Page 42 of The Progressions

His eyes swept up and down, surveying me. And yes, I had put a little more effort into my outfit today, but it wasn’t for his benefit! I’d felt like it, that was all, but he noticed. “What’s with the clothes?” he asked.

“I wear them every day, in order to avoid a public indecency charge.”

“Yeah, but there’s no crowd outside waiting to see you naked. I’m probably the only—”

“What do you want, Cody?” I asked again, and tried to will myself not to blush, blink, or otherwise show that his words affected me at all.

“Just saying hello. You know how I like to stop in when I’m here.”

I did know that. Every other week, he showed up with a water delivery and then he dropped in to bother me. “There’s no need.”

“It’s fun,” he told me, and I pointed to the door.

“If I don’t have to sign anything, then it’s time to go. Bye,” I said. I used a piece of paper to swish him toward the exit, like I would have done to a bee that got in by mistake.

“In a minute. I wanted to tell you that my delivery window is switching around so I’ll be here next week in the afternoon. You’ll get to see me even sooner than usual,” Cody said.

“Do you really think that I’m waiting for you to show up? I don’t give one, single—”

His laughter drowned out my words as he left, knowing that he’d triumphed over me. Again.

After a while, I went to the hospital to see baby Balderston and Iva, who hugged me and said she was sorry for hanging up on me before. “I could blame postpartum hormones, but I’m not sure what my problem is,” she told me. I was aware, of course, that the problem was stupid Dominic, but I managed not to say so. We visited and I held baby Balderston, then returned him to his mother and went to the store to load up on groceries. I didn’t pick the expensive varieties that Tyler selected for his food deliveries but my monthly budget was feeling the pinch, anyway. It was ok, though, because Iva needed all the help she could get, and my dad and I could make do. I needed to get home to him soon enough but I did want to leave her with some meals, so I headed to her house to cook on-site. She had a lot more counter space—not as much as in Tyler’s kitchen, but…

What was that? I slowed my car as I got closer to her little house, not understanding the sign that was planted in the front lawn. Then, suddenly, I did get it, and it was bad. It was so bad. My first thought was to prevent Iva from coming home, but that wouldn’t work—she would see it eventually. I couldn’t stay here in the driveway, blocking it with my car, either, because my back seat was full of food. Summer was officially coming to an end, but it was still warm enough that perishables were going to perish—and so would Iva, when she arrived after being with her tiny baby and saw that there was a “coming soon” real estate sign planted in front of the place that she called home. Like, it was coming soon to the market, and Iva’s house would be sold.

I still sat there, trying to figure out my options. She was going to stay at the hospital with her son for several more hours, so I had time. A little time, I corrected myself. I called the real estate agent but he wouldn’t tell me much, except he did share the listing price and he also shared that there was currently a tenant who would be leaving soon. “It’s a great little property,” he assured me.

I thought about some of the problems we’d had at the condo complex. “I’ve been in there,” I said. “There’s a garter snake infestation and crickets throughout the house, there’s little to no insulation, and the neighbors have a Limp Bizkit cover band. Before you try to sell it, you better clear up those issues.” That would give him something to think about, and maybe slow this process a little. Maybe. Then I drove to the closest place where I could unload the food into a refrigerator and where I could also think for a moment.

I knocked rather than letting myself in with my keypad trick, and Tyler opened the door. “What are you doing with all these groceries?” he asked.

“They’re for Iva and she’s getting evicted. I didn’t want to bring food into her house if we’re only going to have to take it right back out. I need to find a new place for her to live and I need to prep meals as I do that. And I have to find stupid Dominic and also hire a hitman.”

“What the hell is going on? Come in here,” he said, so I did that first. “Why does Iva need a new place?”

I explained about the sign in the yard, about how it was really stupid Dominic’s house, and again, how I would have to kill him. “While his baby is in the hospital, he does this?” I asked. “At least Iva will believe that he didn’t disappear due to some kind of mistake, or because he’s dead. She keeps trying to excuse him! Of course, he will be dead, once I find him.”

“If stupid Dominic put the house up for sale, then the agent has a way to contact him,” Tyler pointed out. “And if he makes money on it, Iva can get some.”

“That’s fine except for the immediate problem. The agent told me that the tenant is moving out, which means that stupid Dominic may try to evict the mother of his child at any moment. I wish I had already gone to law school—I’m not doing that anymore, but if I had gone, then I would know what to do. I would know if she has rights in this situation, but she must have some. She lived there with him for four years!” I grasped at straws. “How long does adverse possession take? Do we have common-law marriages in Michigan?”

He completely missed my main point. “What do you mean that you’re not going to law school?” he asked.

“She can stay here,” I said as I started to put items in his fridge. It was brand-new because we’d replaced it after the last tenant left this unit, since he had broken it and the other appliances by trying to run a commercial doughnut kitchen. “I don’t mean exactly here, but in one of the empty condos in the complex, at least for a while. She’s really worried about money and no one has to know…” I paused with a quart of milk in my hand.“Except, there wouldn’t be utilities, and we have to worry about Oren. He would notice and he could say something.”

“Does that guy actually speak?” Tyler asked. “No, she and the baby can’t stay in a place without utilities.” Then he repeated his question from before. “What do you mean that you’re not going to law school?”

“I don’t have time and I need to spend money on other things, rather than wasting it on tuition. Ok, if not here, somewhere close so she’s near the hospital. Now that summer’s over and people are staying downstate, there should be more places coming up for rent.” I sat on the couch and opened my phone. “I’ll present some options to her and we’ll just tell stupid Dominic and his real estate agent that she’s not leaving yet, not until she has a safe place to go, and they can go fu—” Before I swore, I looked around. “Where’s your mom?”

“Physical therapy to work on using crutches, and she’s getting a ride home. She told me that she was going to help you out with this, but I can. I can help you.”

“That’s ok,” I answered. “I only need your refrigerator for a while. I should have gone into Iva’s house but all of a sudden, I felt like it was breaking and entering. It does belong to stupid Dominic, after all.”

Tyler stared at me, and he seemed to get mad. “I’m not useless,” he said.

“What? I know that. You’re not at all useless,” I agreed. “Your whole thing about hiring me wasn’t true.”

Now he asked the same thing. “What?”

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