“You should’ve been eating like this a long time ago.” Valerie scolded her dad, her nose still in his pantry. She’d already gone through the refrigerator. Norma had told her to have at it; it was high time, making her dad grumble in the process. Valerie pulled out all the high sodium products. She frowned at the amount they had in there.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Her dad complained.

With her hand on her hip, she turned to him. “Obviously this is where I need to be, and I will be here once a week. Look at all this!” She pointed to the cans of spam and high sodium soups on the counter. “You know better, Daddy. You’re just being bad. Well, say goodbye to all of it.” She pulled another can of sardines and shook her head.

“You’re crazy if you think you’re throwing all that stuff out,” he said, raising his fork at her.

“No, I’m donating it to the church up the street. I’ll go pick up some stuff to replace these. Good stuff.”

Her phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID. It was Luke this time. She picked it up and answered. “Hey, Luke.” She ducked her head back in the pantry.

“You got an interview.”

Valerie stood up straight. “I did? When?”

“First thing Monday. I got a whole file here on the types of questions they’ll be asking. I can fax it to you.”

She bit her lip. “My dad doesn’t have a fax machine.”

“I can drive by and drop it off if you want.”

Valerie thought of the people Alex had watching her. He was already not happy about her breakfasts with Luke. She was sure he’d have questions about Luke visiting her at her dad’s. If she knew Luke, he wouldn’t just drop them off either. He’d want to come in and meet her dad. “No, hmm. I wasn’t planning on going in the office for a few days but-”

“Go!” Her dad said. “I’ll be just fine here without you riding me all day.”

Valerie scowled at her dad. “You know what? I have to run an errand for my dad in a little bit. I’ll stop by and pick it up.” She continued to search through the pantry again.

“Do you know what time?”

Three cans of Vienna sausages were stacked in the corner of the pantry. Valerie picked one up, waved it at her dad and shook her head disapprovingly. “In about an hour, but just leave it on my desk if you have to go anywhere.”

“No, I’ll be here. I wanna go over a few things with you anyway.”

Valerie wasn’t sure she was comfortable being alone with Luke so much now, especially since Alex was now under the impression they’d slept together. Technically they had but she knew what Alex was thinking. She wasn’t even sure he’d be happy about the real version of what really happened that night. Any time she spent alone with Luke now was going to be a rough topic to bring up. There’d be no keeping things from him now that she knew she was being watched. They obviously didn’t just report back to him with the dangerous stuff. They were telling him every little thing.

She frowned, hanging up. “I’m only going to be gone for a few hours, you hear me?”

Her dad smiled. “Good riddance. So, you’re going by the market?”

“How rude.” Valerie smirked. “And yes I am. Any special requests?” She started bagging up all the cans she’d be dropping off at the church.

“Chips and dip. I’m watching the ballgame tonight. The kind with the ridges.”

She didn’t stop her bagging. Her dad wasn’t going to stop riling her. She was used to it. “Low sodium baked chips, and no fat plain yogurt it is.” She threw the last can in the bag. His loud groan made her smile. Two could play this game.

*

Valerie checked her rearview mirror. She wondered which of all the cars around her were Alex’s guys. Now that she knew how demented Bruce really was and that he’d been stalking her long before she met him, she had to admit she did feel a lot better knowing she wasn’t alone.

She didn’t bother to dress up. Instead, she purposely wore shorts and a sweatshirt, no make up, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. Most notably, she wore tennis shoes. Luke had never seen her without her big shoes, or dressed down. At this point, she didn’t care. In a way, she was hoping he’d be turned off.

She walked into her cubicle, dropping her keys on the desk, and picked up the file that Luke had left there. She had just started reading it when she heard his voice.

“Hey, tiny.”

She turned around. Luke leaned against frame of her cubicle looking down at her.

“Hey.”

The smile on his face was bigger than usual. “Wow, Val. I didn’t realize you were this short.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“The last time I saw you like this was the morning after…”

Her eyes were immediately back on the file, annoyed that he’d ever bring that up. “Is this all of it?”

“Yeah, but we need to go over some stuff.”

“No, I don’t have time, Luke. My dad needs me back.”

“But he’s better, right?”

“Oh yeah, but I need to be there before lunchtime. The man needs to have his meals monitored like a child. I swear he’s been out of the hospital for less than 24 hours, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try to pull a fast one.”

Luke laughed. “I’m glad he’s feeling well enough to be sneaky. For a moment there I thought you might miss out on George Stone this weekend.”