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She looked me dead in the eye, leaned forward, and looked side to side like she was about to divulge a secret.
Yes, please!I stopped pacing in front of the desk, the teeniest tiniest sprout of hope in the sludge pit that was my gut. I leaned in to listen.
She lifted a book between us, leaned back in her seat, and acted as if I didn’t exist.
“So that’s a no on the hypotheticals?” I asked.
She flipped a page.
Apparently Julie had decided to stop talking to me completely, suggesting hypotheticals weren’t the fix I’d hoped they could be.
I huffed out all the air in my lungs and flopped down onto a chair so hard I was half-convinced it belonged in an elementary school classroom.
“What if I just received an email out of the blue, right this very moment, about a secret paternity test that proves we’re actually family?” I asked. “He could be my grandfather, you don’t know. With DNA nowadays, crazier things happen all the time.”
She turned another page.
If she knew what I saw when I closed my eyes, she’d understand. Every time I blinked, I saw myself hanging out of that window, crying out to warn the unwitting passerby of the danger he was in.
He heard me.
He stopped moving.
Right in the trajectory of the hammer.
Contact. Crunch. Collapse.
Today was the worst day of my life. I’d maybe-murdered a man.
Please don’t let him be dead.
I pulled out my phone just for something to do with my hands. Automatically, I started scrolling through the Delymo app. The little envelope button in the corner appeared. It dinged and did a little wiggle.
A job.
Whatever the gig was, it was the first I’d been offered since the whole kidnapping incident, so I had to take it. Only, what if it needed to be done right now? I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t do anything until I knew that the guy I’d hammered was all right.
It was decided—if it was a gig for tonight, I would pass. If it was a gig for any other time after that, I’d take it. If I hadn’t gotten any answers by then, well, I’d have to wrestle them out of Julie…not that I’d wrestled anyone before. Plus, seeing as how I didn’t want to get arrested, I hoped it didn’t come to that.
I clicked on the inbox. The information on the proposed gig popped up.
Benefactor: SpankKing69
Task: Watch Lil Carlos
Time: 1-4pm
Location: Buy-It-All-Mart
Additional Notes: Meet us behind the dumpster. Thanks so much. You’re a lifesaver!
“You’ve gotto be kidding me.” I snorted and closed the app. I get in trouble, and SpankKing is still free to pawn weasels off on innocent gig workers. Also, how many weasels could one man have? I actually really didnotwant an answer to that.
I popped the app back open, clicked on the listing, and hit report. There, that’ll show him. Or not. But it made me feel a little better.
An email notification dinged. I poked the app and found one new message, from Lacuna Television Network.
I hovered my thumb over the trash button. It wasn’t like I was waiting to find out if I got on the show or anything. But maybe Layana had misprinted her info and they were looking for a way to reach her. Better to check and be safe.
