***
I told Irvin everything that night.
“I’m being honest with you. Woman to woman.”
His face changed the moment I repeated her words. “She actually said that?”
“Every word.”
“Then I’m done helping her.”
He meant it.
When she called about a noise in her garage, he told her to contact pest control.
When she texted about a sticking door, he sent her the number of a handyman.
But Vanessa didn’t stop. She simply stopped pretending.
“She actually said that?”
She leaned over the fence whenever Irvin was outside.
She brought homemade cookies and said she’d made too many.
She found excuses to touch his arm during conversations, and every time she did, he stepped away.
Then she announced a big backyard barbecue for the neighborhood.
Irvin received an invitation.
