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“Come out and stop me.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “You don’t have my mail, do you?”
“Sure I do. I’ve got one letter addressed to Nicole Rossi. Do you want to know who sent it?”
I took a long breath. “No. Just don’t open it, whatever it is.”
“It looks personal. It even has a kiss on it—in hot sauce no less. The red kind. Ouch. That had to be painful.”
“You’re making that up.”
“No, I’m not. I wrote it.”
Now I really didn’t want him to read it. “I have to go.”
“Sure you do. I’ll leave the tacos here, but before you go, do you want to tell me about the Notice of Default that’s nailed beside the door here?”
My heart stopped. “No.”
“Okay. You know I could help if you’d let me, Nickels.”
“That’s taken care of. It’s a mistake. They meant it for the house a few doors north.”
My stomach lurched at the memory of Bad Boy Billy’s visit. I was going to lose Casa di Rossi in two months. “I’ve got to go.”
Rustling sounds came from the other side of the door. “Later, gator.”
“Later,” I said before I went upstairs to watch him leave.
* * *
Josh
I downedthe last of my glass. “I’ll take another,” I told Reggie behind the bar.
Reggie and I had become good friends in the last few days.
Once I’d told him his place was close enough for me to walk home, he’d stopped cutting me off and was happy trading money for scotch. And, he stocked the good stuff.
He poured me another round.
“What do you think I should do?” I asked him again.
“Keep talking to her and wear her down.” It was one of his four stock answers. He seemed to rotate them around randomly. It washisway of wearing me down, I guessed.
I peered into my glass, but nothing of help revealed itself. “I’ve been doing that, and it’s not working.”
I’d go over every afternoon and stand outside Nicole’s front door to talk to her.
She’d listen for a few minutes and then say the same words: “It can’t work between us, Josh. Go away and live your life.”
I’d tell her again that she didn’t understand, and then she’d go upstairs.
Eventually Constance or Winston would tell me to leave because Nicole was done listening.
I’d go home.
I’d given up calling, so I’d text her.
