Chapter 22
Night Eight
Julian
“Dad,” Simone said, poking her head into his office.
“What are you doing? This is not what we agreed to.” Julian startled and shut his laptop too quickly.
A child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Simone was back in town for the night for work and had gone out for a drink with her high school friends, and Julian hadn’t realized she was home already.
“It wasn’t work,” Julian said, swiveling his chair around to face her. “I promise.”
After the heart attack, he’d sworn to Simone that his retirement meant just that: that he was out.
He took over Robin’s candy store business full-time and lived a quiet life that didn’t involve extra stress to his heart.
But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t dip a toe in to test the water temperature every once in a while.
That didn’t mean that he could just stop thinking about the loose ends he still felt compelled to tie together.
He still had friends in the game, still had contacts he was waiting to hear back from.
Recently, things had gotten more urgent, and it could have been that he felt like his heart might literally stop at any time, but also, Julian’s instincts almost never failed him, and for the past few weeks, those instincts had been flashing red.
He’d been rereading a LISTSERV on the unmarked, untraceable parts of the internet—he would know what he was looking for when he saw it—when Simone surprised him.
“Don’t tell me what my eyes didn’t see,” Simone said.
“Really,” he said. “I was just reviewing some of the budget for next year for the store.”
“Ummhmm,” Simone said, but dropped it because her point had been made, and Julian was rightfully chastened.
“Did you eat?”
“I did, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t again.” She smiled and looked so much like Robin that Julian’s heart nearly stopped right there.
They settled on Greek food from Simone’s favorite takeout place from high school and then sank into the couch, Simone watching some reality dating show, while they waited for delivery.
He wanted to ask her if she could stay longer, more than just the one night for business, but theirs was not a relationship where asks like this came naturally.
“Dad,” she said during a commercial. “You know I am just trying to look out for you.”
“I know, but I’m an old man, I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Sixty is the new forty,” she said. “Don’t call yourself old. But also, maybe you do need a babysitter, because I don’t for a second believe that you were tallying invoices. Don’t make me call Richie and rat you out.”
Richie, Richard. Julian’s best friend from work. He already knew that Julian couldn’t just let things go; they used to argue about it in the office all the time. “Your gut is not enough to waste more resources, Julian,” he would call out to him at least once a month as he passed him in the hallway.
“Really, Simmy,” Julian said. “I know that work nearly killed me. And I have no interest in dying anytime soon. Okay?” He had a headache building from his restless night; he had to pretend to inhabit normal human hours while Simone was staying with him, so he hadn’t even had a chance to rest today.
His phone buzzed on the coffee table, and he reached for it only because he assumed it was the delivery guy. It wasn’t.
“Hey, Zeke,” he said, not particularly enthusiastically.
Zeke had taken to FaceTiming him when Zeke was home alone, like he couldn’t possibly bear the weight of his own thoughts.
Sybil usually kept Zeke company in the hours when Betty had to work her shifts or when he wasn’t in PT or being harangued by his management team, but Julian didn’t know where Sybil was tonight.
Betty was at the diner; Julian did know that.
“Zeke,” Julian said to his screen. “My daughter’s here, we’re watching…what are we watching?”
“Love Island,” Simone said without shifting her gaze from the TV.
“Love Island. So can I call you later?”
“Oh, your daughter the spiker?”
Julian couldn’t believe that Zeke remembered Simone’s college volleyball career. He was not the type Julian thought of as remembering details.
“Who’s Zeke?” Simone asked, and since he had her attention for once, he made the mistake of tilting the screen toward her.
“Hey, Simone.” Zeke tried to wave, but since he was holding the phone in his good hand, mostly, the screen shook.
Simone knitted her eyebrows together then moved closer to the phone, resting her hand on her dad’s leg, giving him an abrupt glance, which Julian knew meant that she felt how skinny he had gotten. “Are you Zeke Rodriguez?”
“I am!” Zeke sounded delighted.
“Wait, why is Zeke Rodriguez calling my dad?” Simone grabbed the phone and was holding it with both palms now.
“Your dad didn’t tell you that we are friends? Not just friends, we are tight.”
“You and my dad are tight,” Simone repeated. “Is this…” She glanced around. “Is this some sort of prank show?”
“Simmy,” Julian said. “Zeke and I really are friends.”
Her jaw slackened. “What? Come on. No you are not.” She stood and spun around, truly looking for cameras.
“What can I say,” Zeke said. “Your dad is awesome.” For a very brief moment, Julian fell in love with Zeke and forgot why he generally found him solipsistic and annoying.
“Wait, I have the best idea,” Zeke continued.
“You must come to Thanksgiving. I’m putting together a big feast, and Simone, your dad has told me all about what a superstar player you are, and so I insist that you come. ”
“You told Zeke Rodriguez about my college career?” Simone reminded Julian now of who she was as a teenager.
The edges of her mouth tilted up, as if she didn’t want to smile in her father’s presence, but also, she couldn’t help it.
Also, she had perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth, a smile that Julian had paid through the roof for, and his heart levitated every time he saw it.
His headache was nearly forgotten just at the sight of her happiness.
“Did he tell me about your college career?” Zeke bellowed. “I can’t get your old man to shut up about it.”
Now Zeke was exaggerating, but Julian wasn’t about to stop him.
They’d had three conversations about Simone, and certainly, yes, of course, Julian was proud as hell about her spiking record and her senior year undefeated streak.
But mostly Julian always preferred to listen, found that you learned much more about things that way.
“Can you rewind?” Simone said to the both of them. “And explain to me how my father, candy store proprietor of Queens, suddenly gets FaceTime calls from the best pitcher in the MLB?”
“I have to say,” Zeke said, “I’m a little offended that your dad didn’t tell you that he’s friends with the best pitcher in the MLB. Though I have to be honest and say that my career might be over.”
“Oh, your career isn’t over,” Simone said. “And my dad has a lot of secrets. So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised actually.”
“Well, you can’t just say that and not tell me,” Zeke replied. “You have to share at least one of his secrets.”
“Zeke, can I call you Zeke?”
Zeke cackled on the other end of the FaceTime. This man got high off attention, Julian thought.
“Well, Zeke, if I knew what his secrets were, then they wouldn’t be secrets, right?”
Right then, thank god, Julian’s buzzer rang.
“Food is here, Zeke,” Julian said. “We gotta go.”
“Wait!”
“What?”
“Simone,” Zeke said. “Promise me you’ll come to Thanksgiving. I’ll tell you all the ways your dad is cooler than you give him credit for, and you can tell me all of his secrets.”
Simone raised her eyebrows and beamed.
“Okay,” she said. “That’s a deal.”
Julian disconnected the call, an uncertain pit planting seeds in his stomach. On the one hand, he was flush with gratitude that Zeke had managed to find a way to get Simone to stick around for the week.
On the other hand, he did indeed have plenty of secrets.