The Men Next Door

Ch 17 - Campbell

"I don't know how I ever survived without you," I told Addy over brunch on Sunday.

I was being dramatic — she gave me her fork when I dropped mine on the ground — but I really did mean it. She was kind and funny and devoted, and even when we didn't talk every day, we could always fall back into friendship like no time had passed at all. It was a welcome change after everything that happened with Vera.

"Me either," she answered. She took a sip of her mimosa and peered at me over the rim of the glass. "Seriously. It's been a long time since I clicked with someone as well as we do. I was starting to think I'd never make a good friend in the city."

I tilted my head curiously. "What about the guys from the park? Or the girls at the Halloween party?"

She waved a hand in the air like they were all insignificant. "Those are Walker's friends, not mine. It's not the same."

Before I could respond, our waiter stopped by the table. I expected him to drop off the dessert menu — the bananas foster was supposedly to die for — but he was there to pass on a message from the hostess.

"There's a guy up front looking for two women. The description he gave sounds a lot like you. Are you expecting someone?"

Addy sighed. Glanced between me and the waiter. Finished off the rest of her mimosa in one big swig. "Yeah, bring him back."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Who are we expecting?"

"No one, but Walker always does the unexpected."

Her boyfriend appeared around the corner with our waiter in tow, and I briefly wondered how she knew it was him. Did he have a habit of showing up unannounced? Or did she just have a sixth sense for his presence after spending so many years together?

I didn't have enough time to dig into it before he made it across the room.

"Hi, Campground," Walker greeted. He kissed the top of Addy's head and slid into the booth beside her.

"Hi, Crosswalk," I answered, trying my best to sound civil. I usually didn't have a problem with the guy, but I was a little annoyed by his interruption — and it seemed like Addy was too.

"Aren't you working today?" she asked curtly. Her lips turned up in a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Client canceled at the last second," Walker explained with a shrug. "I was already in the area, so I figured I'd join you guys at brunch."

Addy took a deep breath and looked to the sky as if she was going to find her zen hiding somewhere on the ceiling. "When's your next one lined up?"

"Two weeks from now."

She shook her head tensely. "You need to replace the cancellation before that. I already signed our lease renewal, remember? We're locked in. Price goes up in March."

Walker's work was a sensitive topic, and it wasn't the first time I'd heard them have this conversation. He taught outdoor skills classes — had his own LLC and everything — and he absolutely loved it. The problem was he barely brought in enough money to break even.

When he first started teaching, that was understandable. Addy willingly took on the bulk of their expenses, and they agreed on a plan for the future: give it all you've got for five years, hope the business grows, and try something else if it hasn't. But now they were well into year six, and Walker still hadn't made any significant progress.

Addy tried her best to support him regardless. They moved to Manhattan so she could chase her dreams, after all, and she didn't want to crush his dreams in the process. But being the sole provider for the past five years had put her behind in her financial goals, and the longer Walker held on to the threads of his business, the more she worried that he was trying to force her hand. What was she going to do if the cost of living kept going up and Walker's income never did?