“Ummmm,” I stalled. Mellie was getting married and she had asked the most inappropriate person in the world to be one of her bridesmaids—me. I remembered her saying something about getting the bridesmaids together but I thought she was joking at the time.
“Are you coming or not?” She sounded annoyed. That was unlike Mellie but I didn’t hold it against her. If I were getting married, I’d be losing my shit, too.
“Yes. I’m definitely coming.”
She sighed in relief. “Thank you, Audrey. We’re starting at seven. Don’t be late, OK?””
“Of course not.” That was lie. Everybody knew I was always late. It was something I couldn’t help—like my eye color or my weight.
I hung up with Mellie and tried to remember what I was doing.
Oh yeah, looking for my glove
, I thought. Before I could start my search again, my phone rang again. It was my mother. I was tempted to let it go to voicemail but knowing my mother, she’d keep calling until I answered. Or she’d show up at my front door. Nobody needed that.
“Yeah?”
Mom’s voice reminded me of her personality—soothing like honey with a hint of steel. “Hello to you, too, Audrey. Are you coming to dinner on Friday?”
“Why do you guys always call me and ask me that? Of course, I’m coming. I love you guys.”
And I’m a freeloading glutton who doesn’t want you guys to show up at my place
, I thought. But I didn’t want to say that, even if she knew it already.
“Are you bringing your boyfriend?”
I paused. “What boyfriend?” I didn’t know what she thought she knew but for once I was telling the truth. I didn’t have a boyfriend. I had a
situation
.
“Are you bringing him or not?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ella saw you out with him last week. Over at some restaurant in Williamsburg.”
Dammit!
I’d been keeping Mike in Brooklyn for the most part. As far as I knew, my sister didn’t leave Manhattan unless it was an emergency. But I wasn’t surprised that she told my mother. News in this family traveled faster than the speed of light.
“That guy isn’t my boyfriend. He’s just a. . . friend.”
“A friend?” Mom repeated. “Well, bring your friend to dinner.”
Over my dead body
. “He doesn’t live here, Mom. He went back to. . . Alaska. He’s an Eskimo. Sorry. You’ll just have to make due with little ole me.”
“I suppose so. Why do you sound so nervous?”
“I can’t find my glove and I need to go out.”
“That’s sounds like you. Just think of the last thing you were doing when you had your glove and look there. See you on Friday night. Be there at six.”
For some reason, I knew the situation wasn’t settled. At least she had given me a good piece of advice. The last time I remembered seeing my glove was when I came in the night before after the festival. I’d eaten ice cream on the couch while watching a
Honey Boo Boo
marathon. Then when Mike got home, I went up to his apartment and spent the rest of the night with him. The empty ice cream carton and the plastic spoon were still on the living room table. I threw them away. I opened the freezer and there was my other glove.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said to myself, knowing I’d probably never say it to her. Then I bundled up and went outside to clean up my mess.
Chapter 3
It was well after dark by the time I got to the last item on my list, replacing some of the lights on the roof. The tenants used it as outdoor space for the building. I didn’t want anyone going up after dark and falling off the side of the building.
I walked up the two flights of stairs to the roof with the replacement bulbs and a flashlight, making sure to move quietly past Mike’s third floor apartment. I didn’t want to run into him tonight if I could help it. I told him I had plans that night to avoid him inviting me over to his place. I’d spent the last three nights in a row there. If I spent another one there, I’d be practically living with him. That was the exact opposite of what I should do if I wanted to keep things casual.
When I opened the door to the roof, my heart sank. It was trashed. Everywhere I looked, there was destruction. Beer cans and broken bottles littered the ground. The chairs and tables we kept up there were knocked over and scattered about. Someone had dumped the trash on the ground, spreading litter all along the roof top.
“Damn Pham kids,” I mumbled to myself. Mrs. Pham lived in 2B with her four rowdy kids. The oldest one was currently hitting puberty, which had turned him into a really annoying bag of hormones. I suspected he had something to do with this. I opened up my mental checklist and added “Corner the biggest Pham kid and threaten him.” For now, I’d have to clean it up. “Was I this annoying as a teenager?” I asked myself. It was a rhetorical question. Of course I was.
