Page 9 of Except Emerson (Detroit ABCs #7)

“We can sit on the steps for fresh air, too,” I reminded him.

“That’s where I do Spanish lessons. But we can’t open the window since that doesn’t work.

Also, you won’t be just sitting and hiding.

We’re going to formulate a plan so that you get a job and the two of us will also be making friends, forming bonds and whatnot. ”

“Whatnot,” he echoed. “Damn, this has been something. Bye, Emerson…wait a minute. Give me your phone number.”

I got the feeling that he might be using it to tell me that he didn’t want to come in the morning. “I really can help you, just like you can help me,” I said as I looked back into the car.

He nodded slightly and I’d decided that my only course was optimism.

“See you tomorrow,” I said firmly.

Hernán must have been watching through his window because he came out of the front door before I’d taken more than a few steps. Levi hadn’t left yet, and he seemed to be making sure that I would get inside.

My neighbor stared at him. “He’s the one who sent you the chicken?” he asked suspiciously.

I looked behind me and Levi raised his hand. “Yes,” I answered. “We had coffee and went to a park, and ants bit me.”

“He’s strange.”

I waved again at the car, this time gesturing at him to leave, and he did pull away from the curb. “Maybe he is,” I agreed as I watched him disappear down the street. It didn’t bother me too much, though, because I had finally made a connection. I had formed a relationship with an actual person.

Hernán seemed unimpressed. “Did you ask him why he doesn’t seem to have a job?”

“He says he’s lazy.”

My neighbor’s eyebrows shot up. “ Perezoso ,” he said, frowning.

“I’m going to help him figure out a plan for his life and the execute it,” I said. “We’ll become friends that way.”

“He wants to be your friend? Just a friend? Amigo ,” he said slowly.

“Yes. I mean, sí ,” I said. “We’re going to take walks, too. His family is worried and upset because he’s been such a loser, but they’ll be proud of him pretty soon.”

“I thought you were talking to a counselor. Didn’t you learn that you can’t change someone?”

“I’m not doing that app anymore,” I explained.

“You just told me that this chicken boy was lazy. How will he execute a plan for his life if he’s unwilling to work for it?”

This was an annoying conversation. “His big sister believes that there’s more to him,” I said. But for myself, I didn’t particularly care if he was lazy. It wasn’t like I was going to ask anything of him, except for his presence and conversation. I would do the rest.

Hernán seemed underwhelmed by this course of action. “ Es una tontería. Lo voy a discutir con Lucía. I’m going to talk to Lucía about you,” he threatened, referencing his daughter.

“How do you say, ‘I don’t care’ in Spanish?”

He answered with a few remarks which didn’t sound like a direct translation of what I’d asked, and I went into my apartment.

I looked around and thought about having another person in here.

It did smell slightly due to Coral, but it wasn’t like I could keep the window open.

I couldn’t even get the window open in the first place.

The blue of my shirt stood out sharply—ugh!

I shook my sleeve and another ant fell off onto the grey floor.

Anyway, my bright shirt was in contrast to everything else in here.

Months ago, when Hernán had carried in a package for me, he’d seemed concerned by the emptiness.

He’d suggested that he could text his daughter to ask her for decorating tips, but what had I cared about how it looked?

Then Coral had tried to escape and my neighbor had quickly left.

Would someone want to sit in here, though?

And a bigger problem was, what would Levi actually sit on?

My desk was a plastic folding table that I’d bought at the dollar store, and the chair was one that had been left next to the trash cans on the side of the building by a previous tenant.

I’d cleaned it off and it worked just fine for me.

My bed in the other room was new, as were the sheets, as was the towel that hung in the bathroom and the plate, bowl, mug, and fork I’d purchased.

I was a person without a lot of possessions.

When I returned to what had been my former home after my discharge from the hospital, I had discovered that my former boyfriend had taken almost everything.

The landlord there had been very understanding and helpful, and she hadn’t given me a hard time about back rent or about how I needed to break the lease since I could no longer afford the place on my own.

I’d shown up here with what Grant had left behind, a single box of my mother’s stuff, a few toiletries, and my clothes, like this blue shirt which wasn’t as nice as I seemed to remember it.

