I tapped the intercom button. “Hello?”
“It’s Neil.”
“Hang on.” I hit the door buzzer, holding it down for a few seconds before letting go. I didn’t unlock the door until he knocked, and I checked the peephole to becertainit was actually Neil.
Paranoid?
A little, yeah.
I opened the door, and Neil held out my messenger bag in one hand. “Thanks for coming all the way over.” I accepted the bag and dug inside for my glasses case.
“I wasn’t far away,” he answered. “What happened to you?”
“Hmm?” I looked up as I removed my sunglasses. He became a blurry gray blob before I slid my regular glasses on. “What do you mean?”
Neil motioned to his own neck. “Are those bruises?”
“What?” I instinctively touched my neck and felt that telltale tenderness just under the skin. “Christ….” I dropped my bag on top of Junk Mountain to my left. “It’s a convoluted story.” I held the door open wider.
Neil glanced over my shoulder, likely surveying the living room, before reluctantly stepping inside. “What happened?” he asked again. He slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
I shut the door and turned. Dillon was sniffing at Neil’s leg and hesitantly wagging his tail. Neil didn’t offer the pup any behind-the-ear scratches.
“Want a drink?” I asked. “We have tap water.”
“No.”
“Sit down?”
“I probably shouldn’t,” Neil stated.
I opened my mouth, ready to accuse him of pulling some alpha male bullshit and to knock it off because it’s just achair, but it occurred to me that Neil was simply being respectful. This wasn’tmyhouse. It wasourhouse. And he was being very mindful of Calvin’s personal, private space.
“We never did have that cup of coffee,” I stated, voice sounding loud after the silence.
His smile was distant. “Another time.”
Doubtful. I knew Neil would never be in the same headspace to say what he wanted when we’d been standing in front of the bank. And maybe it was for the best.
I simply nodded and soldiered on. “Someone attacked me.”
His posture changed, and Neil grew more alert. “Someone—what the hell?”
“Calvin put me in a cab home, I got inside when a neighbor was leaving the building, and he must have slipped in behind me before the door shut. I got all the way up here, and when I was trying to figure out how to get inside without my keys, he grabbed me from behind and started choking me.”
“Sebastian! Jesus! Did you—”
“The police were already here,” I interrupted.
“And?”
“I filed a report, but he’d run off before I got much of a look.”
“Did he rob you?”
“No. Well, yes, technically. I had a canister of film. He took that and wanted more movies.”
Neil stared blankly.
