The whole thing was intriguing, just like Evie, but I hadn’t had a chance to look it up yet to see what the buzz was about, and there was a lot of talk about it, that’s for sure.
Apparently, the channel had five million subscribers, according to Tabby, and both women and men watched it, either using it to destress after a shitty day or to pick up tips for things. She’d explained what they did on it, but none of it made sense to me, so I’d have to watch it at some point to get it.
But with my history and the shit going on inside me, I really shouldn’t be involving myself like I’d done today. I just couldn’t help it. I couldn’t turn a blind eye to either her or Cody, and I desperately wanted to help the soon-to-be teenager. I guess wounded attracted wounded.
So, I sat through breakfast and listened to Cody tell me about his latest game and how he had an army made up of gamers from all over the world. That bit concerned me because there’s no way he’d met them in person, and I knew from my ex how shitty and deceitful people could be online.
Still, watching him as he described it all to me, from the game to the people, it was hard not to smile and get involved with asking questions and following him through when he said he’d show me it all.
That led to a discussion in which I discovered how smart the kid was, as in fucking smart. I was sure he was well ahead of where he should be at his age, and that just endeared him to me even more.
Making a mental note to discuss him with my son and daughter-in-law to get advice on things that would stimulate his brain, entertain him, and give him confidence, I thanked him and Evie for breakfast and jumped back over my fence to finish cutting the grass.
It was one and a half hours out of my day off that I genuinely didn’t mind spending the way I had, and I couldn’t stop thinking about them as I did all of the things that needed to be done around my house.
She left an hour after it, waving at me and driving off like she was in a hurry to get to where she was going. I knew she had today and tomorrow off, so maybe she was trying to get shit done like me?
I heard her come back an hour later and unload her car, and hoped that Cody was helping her, but I made myself stay inside the house so that I didn’t look like I was interfering.
I also needed to think about what’d happened today, maybe even dissect it slightly to understand it more. I had a habit of overthinking things and pulling them apart into tiny pieces, but my brain worked better when I did that. It also was a mandatory requirement for my job, so I didn’t normally see it as an issue.
I ended up falling asleep while I watched a movie in bed, wondering if I’d ever get a night where I could just do it with silence around me and peace in my heart.
Sadly, it was unlikely.
“Oh, you little feathered asshole,” I heard Evie hiss as I walked across my backyard to her fence, with my dog, Bernice, tailing me the whole way.
As a Great Dane, she was huge and looked intimidating, but her personality was hilarious. She was what was called a sarcastic bitch, constantly giving you looks that screamed dumb ass when you did something and then setting you up to look like a dick the rest of the time.
Just last week, the UPS guy had knocked on my door with a package just as I got out of the shower. Because she was twenty minutes late for her bone, Bernice waited until I’d opened the door, and then she’d yanked my towel off and ran away with it.
I’d apologized while I used the package to cover my package, and then with me swearing death and dog fur rugs as I stormed over to where she was, she’d given me the puppy eyes and rolled onto her back.
My dog was an asshole, but I loved her. She was also an excellent guard dog, who’d been well trained. As far as freedom gifts to yourself went after you moved and found yours, she was one of the best.
And at that moment, she was focused on the swearing, hissing, and weird noises coming from Evie’s backyard, her ears in the air and her muscles tense at whatever was going on.
I didn’t blame her—it sounded like my neighbor was having issues.
I was about five feet away from the waist-high fence when there was a screech.
“Leave me alone!” Evie’s words came out broken and were followed with what sounded like something crashing through the bushes on her side. “I’ll fry you up, you little asshole. Oh, my God, that was my ankle. Stop biting me!”