Page 122 of As The Shifter World Turns

“You just worked too hard,” I told myself and went to the fridge for a beer. If there ever was a beer day, today was it.

I managed to mess up an order of paper, getting in a kind that didn’t work in our copier, I missed a meeting, and my favorite moment of the day, I spilled a cup of coffee in my lap.

If any day deserved a do-over, it was today. Since do-overs weren’t available, a tall brew would have to do.

I opened the fridge and the bottle of beer I had left in the door wasn’t there. I hadn’t drunk it, that was for sure. I remembered clearly putting it there when I broke down the cardboard carrier it came in the night before.

Opening the cabinet under the sink, the cardboard sat there ready to be recycled. I thought maybe I put the beer there as well. It would’ve been skunked, but the mystery would be solved.

“No one breaks in to steal a beer,” I said to myself. “Not the shitty kind I had, anyway.” It was a seasonal ale that tried too hard. If it came around in next year’s offerings, I’d be very surprised.

“Cola it is.” I went back to the fridge to grab the cola and behind it was the beer.

I did not put it there.

Except I did. The only thing more ridiculous than thinking someone broke in to steal a crappy beer was thinking that someone was breaking in to play a game of move the beer.

Still, it was better safe than sorry. I took out my phone again.Can you have someone look at my lock? It’s acting funny.

Daire sent back a message that he would. The lock probably didn’t need it. No. It definitely didn’t need it, but it would make me feel better—protect me from the non-existent beer mover.

If only it didn’t feel like someone had been in here.

I went to the window, opening it to air out the place. Maybe it was just the heat kicking on for the first time and all the stale air of the past warm season being pushed through the vents which made everything off.

“I can’t believe that,” Kellan’s voice wafted through my window. Why couldn’t I ever get away from that asshole?

He came into view, Seb at his side. Gods, I hated Seb, too. It was bad enough he was friends with Kellan knowing full well how Kellan was, but his violent tendencies—fuck that. Sunshine Manor didn’t need that. Not with kids now a part of the community, Toby here and Elune in the next street. Those kids deserved better.

We all deserved better.

I pulled up a group chat of the building and typed:Building meeting at Daire’s in ten.And hit send. The only person not on the list was Seb and good freaking riddance.

Everyone showed up, Toby playing outside where we could see him from the window. He was at that age where he was old enough to get some freedoms, but not quite old enough not to be supervised. Playing in the garden was a good option. We even opened the windows a crack allowing us to hear him if he called.

Not one person in the room was any too happy that I asked them here, especially Ivor. I didn’t blame him. Everything that went down between us sucked. But he had texted me saying he’d convinced everyone in the buildingthat Kellan had lied about me cheating on him. And that made life a little more bearable for me.

“Why did you call a meeting? Is it about the lock?” Daire asked.

“No. It’s not.” Or at least I didn’t think so. No. They couldn’t be connected. I pushed that thought out of my head. I could recognize Kellan’s scent anywhere. It used to make me hard and now it made me want to puke. There was no hiding it.

“I’m calling this meeting because I want to add Kellan to the official ban list.” Did we have one of those? If not we needed one. All places did.

“He’s done nothing wrong but be an asshole, which he was when he lived here,” Daire reminded me.

“No. It’s more than that. He’s here stirring the shit pot and dragging Seb into it as well. Remember my black eye?” I reminded them.

“That was Seb, not Kellan,” Martin said. He hadn’t been here through the Kellan bullshit and from where he sat that probably sounded really logical. And in a way it was. Seb had a violent tendency. Maybe they should both be banned, but Seb had a lease. Banning him would be a very different conversation.

“I agree with Ryder,” Ivor raised his voice. “Kellan’s a liar. And even if he wasn’t, we all agreed this place was better without him even when Ryder was still looking at him like he hung the freaking moon. The guy is trouble. And truthfully, so is Seb but he’s a resident. Kellan is not. He has no reason to be here.”

“My dad?” Toby’s voice echoed through the window. “Why do you want to know where my dad is?” He was letting us know he needed us. What a clever boy. We hadn’t heard him at all until then.

Martin was at the window, opening it wide. “I’m in a Sunshine Manor meeting. What do you need, Seb?” Oops, now Seb would know he’d been excluded.

Martin leaned back and said for our benefit, “He’s running inside.” He focused back on Toby. “Do you want to come in, son?”

“Naw, I'm good. Thanks for hearing me.”

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