Park Avenue Player(42)

“Did you see that?” Hailey said.

“What?” My eyes had been glued to the front door. I couldn’t have missed something.

“Next door. The blinds moved, and I saw a woman. I think she’s watching us or something.”

“Oh. That’s probably Elodie’s friend Bree. She lives next door. I’m sure she’s just keeping an eye out, making sure everything is okay.”

Two minutes later, I saw the blinds move next door. Her friend was definitely watching us. But not long after, Elodie’s front door opened, and her ex walked out. I stretched my spine straight.

He gave me the evil eye as he passed, but said nothing while he walked back to his car and got in.

Elodie walked down the front path with her purse. “Sorry about that.”

“Is everything okay?”

She looked back at her friend’s house and frowned. “Not really. Would you mind if I took five more minutes?”

“Not at all. Go do whatever you need to do. We were early.”

“Thank you.”

I gave Elodie privacy this time and got into the car while she went next door to her friend’s. Fifteen minutes later, she opened the passenger door to my car. Her face was puffy with tears.

“Elodie?”

She shook her head and looked forward. “Not now.”

“You want to take a few more minutes? Go inside and wash up?”

“No. I just want to go.”

I nodded and started the car.

***

Hailey went to the newsstand across from the gate to look at magazines. Elodie had been quiet the entire trip to the airport.

“You want to talk about it?” I said softly.

“About Tobias? No. But about Bree? Maybe.”

I shifted in my seat to give her my attention, while still keeping an eye on the newsstand. “Whatever you want.”

“I’ve told you my best friend is sick. Bree had been part of an experimental treatment for her condition. She has lymphangioleiomyomatosis.”

“That’s a mouthful.”

She nodded. “It’s an incurable lung disease. She doesn’t talk about it much, doesn’t want to burden me with the details. Which I think is stupid, but that’s who she is. It’s important to her to not disrupt my life—so she plays down how she’s feeling. Tobias’s mother, Mariah, is married to Bree’s father, and yesterday Bree told her father that she’d stopped the experimental treatment. It’s making her really sick and dizzy, more out of breath than usual. But the new drugs were basically a last hope. Bree won’t listen to her dad, so Tobias came to talk to me to see if I could intervene. His family doesn’t know our marriage ended poorly. We told them we jumped into things too fast and realized we were better off as friends.”

I nodded. “I understand. And I’m sorry about your friend. Did your talking with her help any?”

She shook her head. “She promised she’d think about going back to the treatments. But I know her, it was just to get me out the door.”

I thought about what I’d gone through with my mom at the end. The treatments had made her so sick. “My mom had cancer. She died when I was nineteen after multiple rounds of chemo. At the end, she chose to stop all treatments and enjoy the days she had left. It was really hard to accept. There’re just some things in life we can’t change. So we need to change to deal with them. And that’s much easier said than done.”

Elodie looked over at me and nodded. “Thanks, Hollis. And thank you for coming to check on me when you saw Tobias at my door.”

Her eyes were glassy, and I knew she was fighting back tears. I put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her. “Of course. Anytime. We’re friends, remember? That’s what friends do for each other. Well, that and sniff each other’s panties and leave obscene selfies.”

Elodie laughed and wiped a tear from her eye. “We have a fucked-up friendship, Hollis.”

I smiled. “We have from the very start. I don’t think we can do it any other way.”

***

The flight to Ohio was uneventful, and I’d booked us adjacent rooms at a hotel in downtown Cleveland. Hailey and Elodie were in one room, and I was in the other, only a door separating us.

The three of us went to dinner at a five-star seafood restaurant within walking distance of where we were staying and opted to return to the hotel right after.

While Elodie and I were keen to relax, Hailey seemed to have different plans.

“The pool is open till ten!” she announced just as we were approaching our rooms.

“Guess we’re going swimming?” Elodie said.

I lingered at my door. “You two brought bathing suits?”

“Of course. What fun is a hotel without swimming in the pool?” Hailey asked, as if my question was stupid.

“I sort of like just lying in the bed, watching TV with some snacks myself,” I said.

“That’s cuz you’re old, Uncle Hollis.”

That made me chuckle.

“Apparently, everyone came prepared but you, Hollsy.” Elodie winked.

Something about that wink made me wish I could smack her on the ass.

They retreated to their room to change. My plan was to hang out and watch some HBO while they were gone. That is, until they came over to say they were heading downstairs.