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“Water heaters are a lot more than fifty dollars. I have to get a plumber in here, too.”
“Ben, I want you to get anything you need and come back with me,” the driver said, his voice low but insistent.
“Who’s this guy, anyway? I don’t like you bringing strangers here to fuck them,” Kyle added.
Ben didn’t reply. There wasn’t any point. “It’s okay,” he told the driver again. “You can go.”
The man got a stony expression on his face. “Not without you. If you don’t want to get anything from your room, that’s fine, but come with me. The boss’ll figure something out. This is… excuse me but this is just fucked up seven ways to Sunday. Get your things or don’t, but I’m not leaving here without you.”
Feeling as if he was in a nightmare, Ben stepped into the water to get to his room. The water was freezing cold, and he knew it would get deeper as he got closer to his room. It started soaking into his shoes. When Ben opened the door, his worst fears were realized. There was at least two inches of water flooding the room. Throwing down all the towels, sheets, blankets, and clothes he owned wouldn’t be enough to soak up all this water. Maybe it would drain. But how long would that take? Ben felt utterly exhausted despite having been on his back in the hospital for nearly an entire day, and he needed sleep if he was going to make it in to work. Everything seemed utterly impossible.
Kyle was going on about something. Maybe wanting Ben to pay for the water heater or for someone to come and get rid of the water. Ben stopped listening to him and took stock. Everything wasn’t ruined, he was relieved to see. He’d been smart to make sure nothing but furniture touched the floor. Unsure where to even start, Ben sat on his bed and stared around him, trying to take it all in and make some sort of plan to move forward. His brain didn’t seem to want to work, however.
Then Simon had come in, just as angry as his driver was. Probably more so. It was more than Ben could handle. He felt himself crumble. The box Simon had ordered him to fetch and keep with him felt like the only solid thing in the universe. As long as he had the box, which contained every important document he possessed, maybe everything would be okay.
They drove away from Chinatown largely in silence. Ben didn’t know exactly where they were going but it seemed to be both north and east, based on the roads the driver—his name is Hudson,Ben reminded himself—chose.
They stopped at a pharmacy. Hudson went in with Ben’s paperwork from the hospital then came out much later with a small paper bag. Ben wasn’t sure how long they’d been there but he thought that he’d fallen asleep at some point.
“You got everything?” Simon asked him.
“Yep. We’re all good.”
“How much—” Ben started to ask.
“It doesn’t matter,” Simon said. “Don’t worry about it.”
But of course Ben worried. Money was always a problem.
After leaving the pharmacy they headed east on Division and drove ever closer to the Lake. Ben knew this neighborhood. He’d cleaned homes in the area. It was known as the Gold Coast and the name wasn’t a misnomer. Ben knew any man that had adriverwas wealthy, so he shouldn’t find it surprising that this was where he lived. They eventually turned onto Astor street, which was lined with old stone buildings and mature trees, their branches picked out with white snow that seemed to glow from the streetlights.
Hudson stopped the SUV in front of a building built from gray limestone. It had four stories, a flat roof, and a bowed area in front that went all the way up the roof. It looked a bit like a narrow, miniature castle. The small front yard was enclosed by a black wrought iron fence.
“We’re here,” Simon said. “Come along. Hudson will park the car.”
Feeling lost and adrift, Ben followed Simon to the gate, which he unlocked with a key, then up the perfectly shoveled walk to the large wooden front door. There were lights on in many of the rooms and to Ben it seemed both welcoming and foreboding, as if the building judging him to see if he was worthy to enter it. Simon unlocked the front door with both a numbered pin pad and a heavy, old-fashioned key. Inside was a marble-lined hallway. To Ben’s mystification, Simon stopped and pulled off his wet shoes, putting them on a low rack near the door. While he didn’t want to track muck over the pristine white marble floor, it seemed wrong to take off his shoes before they’d gotten to Simon’s apartment. Or, more likely, condo. Simon would surely own his home and not rent it.
Simply because Simon had done it first, Ben took off his soaked shoes. He wondered if he should take his socks off as well. They’d started out the day white but now they were a wet, muddy gray.
Simon turned around. “Are you coming?”
Ben looked down at his dirty socks again. “Will it be okay?”
The other man tilted his head, looking surprised by the question. “Of course.”
“I don’t want to get the floor dirty.”
“The floor will be fine, Ben. Follow me.”
Silently, Ben did, wondering, as they walked down the hall, which floor Simon lived on. The layout of the building was confusing, however. The first floor might be a sort of common space, he supposed. To his right Ben could see a formal living room through a wide archway. Ahead, the short hallway ended in a flight of stairs.
“Are you up to doing stairs?” Simon asked. “Never mind. Stupid question. We’ll take the elevator. Come on.” Simon turned back to go through the arch into the living room. From there he walked through another arch to a formal dining room, and after that, the largest kitchen Ben had ever seen. Simon opened a door in the kitchen and pulled back a wire enclosure. “It’s small, but we’ll both fit just fine,” Simon reassured him.
The buttons indicated there were six levels in total. Noticing Ben’s interest, Simon pointed to each button. “This first one is the basement. There’s a gym down there and the laundry, as well as the apartment where Hudson lives and access to the garage. We’re currently on the first floor. That’s got the front door, the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Floor two has my bedroom, my office, and the library, plus a guest room. The third floor has just bedrooms. The fourth has another bedroom suite, a small second kitchen, and the media room. The rest of that floor is the rooftop deck that’s enclosed. The last button will take you to the roof of the fourth floor. There’s a deck up there, as well, but it’s open to the elements. Not that this is the time of year to go exploring outside, but in the summer it’s nice to sit up there and get some sun.”
Ben was confused. “Do you own this whole place?” He’d thought each floor was its own flat. That’s how a lot of the housing in Chicago worked.
Simon turned his head to look at Ben, rather than the elevator buttons. “Of course,” he said, looking a little puzzled by Ben’s question.
