I heard the garage door go up.

What the hell is he doing back here?

I tossed everything back into the hat box and slid it back up onto the shelf and closed the closet door. I pulled the bedroom door almost closed on my way out. Chloe was still asleep.

I ambled down the stairs to the front door and walked out onto the front porch. The car was in the driveway, still running, driver's door hanging open. Byron appeared from the garage carrying our toilet plunger.

"What are you doing?"

"I stopped up the toilet over at my dad's and I couldn't find the plunger." he said tossing the foul tool on the passenger floorboard.

"Why didn't you ask somebody over there where they keep their plunger?"

"Nobody's home."

"Nice. You know, one of these days your parents are going to get really tired of having their basement monopolozied with your 'studio'." It drives me crazy when people use air-quotes but I couldn't resist the jab.

"Well, I'll just move it into the garage then. Look, I don't have time to stand here and argue with you about the freakin' toilet plunger or my dad's basement. I have work to do, remember?"

This guy never fails to astound me with his audacity. "Oh! Riiiight." I said winking over a finger gun at him. He flipped me off with one hand while he cranked the wheel with the other open palm. He cornered out of the driveway and left me standing on the porch waiting for the tail-end of the car to disappear.

I heard the phone ring from inside. I shot through the front doorway and scanned the living room trying to find the receiver. By the fifth ring, I snatched it from under the couch. It was Madge.

"Heyyy, how're you, Lady?"

"Oh, good, good. Just needed a little break and thought I'd give you call. Quarterlies are coming up and I just can't take anymore this afternoon. My brain's jellied." Madge was the business manager for a local floral franchise. The guy she worked for was Archie Bunker in a three-piece suit. Madge liked him well enough but she still thought he was a bastard.

"Well, I'm glad you called. I was thinking about you yesterday and meant to give you a jingle and just hadn't yet. I've had a full day of trying to get The Genius to go earn a living. Can you believe it? He's just now on his way to work."

"Ceese, it's freakin' two-o'clock."

"Yep. Welcome to the world of lollipop trees and magic bill paying fairies. Jealous, aren't ya?"

"Girl." Madge said with condolences.

"I know. Don't get me started. Seriously. I thought he was at work over an hour ago but he just came back from his mid-day crap and needed the plunger from our house because he couldn't find the one that lives over there."

"What?" Madge said having heard every word. "What is wrong with that guy? I swear to God, Ceese, how you contend with him is beyond my mortal understanding. He is a strange bird."

"You have no idea." I said. Madge and I didn't have many secrets but there was no way I was going to tell her that we'd been eating pancakes for the past three days. I had my diginity--somewhere.

"What does that mean? I know that tone. What happened." Madge poked.

"You wanna hear something weird?" I baited, "You know those stackable ring toys, Fisher Price?"