Social Neighbor (The Social Series Book 1) by J.L. Mac Page B

refusing the extra help was simple. I wasn’t going to be home. I’d planned on being at my brother’s place and there would be no dissuading me from it. I was most comfortable and confident there. Being in his four walls made me feel strong. Stronger than my alcoholism, and stronger than a busted up leg.
    Halley flipped her shit when I told her I’d be at Tommy’s apartment. She had stomped out of the hospital, to go get reinforcements no doubt, but I’d signed myself out before she could return.
    I was going to be discharged the next day anyway. What did it matter?
    Imagine my shock when the very same day that I was discharged, the neighbor came by with an offering of cookies and said neighbor just so happened to be Florence Randall.
    Florence Randall. My Florence Randall.
    The nurse that Halley had dispatched to Tommy’s apartment was easy enough to chase off. I yelled and glared and off she went. If Halley and her husband were going to be out of money over it, then so be it. She should have consulted with me first before hiring and paying a home healthcare nurse. I didn’t need anyone there hovering over me. I had control over the situation. How hard could it be to wheel myself to the kitchen for food, wheel myself to the bathroom and transfer myself from Tommy’s recliner to my wheelchair a few times a day? No big deal.
    Confusion jumbled my brain when I heard Flor’s voice right outside the front door to Tommy’s place. The moment she opened her mouth I recognized her voice and my heart seized in my chest.
    I wanted to rush to the door and hide at the same time. If she knew I split my time between Tommy’s place and my place she’d want to know why, and that was a question that I didn’t really want to have to answer.
    It didn’t require too much thinking to come up with the fact that a successful businessman such as myself wouldn’t be likely to have a middle-of-the-road apartment here in Manhattan as their primary residence.
    I had deepened my voice an octave and held a blanket up to my mouth as I barked at the front door. It had worked. I scared her off. I was rude and I felt awful, but this development needed careful consideration before I just let the cat out of the bag. I had a lot to explain and not the faintest idea of how I was going to do it.
    I stayed at Tommy’s place only because it was Tommy’s place. Being within his space made me feel close to him. It reminded me why I had chosen sobriety over booze and being amongst his things, his vinyl album collection, his tennis gear, his DVDs, his furniture, his bed… Seeing all of it on a regular basis was punishment and my atonement. Not so much for what I’d done as what I didn’t do. I’d never not come here.
    Knowing Flor was my part time neighbor was exhilarating and terrifying. She had been so close for who knew how long and yet she’d been a total stranger to me. She was no longer a stranger but she may as well have been. After Halley had run her off at Four-19 she’d chosen to ignore my text, and then I had been in an accident that landed me in an operating room.
    She’s just next door. She sleeps there. She eats there. She showers there. She undresses there.
    It occurred to me that I had a choice. I could either have my assistant come over and help me get transported to my place, away from Flor, or I could stay put, risk running into her and try explaining once she saw me. Or I could wheel over there right now, spill my guts, and hope like hell she wouldn’t slam the door in my face.
    I barely knew this woman, so there was no telling how she would receive the information that I was a recovering alcoholic who hung out in the shrine that was my dead brother’s apartment because I couldn’t bring myself to let it go, and that my ice-queen sister was a bitch for behaving the way she did at Four-19 the last time she’d been there with me.
    I had a lot to explain.
    I pulled out my new cell phone and silently thanked Conrad for