Page 99 of Alfie: Part Two

Now I could eavesdrop.

Once Alfie was out the door, I headed for the living room, which was now packed with boxes of Christmas decorations. He’d brought them down from the attic a couple of hours ago, and we’d decided to be lazy and hire someone to come over and put it all up. It wouldn’t be our first time.

I spotted Alfie and Colby closer to the garage, so I went with the window in the corner of the room, and I opened it carefully and hid behind the drapes.

“No, I just wanted to have a word without the acid trip interfering with her brilliance,” Alfie was saying. “I’ll make it short because it’s cold as fuck.”

“All right…?”

“I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday,” Alfie went on. “I took advantage of my position, and it was a shit move on my part. You were just following Eric’s orders.”

I smiled and folded my arms over my chest.

“It’s okay,” Colby said. “I probably woulda done the same thing.”

“Doesn’t matter. If Eric had been in the room, he would’ve punched me.”

“Aight,” Colby chuckled quietly. “Did everything work out?”

“Life’s good—I’ll say that much.”

I caught some movement, and they were slowly walking toward the door.

“By the way,” Alfie went on. “As you know, we’re moving in a few months. Let’s keep this between you and me—but when West asks if you’d want a room in the house instead of another guest apartment above the garage, can you do me a solid and pick the room?”

Oh, that little fucker! That was supposed to be Colby’s choice, for chrissakes. I’d told Alfie this today at lunch, and he’d promised we’d bring it up with Colby together.

“I don’t get it,” Colby replied. “Ain’it better I stay in the apartment? I don’t wanna step on any toes, man.”

I stiffened as unease gripped my chest from the inside. He couldn’t fucking think?—

“Uh, let’s not get shit twisted hea, buddy,” Alfie said. “We’dpreferit if you were in the house. But we realize a teenager like you probably wants space.”

Yes, that.

Colby chuckled again, but it sounded awkward. “I’ve had space all my life…”

Ouch. I rubbed a hand over my jaw and felt like a goddamn idiot.

Alfie cleared his throat. “Then fuck space.” Well said. “We were tryna respect your boundaries, but say no more. It’s zero space from now on.”

I pinched my lips together and grinned. Sometimes, his lack of finesse still brought out the best responses.

“I’ll spell it out for you, kid. You’re family. We’re thrilled you’ve grown closer with JJ and his wife, but we wanna be your home. We wanna see you at dinner every night, and we’ll bitch at’chu if you stay out past curfew.”

The best responses.

I’d heard enough, so I quietly closed the window and returned to the kitchen.

Maybe they were having another moment outside, because they didn’t come in until I was halfway done setting the table. The rice was finished, the sauce was almost done, and I’d shut off the oven. I just had to take out the chicken.

Given the new topic between Alfie and Colby—hockey—I made sure to come off as casual. I’d let the boy know I felt the same way Alfie did later, though in a way that didn’t reveal I’d been a snoop.

I wasn’t brand-new.

Once the chicken was out, I poured the sauce over the dish, and Trip trailed into the kitchen and asked why our stockings weren’t up yet.

“Everything will be up next week, champ,” Alfie promised. “We gotta buy a stocking for Colby too.”

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