I have the house to myself this weekend, as Vicky is off to Elm Grove again to spend time with her nieces. So I work later than usual, until after eight o’clock, before starting my routine run from the law school to Wicker Park. To the alley outside Viva Mediterránea. To the alley behind Christian Newsome’s condo.
I suit up, leaving my blue jeans and button-down hanging on the back of my office door, throwing on running pants and shoes, a high-neck top with ski cap. The temps are in the mid-forties with no precipitation, perfect running conditions, if you discount the occasional difficulties navigating these populated city streets in the dark.
Viva’s patio is almost vacant, despite the heat lamps blowing and the city allowing restaurants to keep their outside areas open late into the year, a remnant of the COVID era. Only a handful of people are braving the elements, drinking cocktails in their heavy coats.
Usually, I make sure I reach the alley in Wicker Park by 8:00 p.m. for the nightly text messages. But we don’t text on Friday nights or the weekends. The phones stay off from Friday morning to Monday morning. I’m not here for texting.
No, I just wanted to get a good look at Christian’s place.
The front of his building on Winchester is fenced, but it’s not a security gate, just something to keep the dogs away from the small garden out front. Up the stairs is the front door, a secured door with a buzzer. In the alley are the garages. Christian’s garage is third from the end, directly beneath his condo. The garage is controlled by an automatic door, like most are, which is surprisingly secure.
Still, that’s the better point of entry. Certainly the less visible one, given the poorly lit alley. And unless you’re going in and out of that garage while patrons are out on Viva’s back patio, there aren’t likely to be too many people hanging around back there.
That’s how Vicky comes in when she visits. She doesn’t walk up to the front door, stand under a light, buzz, and take the stairs up. No, she enters in the shadows, through the garage, without having to ever see a neighbor.
What are you doing tonight, Christian, with Vicky away? Are you and your buddy Gavin out drinking and carousing?
Mind if I take a look around your condo?
Nah. Not tonight, at least. Maybe later.
49
Vicky
“It’s good you’re here. They like it when you’re here.” Adam hands me a glass of pinot, as we watch his daughters, my nieces, Mariah and Macy, the M&Ms, finish up a game of one-on-one basketball in the driveway.
“I like it, too.” I zip up my coat to my chin. I just wish it wasn’t so cold.
“Still okay with moving in with us?”
“Still okay if you’re okay,” I say. “November. Maybe Thanksgiving-ish.” I look at Adam. He’s just hitting forty, with a hint of gray creeping in at the temples. Adam Tremont is the all-American boy, the thick head of hair and big smile, full of good cheer, someone who grew up with money and basically seemed to have life right where he wanted it. He and my sister, Monica, were the Perfect Couple, Barbie and Ken, handsome and charismatic, bubbling with energy and positive vibes. It was enough to make me puke most of the time, when I wasn’t busy resenting Monica for her good fortune.
Adam met Monica in college, at Madison, and swept her off her feet. In a good way. Adam is the real deal.
“Last night,” he says, “Macy asked me if she looked like Mommy.”
“She does,” I say. “Mariah more so. When Mariah was younger, she looked like you. But now that she’s growing up, that face? That’s Monica.”
“I know. It kinda freaks me out.”
Me, too. It can be shocking sometimes, to see the face of my sister again in her daughters, to be reminded of the woman I didn’t do enough to help.
I elbow him. “You getting out there at all?”
“Hm.” He finishes a sip of his wine and shakes his head. “You mean like dating?”
“I mean ‘like dating.’”
“Oh . . . a grand total of two dates. Nothing serious.”
Mariah, the elder at age thirteen, swats away a shot from Macy, three years younger. Macy claims that’s “no fair” because Mariah is older and taller.
“They’ll understand, y’know,” I tell him. “It might be a little weird or awkward, but they can handle it.”
“I’m not sure I can,” he says. “This online dating stuff? It’s freakin’ nuts. It’s not for me. If I ever do it, it’s gonna be the old-fashioned way.”