Page 43 of Pete and His Precious

“Yeah. I waitressed until two. Sometimes I don’t have quite that long of a day, but we were busy today, and actually when I turned the close sign over we still had customers.”

“Wow. I almost came. I... Didn’t want you to think I was stalking you though.”

“I wouldn’t think that.”

“Maybe I’ll come tomorrow. Are you working?”

“Eight to twelve,” I say. “It’s a part-time gig, and I hardly ever get full-time hours like I did today.”

“I see. But that enables you to do your other things,” he says, and again, I’m surprised he was listening to me that well. It makes me feel like he truly does care.

Whether that’s as a friend, or more, I don’t know. My heart wants to argue it’s the latter, but my brain says he probably appreciates having a friend in the building as well.

Although, from what I understand, Cal still lives here, despite the fact that he’s a high dollar hockey player.

“Are the apartments upstairs nicer?” I asked, while the thought is on my mind.

He looked surprised. “A lot nicer. Why?”

I lift a shoulder. It was a weird question.

“I was just thinking that you actually do have a friend in the building, Cal. But he probably lives in a nicer apartment.”

“Yeah. Cal's pretty unpretentious. He doesn’t live in one of the luxury apartments at the top. Luxury for Whisker Hollow, not luxury like you would expect to find in New York City or something.”

“Gotcha,” I say, knowing exactly what he means. “It would be luxury compared to our apartments.” I’m right, that his apartment is exactly like mine. Pretty much a mirror image. They probably would be smart to have put our living rooms across from each other, since that would mean that his TV wouldn’t be against the wall that is my bedroom. And that’s when I notice that he doesn’t have one.

“So you don’t have a TV.”

He lifts a shoulder, a sheepish smile on his face, like he knows that’s odd. “I don’t like sitting still long enough to watch it. I have too many other things I want to do. I actually don’tspend a whole lot of time here.” He lifted a hand like it was a big deal.

“Did you go to the farm today?” I ask.

“I did. I did not want to take this on, and leave the force for an entire month, but I know that Aunt Arley is happy that I will be able to put more time into it. I could work all day every day for six months, and not get caught up on all the things that need to be done. But, since I have this month, I might as well make the most of it.”

“I would think you’d be hanging out, enjoying your time off. After all, if you’re working until nine, you’re still putting in almost eight hours as a personal security guard, and if you put in more than fourteen hours each day of the weekend, you’ll definitely have more than forty hours in for the week.

“Yeah. I thought about that, but I’m happiest when I’m busy. So that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Plus, I often put in fifty or sixty hour weeks on the force.”

“They're understaffed,” I offer.

“They are. I know the money that this is bringing them will be put to good use. Although, I doubt that they’ll hire any more manpower. The equipment needs updating, we need new patrol cars, and the roof of the building leaks.”

“Wow,” I say. I had no idea all those things were wrong.

“That’s just the start. I could give you another list, but... They just expect an awful lot from a little. And it’s kind of frustrating sometimes that money goes to places where people waste it, and that government funding never seems to come our way.”

“I bet that would be frustrating. I guess as a citizen, I don’t really notice, and it always sounds so virtuous to invest in schooling, like that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah that’s probably the biggest waste ever. But, I’m a terrible person to talk to about it, because I hated school, even though I didn’t do terrible in it, I just felt...trapped.”

“I’m not so sure that kids are supposed to be caged up for entire days, the way they are nowadays. I mean, school days used to be a lot shorter, and kids had a lot more exercise getting there and getting back.”

“Yeah. My parents always said they walked uphill both ways, and usually in three feet of snow.”

I laugh.

He smiles along with me, and the evening feels magical. Not in a Christmas kind of way, but just in a I’m with someone that I really like, and they live right beside me, and I’m enjoying spending time with them, and I feel...seen and heard and content.

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