably get a move on if I wanted to get back to work before lunch. “I’ll let you go now. I’m sure you’ve probably got a million things to get done before the sun sets.”

“That I do.” He laughed. “It was good to hear from you. Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“Never am,” I said, grinning at the words he always said to me when we were finishing up a phone call. “Chat soon. Stay safe and well.”

“You too.” He ended the call, and I removed my earbuds, pocketing them as I noticed a text waiting for me.

Blue: Oh my God, pocket bear! I just found the perfect little outfit for Sir Cattus! Look!!

The warm fuzzy feeling I always got when Blue called me pocket bear flowed through me before I started laughing at the picture he’d sent me of a highly disgruntled cat that looked very much like Sir Cattus wearing a tiny crown and a red velvet cape that made him look incredibly regal.

If we get it for him, should we rename him King Cattus?

The bouncing dots immediately appeared before a response came through mere seconds later.

Blue: Well, he IS already royalty, is he not?

In his head, maybe.

A stream of laughing emojis followed soon after, which made me smile. Without responding, I popped my phone back into my pocket before I turned around to enter the store that I’d been loitering in front of for longer than I should have been.

It didn’t take long for an attendant to approach me. “Good morning, sir. How can I help you today?”

Still feeling the warm glow from Blue’s texts, I swallowed down the echo of Daniel’s words from earlier, figuring I’d use what I was in here for eventually. It definitely didn’t mean I’d have to use it today or tomorrow. “Hi. I’d like to get a key cut?”

Checking the time on my phone, I realized my brief trip down the street and back had taken much longer than I’d expected.

I entered Eckersley’s lobby, bypassed the throng of people at the in-house deli grabbing an early lunch, and cursed under my breath when I saw the elevator doors sliding shut just as I approached them.

Looking up at the rising and falling numbers above the bay of elevators, I sighed and resigned myself to a bit of a wait. I pressed the call button, then popped out my phone to do some light reading while I waited.

The longer I waited, the more people showed up and decided that they also needed to tap the button, some even punching at it like it had personally offended their mother. I was jostled from side to side, and just when I was about ready to give up and climb all sixteen flights of stairs to get back to my workshop, a tinny bell dinged to let everyone know an elevator had arrived.

We all moved back to let those who were in the elevator out, then surged forward to cram as many people in as possible without overloading. As each person entered, they pushed the button for their own floor until the display glowed with almost every button having been pressed.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

Making my way to the rear corner of the carriage, I leaned against the mirrored wall, focused on my phone, and settled in for the long trip up.

The elevator had about a third of its original occupants when I overheard a voice right in front of me that I hadn’t heard in a week and a half.

“Fuck, I’m so hungry I could eat a fucking horse. I wonder what’s waiting for me in the lunchroom.”

My brain stumbled to a stop, but I kept my attention on my phone to make it look like I was still reading or playing a game.

Blue’s nemesis, Travis, was standing immediately in front of me, talking in low undertones to someone to his left.

If I had any doubt in my mind that he’d brought his own lunch in today, they were obliterated by what I heard next.

“Dude, you brought your own lunch? You got a girlfriend I don’t know about?” his friend asked, chuckling quietly to himself.

“Fuck no, on both counts.” Travis sounded truly offended; a sneer in his voice was plain to hear. “You know I never bring my lunch. That shit’s beneath me.”

My adrenaline spiked as I realized I knew what was about to unfold over the next half hour or so. I swiped at my phone, minimized all my open apps, and searched for the voice recording tool I used occasionally to record notes for work. I switched it on and gradually lifted my phone closer to my face like I was trying to decipher something on my screen, when in actual fact I was trying to get a good recording of Travis incriminating himself.

“And fuck off on having a girlfriend. I’ve had it up to fucking here with those whiny ass bitches who believe they have more than one brain cell to rub together and assume that they can think for themselves. Until I find one who can take a fucking order the way she’s supposed to, I’ll stick to hookup apps where I can fuck ‘em and run. Saves them the heartache of falling in love with me.” He laughed.

