In My Neighbor's Bed

Ch. 10: The Mrs. Henderson Show

As it always does when you have to be somewhere you don't want to be, time moved way too quickly. The movie was over in no time and Eli, Ronnie, and I said our goodbyes with the hint of reluctance that we always did. Although, Eli did sneak in a small "good luck" wink when Ronnie wasn't looking.

Honestly, I don't know why he bothered. I knew Eli. He told Ronnie everything. There wasn't a single doubt in my mind that Ronnie would know everything that happened by my next visit. Hell, I'd be surprised if I made it to the parking garage before he told him.

Still, as I got in my car, what Eli had warned me about did pop back into my mind. I pulled out my phone and turned off my message notifications. I also spent an inordinate amount of time staring at Mason's number.

It probably wasn't safe to keep the paper he'd given me earlier. After all, when hasn't a paper trail caused a problem? But I worried about only having the number in my phone. I didn't trust my memory enough to try to remember it on my own and Phil would get suspicious if he ever noticed that I had saved an unlisted number.

The obvious solution, of course, was to save him as a fake name. But that's where I ran into trouble. What should I save it as?

Phil knew everybody in the neighborhood for "networking" purposes, so I couldn't lie and say it was a neighbor without him being able to check. I didn't have any family members aside from Eli so I couldn't say it was a relative. I already had Ronnie's number saved and I didn't have any other "friends" to speak of. Besides, if I lied about having a new friend, he'd probably insist on meeting them. After all, he'd worked too hard on his perfect little image to have it all ruined by me choosing a "bad friend."

Which left me stuck. What the hell could I save him as? God, was my life really so empty and pathetic that I didn't have anything outside of my house and this facility?

Inspiration struck me at once. I hurriedly typed the name in my phone: Patty.

Of course, this facility being what it was, it needed to have staff on hand 24/7. Obviously, for both legal and ethical reasons, they couldn't expect their nurses to work those kinds of hours, so every patient had a team of two nurses. One who handled a double shift of sixteen hours during the day, and one who handled the eight-hour night shift.

Patty was Eli's night nurse. A nice enough older lady, but one whom I never really needed to interact with much. She had my number for emergency purposes, of course, but I'd never really had a reason to add her number to my phone. Until now.

It was a good cover. If Phil ever bothered to ask about the number, then I could explain the Patty situation. It would be easy enough for him to double-check and confirm with the facility about her being Eli's nurse, and if he asked why I suddenly added it, I could just explain it as I was getting more concerned about Eli's condition.

It was amazing the way adrenaline raced through my body just by typing a name into my phone. Was this excitement the "fear of getting caught" that people always talked about? I never understood it before. After all, what fun could come out of doing something dangerous or stupid?

But, God, I got it now. I wondered if Mason felt the same way about it that I did.

I bit my lip as he suddenly came to mind again. Right, didn't Eli mention something about me receiving a message Phil definitely shouldn't see? I wasn't sure what that was exactly but based on that description it had to be something good.

I was about to open my messages when a sudden, loud car horn terrified me back to reality. My phone practically jumped out of my hands, landing on the passenger seat. My heart was racing again, but not in a fun way this time. I took a deep breath to calm myself.