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“Nah.I’m usually not around to answer my door.”
“Ah, yeah.Right.Well, don’t answer it after 15:30 on a weekday.”
“Why not then?”
“It’s when he comes home from school.Peak selling hours for him.He’s like clockwork.You open that door, and you better have your wallet ready.”
15:30.
That’s 3:30 in civilian terms.
Something about that time seems to jostle a memory loose, but it’s still just out of reach.Weird.That seventh mile I ran must have been too much for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
“Thanks for the intel,” I answer.
“And um…”
There’s an awkward pause, and I think I hear Freya whispering something to him.
“Don’t forget the neighborhood has a Christmas caroling party every year.You know…” His voice sounds strained.“…if you… want to go caroling.”
“Are youhigh?”
He chuckles.“No.I just—”
“Stop listening to that wife of yours, dude,” I warn him.“She’s gonna kill your rep.”
“She already has.”
Marriage.I shouldn’t envy them that.I shouldn’t look at the way Freya drives Mason nuts, and then have even the slightest interest in looking for the same thing for myself.
But I do.
“Anyway, your neighbor is on the community association’s holiday committee,” he continues.“So if you’re not into caroling, you might want to avoid her.She’s always trying to recruit people.”
“My neighbor?”
“The mom of the kid who helped you with the snowman.Bro code says I had to warn you.”
“Thanks.She doesn’t seem like the community association type though.”I picture the ladies who used to show up at my childhood home a few times each year when I was growing up.I remember overhearing the gossip around our coffee table as they planned the next neighborhood block party or fundraiser for the local school.
I also remember the two fingers of Scotch my mom would pour herself after they left.It was one of the rare times I’d ever see her drink alcohol.
“Why do I always get roped into hosting these meetings, kids?”she’d ask us each and every time.
“Dude,” Mason begins.“She’s a mom.She’d catch hell from the other moms in the neighborhood if she wasn’t on it.That’s the way that community goes.”
“I had dinner at her place last night and she didn’t mention it.”
He pauses for a frightening beat.“You had dinner at her place last night?”
A chill runs down my spine.Why do I feel like he’s repeating my words for Freya’s benefit?
That’s the trouble with friends after they get married.The ones you could confide in when they were single aren’t always as tight-lipped once a wife is in the picture.
“Uh, yeah.The kid kind of railroaded his mom into inviting me.”
“Huh.No kidding?”