It didn’t do much to brighten the room or me.

Fortunately, this wasn’t some kind of beauty contest…

but then I also remembered going out with Grant and discovering that social events actually had been beauty contests that I’d entered without any awareness of it.

I particularly remembered him staring in disgust at what I’d chosen for the fall formal thrown by his fraternity.

“You can’t wear that,” he’d stated. He had asked to preview my outfit. “Fuck, she was right.”

“Who was right about what?” I had asked, and he’d explained that his best friend’s girlfriend had told him that I wasn’t going to know what to pick and would probably embarrass him.

That woman, Vivienne, had gone on to marry Lance, and we had been at their house just before the accident.

Lance had precipitated the argument that had led to Grant driving much too fast…

Anyway, Grant had explained that my dress for the dance hadn’t been the right color, it had been the wrong length, and my heels hadn’t been high enough, but I’d told him to keep it to himself and that I would wear what I wanted.

When we had shown up at the event and I’d seen what the other women had chosen (including Lance’s girlfriend, Vivienne), I’d realized that Grant had been right and I had been wrong.

I had started to work more on my outfits before we saw his friends, which was often.

In preparation for the final party at Lance and Vivienne’s house, for example, I’d stood in front of my closet and had gone back and forth between three different dresses, and finally Grant had stepped in and picked one for me.

He was very concerned about me looking right and fitting in, and so was I. It was important for them to like me.

I went to bed that night planning what I would wear the next day when Levi came over, but I woke up to the sound of a text. It was so unusual that it scared both me and Coral, and it pissed her off a lot, too.

“Sorry,” I apologized and tried to pet her, but she batted at my hand with her claws extended. “Fine,” I muttered, and grabbed the phone.

It was from Levi, and he wasn’t coming.

At least, that was my first impression of the words there, but once I’d rubbed my eyes and read them again, I saw that he had another plan.

I also saw that it was near the crack of dawn and I couldn’t understand why someone without a job (him) would have been up so early.

Maybe he was only coming in from the night before, though?

“I have a friend who needs bookkeeping help,” he’d written. “Do you want more clients? If so, I’ll come pick you up and we can go to his club so you two can talk.”

“Yes,” I wrote back fast. Not only did I need clients, but it was also more than a little exciting that I would get to go someplace new.

And that reaction, I realized, was more than a little pathetic.

It might also have been pathetic that, a few hours later, I was waiting on the sidewalk until Hernán told me to come inside.

“ Joder , haven’t you learned anything about men?” he asked. “You’re no longer a little girl.”

“I’m twenty-six. That’s not exactly decrepitude, either,” I told him, but then had to use his arm to get back up to the apartment building and that felt exactly like decrepitude. And then, just a moment later, I saw the car pull up.

“No. ? Quédate aquí !” Hernán ordered but since I didn’t understand, I wasn’t able to obey. I walked outside just as Levi started to walk up from the sidewalk, and I stepped down carefully to meet him.

“Good morning,” he greeted me, and it was still slightly before noon. I had been working for hours and he had been awake early, too. What had he been doing?

“Hi,” I answered, and determined that I was only going to say it once.

Levi looked over my head at the person scowling on the steps. “Is this your neighbor who’s teaching you Spanish?” he asked, and I nodded. “Hello,” he called to Hernán. “ O a lo major le debo decir ‘ buenos días .’”

“You speak Spanish?” Hernán asked, in English.

“A little.”

“ Me parece que es más de un poco .”

Levi nodded. “ Me pasé un ano estudiando espanol en Salamanca . ”

“Excuse me? What are you two talking about?” I asked.

“I studied Spanish in college,” Levi explained, and Hernán looked thrilled.

“Everyone should speak another language. It’s broadening! It helps us to understand others! You didn’t tell me this,” he accused, but I shook my head.

“I didn’t know. We only saw each other twice and he didn’t mention it,” I further accused.

“Maybe there are a few things that we didn’t cover yet,” Levi suggested. “We can do that in the car on the way to my friend’s club. Mucho gusto ,” he said to Hernán, who nodded back and said something about a placer .