“Screw you, Buck. You just wait. Your day will come, and when it does I’ll laugh it up like you are. Talking about this is giving me hives.”

At first I think she’s being dramatic, but then I see irregular red dots appear on her arms.

“Does Waters know you’re this stressed out?”

“Say one word and I’ll—”

“Shave my balls. I know.”

“I was gonna say armpits, but you had to go for the genitalia, didn’t you?”

“Shouldn’t you be excited and not stressed? Don’t girls love this shit.”

Violet scratches the angry red welts expanding on her arm and ignores my questions.

The sound of the patio door opening in the condo next door puts me on alert. A new chick moved in while I was away. I haven’t officially met her, but we’ve chatted, and I’ve met her yappy dog’s nose through the tennis-ball-sized drainage hole where my privacy wall meets hers. The patter of nails on the tile follows, and his little brown nose appears in the hole, then it disappears and his paw shows up. He whines, aware he can’t get to me.

“Doodle! Stop being a pest!” The woman next door snaps her fingers and calls out, “Hi, neighbor!”

“Morning.” I call back.

Vi whispers, “Doodle? She named her dog after a penis?”

I shake my head and motion for us to go inside. This lady can be chatty for someone I’ve never seen, and for some reason her voice is familiar. We sneak back inside and finish planning the next phase of Project Sunshine. In two days I fly to Toronto to see Michael. We have a promo video to make—it’s been scheduled so it’s before his chemo treatment. Then I’m hanging around for that to keep him company.

Vi leaves before lunch, and I head to the gym. I staunchly avoid the coed section and the smattering of bunnies hanging around looking to chat. I also note that Randy avoids the bunnies, which is atypical for him. After two hours of hardcore training, I hit the showers.

Waters is already in there with his back to me. This is the first time I’ve seen him since he broke my nose. Here’s hoping he’s going to be civil about it. I leave a shower between us and turn on the spray, adjusting it until it’s hot enough to relax my tight muscles.

“Waters.”

“Butterson.” He glances my way briefly and motions to my face. “Looks like you’re healing up good.”

“Yup.” Most of the bruising has faded to that ugly yellow-green, and I’m done with the bandage. The stitches came out a couple of days ago.

“That’s good.”

“Yup.” I love awkward, naked conversations.

“Violet stopped by your place this morning.”

“Yup. We had a breakfast meeting. Business stuff.”

“She’s been at your place a lot.”

“We’re working on a project.”

“Yeah, I know.” He rubs a bar of soap over his almost hair-free chest. “How’s that going, anyway?”

“It’s good. I think it will be successful.” Now would be a good time to get him involved. Except he beats me to it.

“You know, if you need extra players, I’d be happy to join.”

“Sure. Yeah.” I cut the water. “That’d be cool. There’s a couple spaces left. Vi’ll fill you in on the details.”

“Great. Good. I think what you’re doing is commendable.”

“Thanks.”

There’s an awkward pause and then he asks, “Vi seem all right to you?”

“She’s been fine with me. Why? Is something going on?”

“Skye and my mom want to plan an engagement party. I’m not sure Vi’s too thrilled about it.”

“She mentioned that.”

That gets his attention. He stops washing his hair to focus on me. “She say something?”

“You know how she is about being the center of attention. You can always tell how stressed Vi is by how much ice cream she eats.”

“Two nights ago she ate a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s and had to sleep on the bathroom floor.” He’s not laughing about it the way I usually do.

I consider the conversation Vi and I had about ice cream being punishment. I can’t imagine why she would feel the need to punish herself over being stressed about their engagement party. “Sometimes I replace the ice cream with frozen yogurt. The aftermath isn’t as bad. If you can get her to eat sorbet instead, you’ll avoid the whole issue.” This is a weird-ass conversation to be having in the shower.

“Thanks for the tip. Did she say anything else to you?”

He’s legit worried about her. I don’t mind putting him on the edge. “What Vi and I talk about is in confidence. I’ve already said more than I should.” I grab my towel.

Waters is quick about rinsing off as I collect my shampoo and soap. “Come on, Butterson.”

“Just talk to her. I’m sure she’ll tell you what’s what.” Both Waters and I know that’s not true. Vi can sit on a problem for weeks before she finally says something about it. It’s her personality. She’s a marinater.

“I know you two are close. If you know something important, it’d be great if you told me, Miller.”

I don’t think Waters has ever used anything apart from my last name to address me. I wrap the towel around my waist and face him. This is the opportunity I’ve been looking for. It’s perfect. He’s stressed over Violet’s stress. I’m happy about that. It means he cares.