Daniel
Alexis hadn’t been out to see me since last weekend when she came with her friends, but we talked every day for hours.
I liked her. I liked her so much, it wasn’t even funny.
The sex was unreal, she was smart and beautiful, and I loved hanging out with her. I hadn’t felt like this in such a long time, I couldn’t even remember being this into someone. Maybe I never had been.
My entire life was now reduced to two things. Raising the money to buy the house and trying to get Alexis to come see me. I’d go see her if it wasn’t for the first thing.
I was working myself to the bone.
When I wasn’t dealing with guests or the house repairs I’d promised Amber, I was working in the garage on the pieces I was trying to finish. I was exhausted.
Today was the first day in a week that I was giving myself a day off, treating myself to a breakfast I didn’t have to cook before I headed over to Doug’s to help him with stuff on the farm. I should probably have just backed out and told him I had too much work to do at home—which I did. But I needed the change. And being outside and with my friends was a nice break, even if I’d be doing manual labor the whole time.
I was at Jane’s in a booth waiting for the guys. I was a little early, so I called Alexis. She answered on the second ring.
“Daniel, I can’t talk right now. I’m having an emergency.” She sounded like she was crying.
I sat up. “Are you okay?”
She sniffed. “No. Not really. The power is out, so the coffeemaker won’t work.”
I barked out a laugh.
“This is not funny! It’s been two hours and I have to go to work.”
“Okay. This is serious. You should probably drink all the vodka before it goes bad.”
“Daniel!”
I chuckled. “Okay, okay. I think I can help. Is your oven gas or electric?”
“I think it’s gas.”
“You think?”
“I don’t coooook,” she said miserably.
I grinned. “If it’s gas, it should work, even if the power’s out. You can boil water and use a French press if you have one.”
“I only have a Keurig.”
“Can you just get in the car and go to a coffee shop?”
“I tried. The garage door won’t open. No power,” she said, defeated. “I’m trapped.”
The way she breathed the last word made me move the phone away from my mouth to laugh.
“Pull the emergency release,” I said, smiling.
“There’s an emergency release?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying not to crack up. “There is. Go in there, and I’ll tell you how to open it.”
“This is how you die in the zombie apocalypse,” she said with wonder. “I always thought it would be an infected zombie bite or exposure or something, but it’s this. You get a caffeine headache on the first day and you lose your will to live and you just lie down and they eat you.”
I laughed. “In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I promise I will not let you get eaten.”
“How? You’re not here.”
“I’d come get you. I’d put together a recovery team. You’re a doctor. You’re a high-value acquisition. Doug bet me a hundred bucks I couldn’t get the best Zompac squad, I need you.”
She laughed weakly.
I heard a door open. “Okay, I’m in here.”
“All right. You might need a ladder. Look for the motor. It’s a small box on the ceiling in the middle of the garage. It’s attached to a metal runner that pulls the door up. There’s a little string hanging down from it. You see it?”
“Yeah.”
“You pull that and then you can lift the door from the bottom and open it.”
There was a quiet pause. “Daniel, you’re my hero.”
“Well, thank you. But I think the standard’s a little low.”
She paused. “I hate that I don’t know things.”
“How many bones are there in the human body?”
“Two hundred and six,” she said without skipping a beat.
“Which one’s your favorite?”
“I like the hyoid bone. It’s basically free floating and no one talks about it.” She sniffed. “It’s very underrated.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I think you’re doing okay.”
She laughed, and I heard the garage door open.
“Why is the power out?” I asked, nodding at Popeye shuffling in.
“I don’t know.”