Page 24 of Heartbreak Hockey

Apparently, Lorelei and Bethany were busy with a project. Two thirds of the Meyer teen division hated me. Bryce came by with Ari. Bea tried a few times, but she was busy with work and dealing with said Mercy-hating teens.

So mostly it was just the two of us. Theo moped around my house and sometimes added to the ever-developing flower wall, gluing on more flowers to the wall from the stack Lorelei had made that she hadn’t had the chance to stick on yet.

I let him.

But then it was a certain Friday of the month and Theo and I had something to do.

“Guess what day it is?” I said, nudging him awake. He was sleeping in my bed.

“Dunno, Merc. Are you leaving today?” He asked that every morning until I left.

“No, silly. It’s Giving Friday.”

His blue eyes filled with some of the sunshine that was missing from them. “We’re still gonna do the thing?”

“Yeah, we’re gonna do the thing. Get dressed.”

After making pancakes, which he ate, thank fuck, we grabbed a bunch of reusable bags from the closet and headed to the grocery store. For the duration, he was himself again.

“And can we get pizza? And can we get ice cream? And can we get chicken nuggets?”

I bought him whatever the fuck he wanted. I’d tried everything else I could think of by that point. He didn’t even want to adopt a cat, believing it was some kind of trade, me for the cat. Sometimes shopping therapy is the only comfort. I had the money for extra shit, so I indulged us.

When our cart was loaded to the brim with more than we needed, I scanned the lineups. I was perhaps biased in my selection process, but it’s not like doing this kind of thing comes with instructions. I preferred to choose people with young children. The person I choose that day was a young man with a son a little younger than Theo. As he waited in line, he looked over the items in his cart with an expression I knew—from having been there myself—that meant,do I have enough for all this?and,why does shit have to cost so much?

“I think he’s the right one for today. What do you think, bubba?”

Theo nodded. “Yeah. He’s the guy.”

The first time we did this it was spontaneous. A lady was in line with her three children bouncing around her and her card kept getting declined while her stress levels rose. Even though I couldn’t really afford to buy all her groceries, I did it anyway. Theo was with me.

“I didn’t know we could do that, Merc,” he’d said.

“Not every time.” His face fell. “Maybe once a month?”

“Yeah!”

So, we’ve been doing our thing one Friday every month for the past several months.

It’s a delicate topic to approach so I’m as quiet as I can be about it. I know how it feels when you don’t have enough and are forced to rely on others.

“Hey, man. Would you mind if we bought your groceries?” I said.

“Why?” Suspicion is the usual response. He tightened his fingers around the handle of his cart.

“This guy and I do it as a giving back to our community thing.”

He thought about it, and he softened. “I want to let my pride rear its ugly head, but for his sake, I could really use the help this month, man.”

I didn’t tell him I suspected. I put a hand on his shoulder that said,I know, without having to say a word. I don’t know how I home in on who to choose. Some of the people in the city have more money than brains. Others have to scrounge for change in their couch cushions to buy a loaf of bread.

“Even better,” I said.

“This is my big brother Merc,” Theo said with all the pride in the world bouncing off him.

“You look like you love him a lot,” the man said.

“I do. You should get this extra chocolate bar for your son. He’ll love it. Merc will buy yah whatever you want. He’s gettin’ me a cat.”