I sighed and looked away. I had no clue how to answer that. What did make him so special? He was hot, definitely, but it was way more than that. There was this indefinable part of him, some impossible-to-pin-down presence.
“I honestly don’t know. He’s hot, he’s successful, and he takes care of his little brother. There’s just something about him.”
She nodded and paused. “How hot?”
I laughed. “That’s all you got from that?”
“Yeah, but I mean, how hot are we talking here?”
“I don’t know. One-night stand hot, I guess.”
She whistled. “Coming from you, that’s a big deal.”
I laughed, and she grinned at me as we approached the ice cream store. I ordered a small vanilla cone, and Chelsea ordered a cherry water ice and vanilla ice cream gelato. We walked half a block away from the store and sat down on an abandoned building’s front stoop, eating together.
“How’s work been?” I asked.
“You know, the usual bullshit. Lawyers are all assholes, except for the cute ones, and they make me stay way too late every night. What about you?”
I shrugged. “It’s pretty good, actually. Aside from how gross kids are, I guess.”
She made a face. Chelsea was not the kids type. If maternal instincts were a thing, Chelsea definitely never developed any.
“I’d rather work too hard than work with kids.”
“It can be really rewarding sometimes, you know.”
“So can working at a law firm, except I get rewarded in cold hard cash.”
We both laughed, and I ate my ice cream, looking across the street at a small park. I wondered what Liam was up to, and if his emergency had been taken care of yet. I hadn’t seen him after school, though I had stayed late in my classroom talking to some parents, but I wished I had caught him. Even though he was a huge asshole for ditching me, I still liked to be close to him.
I finished up my cone in silence as Chelsea went on a tirade about some older partner that was constantly borderline sexual harassing her. I felt bad that she had to deal with that stuff, although I was constantly ignoring iffy comments from married dads all the time. We stood up and began walking back toward our neighborhood as the sun slowly began to dip below the horizon.
I felt better after talking to Chelsea. Although we had grown apart lately, despite her moving into my neighborhood, she was still my best and closest friend. The sting of Liam standing me up didn’t seem that bad after spending some time with her. Plus, she was all about calling him a dickhead, which I couldn’t disagree with. She was a no bullshit kind of person, and I loved that about her.
As we turned into the few blocks that made up our tiny little section of the city, a car caught my eye. A block back, a van was crawling along the street, tailing us. I could have sworn it was the same van I had been seeing all over the place lately, though all creeper vans looked exactly the same.
“What’s the matter?” Chelsea said, looking concerned.
I caught myself and realized I had been staring behind us.
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
She looked down the street. “Are you staring at that van?”
“It just looks familiar is all.”
“It just looks creepy, you mean,” she said, turning away from it.
I laughed and mentally kicked myself. I probably looked like an absolute crazy person. As we turned the corner, I watched the van glide past my block, heading south. I let out a huge breath. I was definitely overreacting to it. Something about the way the car was driving so slowly behind us made me feel paranoid, although I had no real reason to worry about it. I hadn’t thought much about vans and crazy guys dumping weird packages into the river lately, and I shouldn’t let myself get caught back up in that.
“Okay, this is where I say goodbye,” Chelsea said, standing at the intersection of our streets.
“We need to hang out more, Chels.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry I’ve been so lame.”
“It’s not your fault. We’ve both been lazy.”
“I know. And we live so close together now, too.”
“Okay, promise right here that we’ll hang out soon?”
“Sounds good.”
We hugged and I smiled at her.
“See you later,” she said, turning and heading toward her apartment.
“Later,” I called after her.
I stood at the corner for half a second, and then I turned and walked toward my apartment. Although it was dark already, I decided I’d give Petey another walk. I didn’t really feel like staying alone all night in my tiny apartment. For some reason, that van had me on edge, and I knew I needed to get out and get myself together before facing the quiet boredom of living alone.