Page 4 of Shelf-Made Man
So he worked. Luckily, he loved his job. All those predictable equations and cozy lines of code, and when he solved a problem, when he made it easier for a client to collect and analyze data, that was incredibly satisfying.
Mostly.
But now that Christmas was almost upon him and work was pretty much his only agenda item? That was a little disheartening.
On Friday he kept himself chained to the computer until nearly dinnertime, at which point he went for a long run. If you could call it that; he’d briefly dated a guy who referred to Tobias’s exercise attempts asplodding. Thanks to long legs, Tobias could cover a lot of ground, but he wasn’t speedy about it. Today was damp, and he sloshed through puddles and dealt with a runny nose and avoided getting run over by impatient drivers eager to get home for the weekend. He took a different route every time he went out, rarely paying conscious attention to his twists and turns. He’d been blessed with an excellent sense of direction and had no trouble finding his way home. Today when he returned to his bungalow, he took a hot shower and nuked Korean food from Trader Joe’s.
He considered doing more work after dinner butvetoed the idea, instead penning a thank-you note to Aunt Virginia. Afterward he watchedMidsomer Murderswhile working on the ridiculously expensive Star Wars Lego kit he’d bought himself as a Christmas gift. Interspersed with the construction, he nibbled on the cannabis-infused snickerdoodle he’d purchased before visiting Aunt Virginia. He rarely indulged in mind-altering substances, but now and then a little THC helped him relax. Combining it with Lego probably wasn’t a good idea, however; his Millennium Falcon was now looking decidedly unspaceworthy.
Finally he decided to call it a night. As he shuffled past the bookshelf, he paused to stare at the elf, whose painted eyes had been watching him all night. “You’re pretty quiet, but you’re the best company I’ve had in ages,” Tobias informed it blearily. “Really, you’re theonlycompany I’ve had in ages.”
The elf looked back at him, eyes wide, smile maybe a touch wistful.
Tobias gently stroked the place where the elf was damaged, wondering whether he could get it repaired somewhere in town. After the holidays, maybe. “I wish we really could talk to each other,” he said with a sigh. “I wish you were real.”
A spell of dizziness hit him hard, and the room seemed to tilt and shift. He clutched his head. “Too much snickerdoodle.”
And he staggered off to bed.
One benefitof cannabis over alcohol was that he didn’t wake up hungover. In fact, on Saturday morning he felt good enough that he went for a long run, followed by a soothing shower, and then out again for coffee and brunch at a nearby café. He ate there a couple of times a month and knew the waitstaff fairly well. He’d even gone on a few dates with one of them the previous year. He and Jayden had mutually agreed that the chemistry wasn’t right for romance, and they might have become friends if Jayden hadn’t gotten accepted to grad school in Boston. A friendship over before it had truly begun.
On a happier note, the café had amazing french toast.
It was gray today but not raining, and Tobias took his time strolling home. He admired the sculptural shapes of trees against the leaden sky, the front yard greenery persisting despite the season, and the architectural details on the century-old houses. He mulled over the idea of a vacation in February, when work tended to be a bit slow and the winter felt endless. It had been a few years since he’d taken more than a couple of days off, and aside from the recent visit to Aunt Virginia, he’d rarely gone farther than the eighty miles it took to reach the coast. As he neared his house, he tried to picture himself sitting on a beach chair, book in his lap and umbrella drink close at hand, the salty breeze rustling his hair. Well, maybe not. That wasn’t exactly his style. But he could go hiking somewhere that had warm winters.
He entered the house through the side door because it led into a small mudroom where he could hang his coat and take off his soggy sneakers and socks. He slipped on a pair of dry socks, then went directly into the kitchen and considered whether he wanted a cup of tea.
Something crashed in the living room.
Tobias dashed through the dining room toward the sound, his stockinged feet almost sliding out from underneath him on the wood floor. He skidded like a cartoon character when he took the corner.
“Ahhh!”
It was unclear who screamed louder: Tobias or the stranger huddled on the floor.
But Tobias moved first, striding forward and trying to look as big as possible, as if he were confronting a grizzly bear instead of a terrified man wearing a tunic and striped stockings. Tobias was aware that his height caused him to tower over others. And he wasn’t exactly lean, because he liked carbs even more than running. He’d been informed that he had Resting Bitch Face and tended to look intimidating, which certainly didn’t help in his quest for new friends. Of course, now he wasn’t resting and his expression was probably a combination of anger and shock, but the principle remained.
“Who are you?” Tobias roared. He didn’t have anything near at hand to use as a weapon, but it appeared as if the intruder was also unarmed.
The man curled into a fetal ball, arms over his face, and said, “No, please no.”
That brought Tobias to a sudden halt, as did his realization that the man was injured. Bright blood stained his leg and was forming a small puddle on the floor. A wave of dizziness hit Tobias at the sight of it, and he growled at himself to focus on the real emergency instead of giving in to a stupid phobia.
Had the man cut himself breaking in? Tobias glanced around, but as far as he could tell the windows were intact and the front door was closed and chained. There were no signs of intrusion at all, except for the intruder himself.
It occurred to Tobias that a 911 call was in order. But he’d left his phone in the kitchen and wasn’t inclined to let the bleeding stranger out of his sight. He couldn’t just stand there like a dumb statue either, of course. So, feigning confidence and control, he stomped closer. “Who are you?” he demanded. “What are you doing here?”
The man simply cowered.
After another moment of hesitation—and a lurch in his stomach due to the blood—Tobias knelt beside him. “Hey,” he said, and touched the man’s shoulder.
“No!” The man scrambled away and tried to get to his feet but cried out and collapsed again. “Please don’t,” he rasped when Tobias carefully approached.
While Tobias was still experiencing a maelstrom of emotions, and while the blood was still mighty unsettling, his concern for the terrifiedstranger was now foremost. As far as Tobias could tell, he had no weapon and certainly didn’t look as if he could physically overpower Tobias. Not only was he injured, but he was also shorter than Tobias and much more slight.Delicatewas the descriptor that came to mind.
Tobias crept closer but this time didn’t try to touch. He spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “I won’t hurt you. But your leg…. Let me call an ambulance for you. Or take you to the hospital.”
“Please. Don’t give me to snorkel. Just… just kill me.”
