Neighbor Dearest by Penelope Ward

boy.”
    Damien rested his chin in his hand. “Any other names banned?”
    “Leeches.”
    “Leeches? Why would I call you leeches?”
    “Elec used to like to scramble the letters of words, to make new words. He once figured out that if you scramble the letters of Chelsea, you get leaches. But then we both later realized that leeches is actually spelled with two E’s and no A, but the nickname stuck.”
    “Hmm. Elec is not that bright. What do you get if you scramble the letters of dumb fuck?”
    “Now you have me thinking about that.” I laughed.
    “Bum fuck?” He chuckled. “No, wait…that’s missing the D. I can see how that shit would be addicting, though.”
    “Bum fucking or anagrams?” I joked.
    Damien spit out his coffee in laughter. “Yes and yes.”
    Staring at Damien, I thought about how at the very least, I was grateful to have found a friend and protector in him.
    “You’re a good egg, Damien. And you make good eggs, too.”
    “My mother taught me how to make scrambled eggs fluffy but not runny.”
    “How is your mother? You don’t talk about her much.”
    “She’s alright. I’m due to visit her soon. Tyler and I have tried to get her to move closer to us. She’s about an hour from here down 101.”
    “She doesn’t want to move?”
    “She still lives in the house we grew up in. I think it would be hard for her to leave, since there are so many memories of my father there. She’s never really gotten over his death, hasn’t even dated anyone since he died.”
    “That’s got to be hard.”
    “We both keep telling her she needs to move on.”
    “What does she say to that?”
    “She says when you really love someone as much as she loved my dad, it’s irreplaceable. She says she’d rather just spend her time alone, trying to seek out and connect to his spiritual presence.”
    “Wow. God, that makes me want to cry,” I said as a lone teardrop travelled down my cheek.
    “You are crying.”
    “Well, see? There you go.”
    He reached over and swiped my teardrop. “Yeah. It’s pretty fucking sad to see her so depressed.”
    “You know, it makes me wonder.”
    “Wonder what?”
    “Wonder if there are different levels of love.”
    “I definitely think there are,” he said.
    “I think the level of love that is irreplaceable is the highest level. I mean, even after Elec broke my heart, I never once felt that he was totally irreplaceable. But that could just be because he hurt me. I don’t know whether it would have been different if he’d died. And I mean…plenty of people remarry after loss. So, clearly, those people were able to move on.”
    “Well, I wish Mom would move on, because that’s no way to live.”
    “Yeah, but she can’t.”
    “I know,” he whispered, swirling his coffee around mindlessly as he gazed into his mug.
    “Anyway, I hope to meet her someday.”
    “She’ll come visit at some point.”
    “Why doesn’t she visit more often?”
    “She doesn’t like to leave her dog by himself. She has a small terrier that’s scared of my dogs. Since I have Dudley and Drewfus every other weekend, it makes it tough to get them together.”
    “That sucks.”
    “Speaking of sucks, I have to figure out what to do with these monsters next week.”
    “Why?”
    “I have to go to Los Angeles.”
    “What’s there?”
    “Just some business I have to take care of. It’s too complicated to get into.”
    Hmm.
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah, so Jenna obviously handles them at night, but I’m trying to figure out a situation for them in the mornings and during the day while she’s at work. They’re not the type of dogs that can be left alone all day.”
    “I can watch them,” I offered.
    What am I, crazy?
    “Chelsea, I wasn’t hinting at that. I would never ask that of you. You’re sweet to even offer, but you and the dogs…not a smart combo.”
    “Maybe…but I thought they supposedly liked me.”
    “They do, but you’d have to pick up their shit and all that.