“About anything. Like, yesterday, I was bored…” He looked up from the box and shrugged. “You know at my job. So I called to talk about if you preferred Freddy Kruger to Jason Vorhees, but you weren’t here.” He pouted, making my irritation at him gifting me something completely wash away.
“I would have told you Kruger.” I reached for my cup and took a sip. “So, what’s your solution then?”
He pulled out a black plastic thing with wooden paneling, and I nearly spit out my drink. “Desi, that’s—”
“An answering machine!” He beamed.
“That’s a ridiculous gift! Do you know how much those are?” I set my cup down and grabbed it from him. Brenda and I had seen these in the store. I couldn’t afford that.
“I do, as I just bought it this morning.” He put his hands in his leather coat and rocked on his boots. “Do you like it?”
“No. I can’t take this.” I shook my head and pushed it back toward him. “This is too much. I could never afford this.”
“I know, that’s why I’m gifting it to you.” He was smiling until he saw my reaction to his words. “Scout, that’s not what I meant.” He set the machine down and tried to reach for me, but I stepped back.
“Desi, this is too much. You spent all that money, just to tell me you like the Halloween movies more than the Friday the 13th series?” I shook my head in disbelief.
“Yeah, I did. I don’t know why, but I want to share everything with you. It sucks that we can’t just talk all day.”
I wanted to be annoyed, but his intentions were so sweet, I couldn’t be mad. I shook my head and waved him on. “Set it up.”
“Great! There should be directions somewhere in here,” he muttered. I sat in my chair as he hooked up the new machine. He spent the entire time going on and on about how excited he was that he would be able to talk to me whenever even if I’d have to catch the messages later. And I sat there, watching and wondering.
What if he’s in the mafia?