I grabbed the trash can and started adding the remnants of someone’s epic party into it. Over on the east corner of the roof, I stumbled upon a pile of vomit. I covered my mouth and nose to block out the smell but I was still fighting a drive heave. I took an involuntary step back, tripping on a beer can and tumbling over the side of the building.
It’s not that I’d never fallen from a building. When you have a talent like mine, you tend to find yourself in positions like that. I’m probably less careful than I should be because I can take it. Why look both ways before you cross the street if you know you can take whatever comes your way? Maybe I was just used to being in peril.
But I’d never been saved before.
I’d practically prepared myself to go splat on the sidewalk in front of my building when I felt strong, heavy hands snatch me out of the air and pull me upward. “Hold on,” a deep voice whispered into my ear. I opened my eyes. Beneath me, the ground receded as if I’d suddenly been knocked into reverse. I looked up but couldn’t see my benefactor because of the position he was holding me in.
Shit! I’m flying!
Before I could get used to the feeling, I was being set back down on the roof and standing across from the most beautiful being I’d ever laid eyes on. He was tall and beefy with rippling muscles bulging under the sleeves of his light jacket. “Aren’t you cold?” I blurted out.
He chuckled, displaying a perfect row of white teeth. “Not really.” He ran a hand through his perfectly tousled midnight black hair and shrugged. It fell right back into place, with a single curl landing in the middle of his forehead. “I guess I just run hot.”
You’re damn right you do.
I blushed at my own thought. I had to get myself together. “Um, thank you for saving me. Who are you?”
He stuck out his hand. “I’m Nathaniel Kane. I’m your probation supervisor.”
I took his hand and limply shook it. If I’d known probation came with this guy, I might have tried to do something about it earlier. “I’m Audrey Hart.”
He laughed again but didn’t let go of my hand. “I know. That’s why I came here. And I’m glad I showed up in time. You were about to take a nasty fall.” He sounded like a comic book character.
“Yeah, I guess I owe you one.”
He winked one of his cobalt blue eyes at me. “I know.”
I realized that I was still holding his hand in an awkward not-quite-a-handshake and suddenly dropped it like it was hot iron. “Nate, I’ve never been on probation on before. I’m not sure what happens next.”
“Nathaniel,” he corrected me.
“Huh?”
“My name is Nathaniel. Not Nate.”
“Oh,” I blushed. “Sorry.”
“And as for probation, we have some wiggle room with that. What are you doing Saturday night?”
“Whatever you want.” I sounded like a horny idiot.
Snap out of it!
I yelled at myself in my head.
Nathaniel pulled his cell phone out of his jeans back pocket. “What’s your number?” I gave it to him. He deftly tapped his phone’s screen and then put it away. “I just sent you the details. I’ll see you then.” He winked at me again. On another man, this would be cheesy and stupid. On him, it was the sexiest thing in the world. “Goodbye, Audrey.”
He bent his legs slightly and launched himself off into the air. It was so smooth and effortless, obviously he did that a lot. As I watched him disappear into the skyline, I found myself simultaneously wondering what the fuck was going on, questioning how I could possibly have such a hot probation supervisor, and wishing that I could fly.
Chapter 4
The next morning, I was sure it was all just a dream. For most people, meeting the most beautiful man in the world on the roof after he swooped in to saved you from a three-story fall to the pavement would be the stuff dreams are made of. For me, it was just life.
I still had a few more things to do around the building so I dragged myself out bed. First thing on the agenda? Breakfast. I didn’t need to look in my fridge to know that I didn’t have any food. Well, I probably had some Cheetos and some soda, but I’d need more than that for breakfast. So, I pulled on some clothes—a pair of jeans, a long sleeved tee that said “Feed Me,” and some sneakers—so I could head out to the bodega on the corner.
