Any Other Name

Chapter 12

Eliza had exactly one day to warn Tessy.

In the aftermath of the break-in, Marshall had been staying home to watch over the house. He suggested in his rather definite way that Eliza walk River around the open space of the shared backyard while he was there, not wanting her to go to the park without him. Marshall had also taken inventory of all their things and only a few papers from his work were missing.

Though the pages seemed inconsequential to the damage of the door, Marshall was constantly on the phone trying to appease his supervisors. Sometimes when Eliza woke up at night with the other side of the bed empty, she would creep around to the top of the stairs to listen to Marshall morbidly talking on the phone. It reminded her of what Margaret had said at the party: Marshall has a very secure job, and one of the safer ones. You'll always know he's coming home, unlike some of us.

She still hadn't confronted him about that, but she was scared. He had spent so much time telling her that the party wasn't real; that it seemed that he would snap if she asked again while he was this stressed.

Then came the day that Marshall had to return to work. The front door had been replaced by then but the bottom latch had yet to be added. He seemed skittish about leaving but Eliza tried to ease it with a warm breakfast and a longer kiss before he left. She had one day to warn Tesey—of what exactly she was still working out—because Marshall said that the next day, Saturday, he was going to set Tesey straight.

The anxiety of it had Eliza at the park for most of the morning, far earlier and longer than she needed to be. She knew that Tesey walked Margaret's dogs on Fridays and she hoped that the pattern would keep up.

It did, and Tesey looked just about as anxious as she was. He was there early, or at least she thought he was by how often he looked at his watch. He spotted her at her bench, no book in hand, and led his pack of dogs over to her. River put herself between Eliza and him and she had to smooth down her fur before she would let him any closer.

"Haven't seen you in a while," Tesey said. It was supposed to be calming but Eliza was so strung up that she could only see her own anxiety and worry.

"We had a break-in," she said and immediately his face fell.

"Are you okay? Is everything alright?"

She smiled at his concern. "Yeah, I'm fine. The front door took the most damage and we got it fixed pretty quickly." His expression smoothed over a little and she felt her anxiety ebb away a little. "We're okay. River here was protecting me outside."

"Outside?"

"I..." Eliza wanted to warn him, not waste time with this. "I was locked in a room for most of it. Didn't even know someone had broken in. River had gotten out and she was guarding the apartment from outside until my neighbor—the one with the piano?—came out and got her." She wanted to tell him that the neighbor had called Marshall and he came as soon as he heard—after ten hours when he was usually only gone nine. Now that she thought of it, it sounded weird, wrong. Like a lie. But Marshall didn't lie to her.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

They settled into an awkward silence. Tesey rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and looked around the park. Eliza ran her hand down River's spine and looked off towards the gate. If Marshall came home early, saw her gone, came here, saw them—

Tesey cleared his throat. "Mind if I sit?"

Eliza nodded and scooted over even though she was already pressed against the arm of the bench.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said, then added with a smile on his face, "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."

Was this a good time? Should she mention it now?