I frowned and pressed my lips together until they hurt. Yeah, Travis was an absolute gem of a man.

His colleague laughed along with Travis, although not as loudly, and in a slightly confused manner. “But if you didn’t bring your own lunch, what’s waiting for you in the lunchroom?”

Travis laughed louder. “Oh, man. Have I not told you about this yet?”

“Told me what?”

“It’s a fucking riot!” Travis said, his voice growing more and more enthusiastic with every horrific sentence he uttered. “I’ve got the sweetest deal! There’s this slut who brings lunch every day, and it’s the tastiest shit I’ve ever eaten.”

“Dude,” his friend said lowly, drawing the word out. “You eat other people’s lunches?”

Travis laughed. “No, man! Just this one bitch. You’d understand if you tasted his food.”

“His? What the fuck, dude!”

“Oh, don’t sound so offended,” Travis said, waving his hand and dismissing his colleague’s concern. “He dresses like a fucking woman. All. The. Fucking. Time. Makeup, earrings, heels, the works. The cunt deserves it. If he wants to act and dress like a fucking whore, then he can be treated like one.” He laughed again, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. “And it’s not like I eat the food every day, although I totally could. I’m not a monster.”

I clenched my teeth so hard that it wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest if they snapped. Not a monster? What a joke. I glanced up at the floor display above the doors. Two more stops and we’d reach the level where the lunchroom was. I wouldn’t need three guesses to know where Travis was headed.

“I don’t know, man. Haven’t you ever heard the stories of lunches being dosed with laxatives or Carolina Reaper chillies? Why take the chance?”

“Nah, he wouldn’t fucking dare do that. I’ve been doing it for months and the food’s never been tainted. Not once. But if it had, he’d be in for a world of fucking pain. I’ll tell you that much for free.”

Silence fell between the two of them, presumably because his colleague didn’t know how to respond to Travis. I certainly didn’t. The man was abhorrent.

Soon enough, we arrived on level fifteen with a ding and an automated recording letting us know. The doors slid open, and Travis and his colleague stepped through.

Even though I’d been heading for the next floor up, I followed. Something told me I needed to film what was undoubtedly going to happen.

I stopped the voice recording and sent it to the cloud so I wouldn’t lose it and continued to the lunchroom.

Travis sent his colleague on while he ducked into the restroom.

I let out a deep breath. This would give me enough time to get myself situated in the lunchroom before he got there. If I had my phone up like I was reading when he walked in, he’d never expect me to be recording him. That was if he even registered my presence at all.

I tossed up the idea of texting Blue a heads up but ultimately decided against it. There was no guarantee that Travis would follow through with his plan, and he definitely wouldn’t if he saw Blue in the lunchroom.

Nope, it was simpler if Blue didn’t know until he got the automated alert on his phone that the glitter bomb had been activated.

Though I did shoot a quick text to my boss, Thomas, telling him I’d been delayed and that I’d be back as soon as I could. He replied almost immediately with an okay, next to a sly winky face emoji, an eggplant, and some raindrops. I wasn’t all that surprised by his simple acceptance as I rarely needed to step away from the office outside of my lunch hour, but the emojis he’d added made me wonder if he thought I’d gone out to meet someone. He’d been thrilled with me leaving work on time over the past week and had asked probing questions more than once about my plans for each evening.

Subtle, he was not.

Nor was he being very professional, but I’d live with that if it meant an end to Blue being bullied.

I followed Travis’s colleague into the lunchroom, then hovered around the sink to fill a glass with water until he’d chosen a table. Once he’d settled, I made my way to a table that had a clear line of sight to both the fridges and the table Travis would eventually sit down at.

Resting my elbows on the table, I leaned forward and held my phone up near my face with one hand to make it look like I was reading something, swiping at my screen periodically to make it look like I was flipping pages.

What I was actually doing was playing with my camera until I had the angle I needed and the video app ready to start when Travis walked in.

And then I waited.