Page 46 of Nightcrawler

“Believe it or not, I got this at Trader Joe’s and if I told you how much I paid for it, you’d laugh.”

“No—” he said, picking up the empty bottle to read the label. He looked up at me. “Two-Buck Chuck?”

I nodded as I laughed. I’d always loved the inexpensive wine from my favorite market. I’d been buying it for two dollars a bottle for at least a decade, ever since one of my high school friends had turned me on to it. More than two decades ago, Fred Franzia at Bronco Wine Co. had partnered with Trader Joe’s and they’d sold thousands of cases of the delicious red wine with the Charles Shaw label. I had nearly a whole box in the garage. I topped up the wine glasses and took them to the coffee table to set them down before following him out the front door.

He walked to the bed of his truck and I looked in, surprised at the meager number of boxes and even more surprised at the very large footlocker. “Is that all of it?” I immediately regretted the words when he turned to look at me and sighed.

“Yeah, that’s the extent of my life, packed in five small boxes and a footlocker. Sad, isn’t it?”

“I-I didn’t mean—”

He walked over and put his hands on my shoulders, looking into my eyes. “It’s okay. I know. Money’s been short lately. There are clothes, though.” He smiled and walked over to indicate the back seat of his truck which was piled high with clothes on hangars. There was one garment bag of good quality lovingly draped over the rest.

“As it so happens, I have a coat rack still in a box in the garage. It should hold everything, but it’ll have to be put together,” I told him. “I picked it up in a secondhand store, still in the box. Hopefully all the pieces are there.”

“No problem.”

“Hang on a minute. Let me open the garage door.” I glanced around for the kitten to make sure he wouldn’t get out and finding him nowhere in sight, walked back inside and through to the garage using the opener on the wall. It slowly rolled opento find Miguel standing outside on the drive, holding a box. He made me sit the move out due to my injuries and brought them all in, stacking them neatly in an open spot against a wall.

I busied myself by finding the coat rack. I assembled it while he carried his clothes on hangars from the truck. When it was standing, I stood back, looking at it in relief. All the pieces had been there, and I felt a little triumphant as I looked at the metal rack on wheels. After everything was hanging, he turned and looked out at the truck, clearing his throat.

“I…ah…can’t lift the footlocker from the truck by myself. It’s got a heavy-duty padlock on it. Is it safe enough in this neighborhood to leave it overnight?”

I nodded. “Yes, don’t worry about it. It’s really a very safe neighborhood. In fact, one of the L.A. city council members lives just down the street, so the cops patrol this place frequently.”

“That’s good to know. I guess you were right about taking our earlier confrontation with Ned into the house, seeing as how your neighbors probably wouldn’t have appreciated fights on the front lawn,” he said.

“No, they wouldn’t.” I smiled. “Our gardener comes in the morning. He can help you move it then.”

“Sounds good,” he said.

“Now, how about that wine.”

He nodded, and I caught the barest of smiles as his mouth turned up at the corners. “Sure. That sounds great.”

We went into the house and closed up the garage before he followed me to the couch. I slipped out of the moccasins I’d been wearing all night, ignoring the fact that he was wearing boots on my grandmother’s hardwood floors. I’d mention thatfaux pasto him in the morning since she didn’t allow shoes on the floorsbecause they tended to scuff the wood. That rule didn’t apply to guests. Though, using the word guest didn’t seem right to use for Miguel. The warm feeling in my chest when I thought about him staying longer than one or two nights, felt right. I sat down with him, side by side, half facing each other and leaning back against the soft cushions of the couch. I picked up my wineglass and took a sip.

“I take it, it’s Ned’s night off?”

I almost choked on the wine in my mouth and reached up to brush the back of my hand over my lips as I looked over at him.

“You okay there?” he asked as he took a sip of the delicious red.

“Sorry…surprised me, that’s all. Actually…I fired Ned today.” He opened his mouth to respond when Stanley suddenly made an appearance by jumping up on the arm of my sofa. “Aww, there you are.” I held out my hand and the kitten immediately rushed across the couch to meet it, rubbing his face all over it. I grinned. The sweet little guy liked me.

“He’s going to be a nuisance,” Miguel said.

I glanced over at him as I picked up the kitten, nuzzling my nose into his side as his purring started up. “What? No way. Let me just put him in the bedroom. He’ll be fine.”

“The litter box!” Miguel said, suddenly seeming to remember the lapse. He rose from the couch and went out to the garage where I’d seen him set it down with the boxes. He was back in a minute. I was waiting for him with Stanley in my arms and led him down the hall to the guest bedroom where I deposited the kitten on the ground. The moment Miguel set down the litter box, the kitten immediately jumped into it and began to do his thing. I backed out of the room with Miguel at my side and closed the door. I met his eyes. “So…back to our wine?”

Miguel smiled. “Yes.”

We walked back to the living room and settled on the couch before picking up our glasses again. “So, where were we?”

“You were about to tell me about firing Ned,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.

“Oh, don’t worry, it won’t keep me from going out to meet Mike and Cassidy with you in the morning. I called the agency and they’re sending a new nurse first thing.”

---