บท 43: Expressing His Opinion
The next two and a half days involved a lot of stress, a comprehensive search of the entire house with anime and board game breaks, and no conclusive evidence about who her father might be. Claire was completely exhausted but she really did need to go back to work.
She hadn't so much as stepped foot outside of her house in all that time and nothing had gone wrong yet. It seemed that whoever was after her was aware of the extent of her security system because a few people had gotten close enough for the cameras to see but left just as quickly.
Going back to work would be problematic. So would getting more groceries. They were running low after being stuck inside for so long.
"I don't think I can do this," she said nervously as she started her car so she could finally go back to work.
Since Claire wasn't actually sick, she couldn't get a doctor's note to excuse a longer absence. Today was the day she had to go back to work and pretend like everything was normal and she was completely dreading it.
Alex had an arsenal of weapons hidden underneath his new green hoodie, which had arrived yesterday afternoon courtesy of two-day shipping. He assured her that everything would be fine but she wasn't sure about that. Even stepping outside her front door felt like walking into a war zone these days.
Yet somehow they were able to make it to work without incident. She wasn't able to breathe or release her hunched shoulders until she was safely inside the pharmacy.
Amy was at the time clock when she arrived and smiled warmly at her. "Welcome back! Are you feeling better?"
"Much," Claire lied. "Thanks for asking."
She didn't feel better at all. She had narrowly dodged a bullet with that police investigation. If they came back looking for her, she would be in serious trouble. She prayed that they would focus on other potential witnesses and leave her out of it.
All of her coworkers asked her the same thing when she ran into them and she felt herself relax a little. It was nice to know that people cared. But her feelings of guilt for potentially putting them in danger by coming to work increased because of it.
What if one of her coworkers got caught up in one of the hitmen's attempts? It was why she had been trying to leave last on purpose even more than usual lately. If everyone else was safely out of the way before her, they wouldn't be dragged into this.
Having a hit out on her was Claire's problem. She didn't want any of these normal people with normal lives to be affected but she couldn't up and quit her job either.
Her savings were for emergencies only—it was a good thing she had some to fall back on or she would be dead already—and they were running low. To keep up with living expenses for two people and a cat she had to have a job.
Alex was paying for his own clothes but she was in charge of food and the raised utility bills that came from having another person in her house. She had agreed to feed him in exchange for his protection.
Stressful as this entire situation was, Claire couldn't deny it was nice having someone else around the house again. Even if it was someone as weird as him. She hadn't been able to play board or card games since her mom died.
They did that a lot in between stretches of searching for evidence about her father and she managed to do quite a bit better than she had during the Yahtzee fiasco. He couldn't be lucky every time.
He was human, after all. Even if he didn't seem like it at first glance. He was getting better about his facial expressions and not being such a statue too.
Alex didn't have a tactful bone in his entire body but he was trying. He frequently made Claire laugh and being able to do that at home for a reason other than TV or comics was refreshing.
She kind of liked having him around. She felt an unexpected wave of fondness for him as they were in the snack aisle of the grocery store after work and he held up a pack of Oreos.
"Can we bake something with these? I know they can go inside other things to make different desserts because of McFlurries."
Claire grinned at him. He was actually expressing his opinion on something! He was becoming more like a real person every day. "Absolutely. Let me look up a recipe on my phone real quick so I can know what other ingredients to get."
She found a recipe for no-bake Oreo cheesecake that looked pretty easy. You could even buy Oreo crusts to cut out a few steps. She grabbed one of those along with some cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, and powdered sugar.
They finished their shopping painlessly enough and Alex made her carry all of the grocery bags so he could be ready to fight if there was anyone lying in wait for them. Thankfully, no one was hiding out in the parking lot and there wasn't another car bomb. They made it back to the house without incident.
Claire got started on the Oreo cheesecake right away and found some simple steps that he could do so he felt like he was participating. She hadn't missed the way he said "we" instead of "you" when he asked about making it.
He liked trying new things with her; he had said so more than once. Things went faster with his help anyway so she wasn't against it.
The tragic part about this recipe was that it had to set for 4-5 hours in the fridge before the whipped topping layer could even be added. They ended up playing a game of Monopoly in the meantime.
Alex was surprisingly bad at it. He knew how to strategize but not in a real-world context such as anything involving money. He had followed all of her advice about buying things cheaply so far because he didn't know anything about finances.
He went bankrupt about thirty minutes into the game so they tried again. This time it took closer to two hours for him to go bankrupt.
They broke for dinner and Claire wanted to go do something else afterward but he shook his head. "No, I want to keep trying until I can get it right. You did it with Yahtzee so I should be able to do it too."
She couldn't argue with that logic. They ended up playing another hour and a half long game that he lost before she went to go make that whipped topping and add it and the remaining Oreo garnish.
She served up two slices and told him to dig in, which he did with gusto. He had slowly shown more enthusiasm for food as time went by. A lot had changed since that day he didn't know he was allowed to ask for seconds. This time he helped himself to a second slice without even asking.
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