Death Before Facebook

okay last night, wasn’t I?” She seemed surprised to see him. “I mean, I know I was weepy, but under the circumstances—”
    He took her hand. “I was worried about you, that’s all.”
    “You’re such a sweetheart. Honestly, I think Kit’s wrong about the TOWN. All my best friends are on it—I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
    He had to get her talking, get her loose. “I thought you might want to take a walk.”
    “Oh. Well, I kept Caitlin home today. She’s asleep.”
    “Let’s have a beer then. I want you to relax.”
    She came back with two beers, smiling for a change. That wasn’t especially like Lenore. He wondered if she’d dropped something. Maybe Prozac. The whole world was on Prozac these days. “You’re such a good friend to me,” she said.
    She sat beside him on the sofa, rather than in one of the chairs. Did that mean what he thought it did? He put out a hand and let it rest on her neck for a millisecond. Gently, he began to massage her. “I was thinking last night how stressed out you must be.”
    “Neetsie too. She lost a brother.”
    “You lost your best friend. Maybe that’s worse.”
    She settled into his working hand, adjusted her body to accommodate it. “I’ve been thinking about Geoff a lot.”
    “We all have.”
    “I was so mean about stuff.”
    “Oh?”
    “Sex, I mean. I never wanted to have sex with him.”
    “Why don’t you put your head in my lap? I can’t get to your other shoulder.”
    She complied.
    “I mean, what would it have hurt? I can’t help it. I feel so guilty about it.”
    “You and Geoff didn’t have sex?”
    “Not very much.” She giggled. “Not if I could help it.”
    “But you did something even more important.”
    “What?” She lifted her head she was so surprised; the young were absurdly single-minded.
    “You confided in each other.”
    She lowered her head. “Oh. Well, yeah, we did.”
    Lenore hadn’t realized he was such a big teddy bear—he was just Bigeasy, TOWN guru. But not really the uncle type.
    She was glad she’d spent most of the afternoon cleaning up after the burglary. It was sweet of him to check up on her; she hadn’t really thought he was that good a friend. But she shouldn’t have doubted. The TOWN was the village and he was the village elder; it was natural he should call on her. It made her feel warm and fuzzy, almost as if she’d had to lose Geoff to find out she had other friends. Usually she was so busy with Caitlin she didn’t have much time left over.
    I must take time
, she thought.
I have to start a new life.
    Geoff had filled up a lot of holes for her. He had always been there when she wanted some oysters, wanted to go to a movie.
    For now, the beer was really very relaxing. And it was nice of Pearce to rub her neck, something Geoff never did. He was really a very thoughtful man and there were so few thoughtful men in her life. In fact, no men at all unless she counted her father.
    Lying on her stomach, she felt Pearce pat her upper back, almost like burping a baby. “You’ll get over it, Lenore. We’ve all lost somebody valuable but we’ll all get over it.”
    She realized she was crying.
    Astonished, she sat up. “I wasn’t crying for Geoff. I was crying for me.”
    “Well, it’s only natural.”
    “No, you don’t understand. I was feeling sorry for myself because I realized that without Geoff, days could go by and I’d never see another adult except the people at the store.”
    “Young lady, you’re going to have to get out more.”
    “What’ll I do? What do people do who’ve just lost someone close?”
    “Let’s have another beer, shall we?”
    She went to get a pair of them, debating whether to tell him about the burglary, but in the end deciding against it. She was so damned tired of always seeming the victim!
    When Pearce had taken a healthy sip—in fact, slugged down about a third of the bottle—he said, “I’ll tell you what you can do. You can keep an old man company every now and then.”
    “You’re not old.” She knew he was just being nice, that he didn’t need company and had no intention of hanging out with her.
    “I’m old and I’m lonesome.”
    Lonesome. Now that was something else. Did he find her attractive?
    He must
, she thought with sudden interest.
Of course he does. Why wouldn’t he?
    But put in that context, he was old. She couldn’t… no, she just couldn’t possibly… he was nice and everything, but he was her dad’s