Page 27 of Trial Run

“Tomorrow I’m going to Carla’s house, right?” he asked. Their neighbor watched him on the weekend days Nell worked at the coffee shop, in exchange for Nell helping clean her house a few hours a week.

“That’s right. I’m making everyone in the city their coffee tomorrow morning.” She reached out and smoothed the hair away from his forehead. How much longer would he let her do that? “But Sunday is our day together this weekend.”

“And we’ll go to the park and look for rocks.” His brown eyes reflected the dim light of the night light as they searched her face.

“Yes. We can go Sunday.”

“We’re going to find a geode,” he said, a hundred percent sure of the fact.

They probably wouldn’t find a geode. He’d have to be disappointed by life sooner or later, but holding off that disappointment as long as possible for him was part of her job as a mom.

“I hope you’re right. And goodnight.”

“Goodnight. We’ll find one. You’ll see.” He turned over on his side and pulled the covers up to his chin.

Nell slipped out of the room, leaving his door cracked open. Downstairs, she folded two loads of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, and swept the cracked linoleum of her kitchen floor. Her landlord should replace the floor soon, but he wouldn’t.

She moved on to her evening plant care routine. She added one ice cube to each orchid pot, so the plants would receive a slow drip of water, then removed dead leaves from her philodendrons and misted them with water. The expensive bird’s nest fern she’d brought home from the flower shop was still drooping, though. Jackie had over-watered the sensitive plant until it almost died. Nell had brought it home like a stray cat, but she’d return it to the shop when it recovered.

“Come on, Oscar,” she told the plant. “Let’s try you by the other window and see if that’s better.” She carried the fern from the dining room to the living room and set it on the windowsill. Lifting the edges of the plant, she checked the bottom of the pot, where she’d added some gravel to help the soil drain.

Exhaustion from the long day caught up with her and she sank onto the couch. She dug through her purse for the check from Amy and deposited it into her bank account using her bank app. Then she wrote out a check for next month’s rent and tucked it into her wallet. She’d give it to Eddy tomorrow morning.

She’d never been ahead on rent payments. Not once in six years. For now, at least, she and Marco were safe. Thanks to Ben.

She’d put off texting him ever since they’d gotten home, but she’d said she would let him know when they’d finished the deliveries. She pulled up his name in her contacts, opened a message thread, and typed a text. She typed and then deleted a smiley face emoji. He was probably one of those people who used perfect grammar and punctuation in all his texts.

Her thumb hovered over the send button. Was 10:00 p.m. too late to text? Before she could analyze it any more, she hit send.

Deliveries all finished this afternoon.

Right away, three dots appeared on the screen. They flashed and disappeared several times. After a minute, she received a short reply.

Glad to hear it.

Thank you for the geode you gave Marco. He loves it.

He’s very welcome.

She watched the open message thread until the phone screen went black, then set the device on the couch cushion next to her.

That rock probably meant nothing to Ben. He’d brought it along on a whim to show her son. It didn’t mean anything, and she shouldn’t feel any way about it at all—

Her phone buzzed with another text.

Do you want to see my clinic? I’d like to show it to you. Tomorrow, maybe?

Nell stared at the message for a moment before typing her reply. Did she want to see him again, not to pay off her debt to him, but just because she wanted to? Yes, she did.

I’d like to see it. You haven’t been there in person for a while, right?

No. But I’m ready to go back. If you wouldn’t mind driving one more time?

It wasn’t a date. It was just her giving him a ride, like she’d been doing all week. It didn’t mean anything, and maybe she’d get some closure, so she could stop thinking about how unhappy he’d looked when she dropped him off this afternoon.

I have to work tomorrow.But I could pick you up after. 4:00?

4:00 will work. Thank you for driving.

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