Chapter 31 Larissa
LARISSA
Mike carried a box out to his truck, and Mom watched him go while she stood in her robe in my bedroom doorway.
I was starting to move things to his place today.
I wasn’t leaving the apartment for another two weeks, but I wanted to pack up what I could in advance so moving day would be easier.
I was breaking down my bookshelves and boxing up my summer clothes.
“You know, you could come with us,” Mom said, watching me stack paperbacks.
“I know. I appreciate you asking me. It’s just going to be better for everyone if I stay here,” I said.
“I’m gonna miss having you around,” she said.
“Come visit us.”
“Mike does have that fancy hot tub,” she said, wrapping her robe tighter around her. “Might make the trip.”
“Where’s Phil today?” I asked, pulling down another stack of books. “He’s usually on the sofa by now.”
There was a pause. “Phil got a DWI last night.”
I stopped to stare at her.
“It’s his third one. I didn’t bail him out. He shoulda known better.”
“Mom…”
“I know, I know. You told me.” She sighed.
“And you’re still moving with him?”
“It was my fault. I was supposed to pick him up, and Gary kept me over.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Aren’t you tired, Mom?”
“Well I’m not happy about it. He’s gonna lose his license this time though. He’ll learn his lesson. Sometimes they gotta hit rock bottom.”
I shook my head and stared at the cover of the book on the top of my stack. And when would Mom hit her rock bottom? How many of these men would it take?
I was glad I was leaving. I was glad I had the choice to leave. I felt like I was outrunning a flood.
“Mom…” I looked at her. “Being alone is hard, but so is hating your life because you’re not.”
She held my gaze, but she didn’t get to reply. Mike came back in. “This one?” he asked, nodding at a box.
“Yeah.”
He picked it up effortlessly and floated it out.
Mom watched him go. Then she leaned in. “You’re happy, right?” she whispered.
“Yes.” I sniffed. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I just worry. What does Chris think about you two moving in?”
“Nothing? Why would he think something?”
“I just think about what you said that night,” she whispered. “About him maybe having a crush on you.”
“I did not say that,” I said, my voice low. “I mean, I did but I clarified. We are friends. There’s nothing going on there. And anyway, I didn’t tell him yet.”
“You didn’t tell him? The man doesn’t know you’re moving?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
Mike came back in and we dropped it.
“Hey, do you know anyone with a wholesale club membership?” I asked him.
“My mom,” he said, picking up another box.
“Oh, I don’t want to ask your mom,” I said.
He stopped in the doorway. “Why not?”
“Because she’s already doing too much for me,” I said, not wanting to tell him the real reason. “And they don’t let you borrow cards anymore. You have to be the account holder or on the account to use it and I don’t want her to have to go shopping with me when I need to go.”
“Ah. I’ll ask the guys. Maybe one of them has one.”
“Thanks. Oh, and thank you for clearing the snow off my car today.”
He looked confused. “Huh?”
“My car. You cleared the snow?”
“I didn’t clear the snow off your car, babe.”
“Well if you didn’t do it, who did?”
We all stood there, looking at one another.
“Maybe someone cleaned it off on accident?” Mom said. “You know how it is, can’t tell whose car it is till you get down to it.”
“But they shoveled the path to our front door,” I said, looking at her. “They knew it was mine.”
“Delta maybe?” Mom said.
“That homeless dude?” Mike asked.
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him in weeks. I think he’s at the shelter for the winter.”
“Well, he must have come down here just for you,” Mom said.
“In six inches of heavy wet snow?” I said. “With the leg thing he has?” I looked between them. “This is seriously creepy. Who would do this?”
“Maybe you have a secret admirer,” Mike teased.
“Mike, this isn’t funny,” I said. “Whoever did it was out there at like, four in the morning. What if someone’s stalking me? I don’t want some weird stranger touching my car.”
“You can always move in with me sooner,” Mike said, winking at Mom. “I’ll keep you safe.”
This did not make me feel better.
I knew what it took to clear that kind of snow. Whoever did it was out there for at least an hour. An hour. I’d gone out there myself at 5:00 a.m., braced for the cardio, only to find it had already been done. Who wouldn’t take credit for that? Let me know they did it?
Mike watched me chew on my lip.
“Babe, it’s fine. Probably a neighbor or something, some guy trying to do something nice. I would have done it myself, but I had a migraine this morning. I’ll get it next time. No more creepy dude touching your car, okay?”
I nodded, but I was still disturbed.
He kissed my forehead and went back out to the truck with the box he had.
Mom leaned out into the hall to watch him go. Then she turned back to me. “It was Chris,” she said, so quiet she mouthed the last word.
I blinked at her. “What?”
“Chris!”
“Chris… Why would he do that?”
She gave me an Are you kidding me? look.
“He didn’t say anything,” I whispered.
“What’s he gonna tell you? ‘I cleaned off your car because your boyfriend doesn’t do it’? He’s not gonna say nothing about that, believe me.”
I let a small breath out through my nose. No, Mike didn’t usually clean off my car. But he lived halfway across town and I had to be on the road early to make it to work. I didn’t expect him to wake up at four in the morning to get snow off my car.
But someone did. Chris?
And even as I tried to convince myself it wasn’t, I knew it was true.
I’d mentioned having to dig out my car to him before. He knew where I lived, he knew Mike wasn’t going to do it.
So he did it?
Something tugged in my chest. I had to put a hand over it.
It was him.
And he didn’t even tell me. We’d already texted today about Woofarine, and he didn’t mention one word. I hadn’t even seen him in a month and he came over here to do this? For me?
Why?
I sat back on my heels.
He was out there, in ten-degree weather—a few feet from where I was on the other side of the wall, sleeping—clearing off my car at some ungodly hour. Taking the extra fifteen minutes to shovel the walkway and the front step.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole morning.
Every time my phone pinged, I expected a message from him going, “Hey, forgot to tell you I cleaned off your car.”
But the text never came.
Mike took the boxes I gave him and went home. He had work later.
I vacuumed up the dust from all the moved books. Took a shower. And I felt bothered the whole time. About the snow thing and something else.
I still hadn’t talked to Mike yet about what Lexi said yesterday.
Him not working for Tony wasn’t going to change the fact I’d be moving in with him in two weeks.
The move was already in motion and I had no other options.
Mike’s job wasn’t a deal-breaker. I’m sure he had a plan.
He had to have a plan. Maybe he wanted a different kind of career and it was something I could help him with? We could help each other?
But what if he didn’t have a plan? What then?
I shook it off.
This was just nerves. This was normal before a big change like the one I was making. I’m sure everyone moving in with their partner has some kind of last-minute doubts.
I circled back to the other thing bothering me. Chris cleaning off my car at four o’clock in the morning and not telling me.
It made me wonder what else he wasn’t taking credit for.