Page 11 of Double Delivery
He let out a long, frustrated growl. “Just don’t laugh.”
“No promises.”
“Ass…” He sighed. “I delivered to the house with the moving truck today.”
“Ollie?” I asked.
I felt his eyes on me, though I didn’t tear my gaze away from his phone.
“Yeah. Did you deliver there too?”
“Today was the first time. What about it?”
There was a slight pause. “Did he seem ok when you were there?”
I blinked as I started tapping my name on his phone. “Seemed ok to me. Why?”
A longer pause, then his voice was serious enough that I turned to look at him.
“He was ok at first,” he explained. “Then, out of nowhere, he was pale and stumbling.”
“Shit. Was he ok?”
Axel nodded. “I waited several minutes, trying to decide if I needed to call a wellness check for him. I ended up contacting dispatch, and they followed up with a customer service call. They said he sounded fine.”
I sighed in relief. “Good.”
Another nod. “Yeah, but I don’t want to do that again. We’re usually close enough that I thought…”
He paused, but I understood what he meant.
“Maybe we can check for each other?”
“Yeah.”
“No problem.” I punched in my number and handed back his phone.
Axel grunted something that sounded like ‘thanks’, and a moment later, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
“That you?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll add you to my contacts later.”
“‘K.”
Silence fell between us as he picked up his beer and took a long pull. Then the thunk as he set it on the bar again.
“You know I’m going to spam you with memes and dirty jokes now, right?” I teased.
“Oh, fuck you,” Axel huffed.
I laughed, then stared at my own beer. “It gets lonely out there sometimes, yeah? I mean… we talk to people all day, but it’s a minute here and a minute there.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never had a scare bad enough that I thought I’d need to call in police for a wellness check, but…” I paused and took a swig of beer. “I think this is the right call. We may work for rival companies, but can have each other’s backs. Make it feel… not so alone out there.”
