Page 61 of The Mystery of the Moving Image
“I’m trying to help.”
“Helping never helps,” Neil answered.
“You should be a motivational speaker,” I replied.
Neil shook his head. “I’d nearly forgotten what a salty son of a bitch you could be.”
“You started it.”
A chuckle came from an unaccounted-for voice. I’d missed the bell over the front door entirely and was surprised to see Lee Straus, in another good-looking suit, standing not too far away.
He held up a hand. “I’m sorry for interrupting. You guys are funny.”
Neil and I looked at each other.
“A real riot,” Neil muttered, deadpan.
Lee made a beeline for me, forcing Neil to take a step out of the way. “I don’t mean to be a bother two days in a row.”
“Oh. Uh—no.” I glanced at Neil and then back at Lee. I noticed he had a lanyard with a custom design around his neck and an ID card hanging from it. It stood out against his light-colored suit. I squinted a bit to make out—ah, his teacher’s badge, I thought it was. With a motif of a sun rising over a hill? Not a school logo I was familiar with. “It’s fine. Did you need something?”
“Calvin isn’t here, is he?” Lee absently tucked the badge into his breast pocket.
“He’s at work.”
“I felt I came on a little strong yesterday,” Lee continued. “Seeing Calvin was a bit of a shock. He all but vanished when we got out of the Army. I couldn’t even find him through his family. We saw a lot. Together. I’ve always been a little worried about his transition to civilian life.”
It’s not that I disliked Lee as a human being. If Calvin had kept his company, he must have been okay. It was that I disliked Lee as a—a guy. He’d been out of the picture for far too long, and yet spoke like he and Calvin were still tight as hell. I mean, I got it. He was possessive, a bit jealous, and definitely offended that he was him and I was me and Calvin chose Frumpy Dumpy Sebastian Snow. But he wasn’t sorry for how strong he had come on.
He was there to rub salt in my wounds.
“A lot of the guys used to say he was heartless—nothing shook him. But that isn’t always a valuable skill in the real world,” Lee murmured.
I remembered one of the photographs Calvin kept hidden in a box. Of him in uniform, dirty and missing his helmet, holding a crying child.
“Heartless is going out of style here in New York,” I replied. “Mr. Invincible is more popular these days.”
Lee smiled. “Yeah? Suits him.” He made a flippant gesture with his hand. “Anyway. He seems happy with you, so I wanted to give my blessing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I wasn’t aware I needed your approval.”
Okay, maybe that came off a bit dickish.
My choice in words didn’t seem to bother Lee. “Calvin used to be my boy—well, we used to see each other.”
Over Lee’s shoulder, Neil slowly leaned into my line of sight.
“It was pretty serious,” Lee continued.
Neil had an eyebrow raised as he made eye contact with me. I could almost hear him asking, “Want me to butt in?”
It was nice of him.
I took a deep breath and gave Lee a fake smile. “What’s past is past.”
Lee met my fakeness. “I suppose so.”
Neil cleared his throat. “Mr. Snow and I were discussing business.”
