Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Fifteen minutes later, I fell into bed freshly showered, wearing a clean T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. I’d taken a bunch of ibuprofen, but it didn’t eliminate the pain in my knees, elbow, or ankle. I was so tired that I almost fell asleep anyway—until the straight couple next door started having sex.
He kept shouting, “Yeah, baby, yeah,” like he was Austin Powers or some shit, while she started screaming, “Yes, Daddy!” That scintillating bit of dialog was punctuated by their headboard slamming into the wall so hard that I half-expected them to come crashing through it.
Not to be outdone, the people across the hall started blasting some truly vile death metal. As loud as it was, it didn’t manage to drown out the fornicators.
I pulled the pillow over my head and summed it all up with three words. “Fuck my life.”
5
Jack
I spent the next week trying to catch the mini weasel who had Reno’s watch. I’d learned three things about the kid—his nickname was Buzz, he lived somewhere on the fourth floor, and he was Satan incarnate, though to be fair, the third thing wasn’t really news to me.
Since the stairs were so tough on my ankle, I decided to lie in wait and moved a chair onto the third floor landing. I almost caught the little jerk on day one, and that was when I discovered he was actually wearing the watch. Lord knew how he kept it from sliding off his scrawny wrist. I also couldn’t figure out why no one had mugged him for it in this shitty neighborhood, though everyone probably assumed it was a fake.
He'd slipped out of my grasp like a greased pig when I lunged at him. Then he’d grinned and flipped me off with both hands before turning and running back down the stairs. I didn’t try running after him because I knew I had zero chance of catching him, with or without a bum ankle. He was a fast little shit.
The next day, the building manager asked me what I was doing when he saw me camped out on the landing. I was dumb enough to tell him I was waiting for an eleven-year-old boy, and another tenant overheard me. Now the whole building thought I was a pervert. It was surprising they hadn’t all banded together and come after me with pitch forks and torches. I was definitely moving, right after I got that watch back.
After a couple more days, I was thoroughly demoralized. The kid had discovered some way of getting to his apartment without using the stairs. I knew that because I kept hearing his hyena-like laughter echoing down from the fourth floor, taunting me.
That was when I decided I needed some help, so I hired the drunk guy who hung out in the lobby to watch for Buzz and call me if he spotted him. I didn’t think he had the wherewithal to mug the boy for the watch. Apparently he didn’t have it together enough to call me, either, so that went nowhere.
On Friday, I sprawled out on my twin bed, stared at the big water stain on the ceiling for a while, and found myself wishing I was back at the pink Victorian. My time there had pretty much ruined me. I used to be okay on my own, more or less, but now I was sad and lonely.
That wasn’t okay, though. I had to get used to being by myself again. I’d be leaving this city sooner rather than later, and no matter where I landed next, I’d be all alone.
So, instead of texting JoJo and inviting myself over, I rolled out of bed and got dressed. I went with my second-best suit, since I’d ruined the best one the night I’d run from Reno. It was a nice marina blue number that wasn’t custom-made, but it had been tailored to fit well and I felt good in it.
Then I went into the bathroom and spent some time styling my hair, while I tried to decide on tonight’s objective. I didn’t want to go home with anyone, that was for damn sure. Mostly, I just wanted to sit in a clean, comfortable bar, eat pub food, and drink too much. I also wanted to be around people, without actually interacting with them. Basically, I wanted to be people-adjacent.
I called a cab, then slowly made my way downstairs, since my ankle still wasn’t a hundred percent. At the same time, I browsed for bars on my phone and found one that seemed promising, as long as it wasn’t perpetrating any crimes against humanity like karaoke night.
Best of all, I’d never been there before, so the probability of running into someone I’d screwed over in the past was low. That was always a good thing, but especially tonight. I was off my game and just really wanted an uneventful evening.