As I was shrugging on my coat, I asked Crash if he wanted anything from the store. His eyes told me he’d rather have fish food. I sprinkled a couple of flakes into his bowl. “You’re so picky.”
There were two grocery stores in the neighborhood but since I didn’t cook, I didn’t really frequent them. I spent a lot of time at the Chinese place next door, the pizza place up the street, and the chicken spot two streets over. But I spent more time at the bodega than all three because they gave me a steep discount ever since I’d interrupted a robbery last fall. Half the time, I didn’t have to pay at all. And free is always in my budget.
As I pushed open the door, the familiar jingling of the bells on the door made everyone in the store look up. Rafi was at the counter as usual and he gave me a wave. “There she is. How’s it going, Audrey?”
“Pretty good. I’m starving, though. Can I get a bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll? Extra cheese?”
“Anything for you.” Rafi moved to get my sandwich going. A few months ago, he would have given me shit about my order but I guess me saving his life from a gun wielding robber upgraded my status.
I wandered around the store, browsing the various snacks. I saw all my old friends: Doritos, Fritos, and Cheetos. In the candy aisle, I saw another familiar face—an Asian kid in a school uniform with spiked hair. One of the Pham kids. “Hey,” I called out. “Which one of the Pham kids are you?”
He pulled one of the ear buds blaring music into his head out of his ear. “Huh?”
“Don’t you live in my building? Aren’t you one of the Pham kids?”
“Yeah.”
“There have been some parties that trash the roof. The roof is for everybody so if you’re gonna hang out up there, you need to clean up after yourself. Understood?”
He made a dismissive noise and went back to checking out the candy. That’s when a little Asian girl with two pigtails and a school uniform came around the corner. Now this kid, I knew. Little Cindy Pham. “Hey, Cindy, what’s your brother’s name?”
She thought for a moment. “Which one?”
I pointed to the one standing less than a foot away from her. “That one.”
“That’s Jimmy. He’s got a girlfriend. She comes over a lot. My mom doesn’t know about it. She thinks he’s at the library studying. But they go on the roof and hang out up there.” It came out like rapid fire.
Jimmy gave her a push. “Shut up!”
“Hey, don’t push her! And I don’t care about whether you have a girlfriend. Just clean up after yourself on the roof. Or I’m gonna tell your mother where you are when she thinks you’re studying. Understand?”
Jimmy grumbled something that sounded like an agreement and took his candy to register. I fished a dollar out of my pocket and handed it to little Cindy Pham. “Here. Buy yourself something full of sugar that your mother wouldn’t want you to have.” I couldn’t help myself. I was a little sister, too.
She took it with a big smile. “He’s weird about his girlfriend. But lots of people have boyfriends and girlfriends. You have Mr. Mike.”
Suddenly, I wanted my dollar back. “Mr. Mike is not my boyfriend. He is a friend. We just hang out.”
But the little girl was ignoring me, picking out a package of peanut butter M&Ms. “Yeah, he’s a boy and he’s your friend. That’s a boyfriend,” she explained with the air of someone who knew exactly what she was talking about.
Somehow, I felt like I knew less about the world than little Cindy Pham, but I pushed on. “Not exactly.”
“Sometimes you spend the night in his apartment and not yours. I saw you. When you get married, can I be in your wedding?”
I held my hand out. “OK, give me my dollar back.” But she just giggled and went to pay for her candy.
Great
, I thought.
The kids are on to us. How long until the rest of the building knows? Gotta be more careful in the future. Not that I even know that my boss Hy would mind. He might not even find out since he lived in Miami. I just want to keep this job. It’s the best I’ve ever had. And maybe I should get a Butterfinger or something to help me cope with this shit.
“Hey.” It came from just behind my ear just as I was reaching for the candy bar, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Shit!” I turned around and saw Mike standing there with a big grin on his face and a styrofoam coffee cup in his hand. Brown skinned, clean cut, and dimples, Mike was very good looking. Still, I wasn’t that happy to see him.
What is this? A neighborhood reunion?