Chapter 5: Making a Friend

        It didn’t take long for Finley to become pregnant again. It took even less time for her to regret rushing into her second child with Manu. At least he was more supportive with this one. Although, she did hear him mutter some things about her being too damn fertile. As long as he was willing to watch Eddie while she went out, Finley didn’t care much about what the man did or thought.

          Having Manu around had helped Finley quite a bit more than she thought it would. She could now jog freely around the neighborhood, not having to worry about which people to avoid bumping into. Now that she had the father of her child living with her, the neighbors were suddenly keen to her, thinking she was such a fine young mother. They even commented that it was cute that they were having another so quickly.

          Finley’s outings consisted of more than just exercising now though. Gossip had proved true, and a new neighbor moved into the empty house just down the block. His name was Brandon Bowman; he was the nicest man that Finley had ever met. Sure, she hadn’t met many, but she had suspicions that if she did, they wouldn’t be anywhere close to Brandon.

          He’d seen her out jogging one morning. She’d been on her way home and happened to catch his attention as he was jiggling a shiny new key into his front door’s lock. “Well hey there neighbor!” he earnestly greeted with a large sweeping wave. “Why don’t you come on in for a glass of water? You look like you could use a break.” Finley had pushed herself further than she meant to that day. And even though she was only a few houses away from her own, his sweet drawl convinced her to accept his offer. They became friends soon after.

          Brandon came from a faraway town that he didn’t like to talk about much. All Finley could gather from his past was that he was an ex-military man, which explained the hard look he had on the outside. The hard, but incredibly handsome, swoon-worthy even, look. He had not yet found a job in Willow Creek and was living off the savings he brought with him. By not having to go to work, Brandon had plenty of free time to spend chatting with the very pregnant Finley.

          Despite her not being romantic in any sort of way with Brandon, and the fact that she and Manu were not in an official relationship, she still avoided telling her children’s father about her increasingly frequent social sessions. She did mention that she started visiting a friend, but that was the only detail she’d spout.

          Finley had only known Brandon for a short amount of time, but she found talking to him to come incredibly natural to her. They sometimes watched television or shared a meal, but mostly they just sat chatting for hours. Brandon was the first person she confided in about her abnormal start in life. They’d been lightly discussing his parents, another topic he seemed to dodge around (that could be said about anything correlating to his past). When he asked if she was from around the area, she blurted out that she’d simply come into consciousness in front of her house not so long ago. He laughed at first, not sure if she was serious. “Hey, I’m telling the truth!” she gave him a light slap on the arm. “I really did just pop up one day.” She bit her lower lip. “Could I tell you something without you judging me?”

“Hey now, you know I’m not like the other chatty Cathy’s around here. I wouldn’t ever judge you.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Finley raised an eyebrow at him, knowing that even he wasn’t that good of a person. Nobody possibly could be. With a short sigh, she did settle on telling him though. “I believe that someone went through the trouble of making me. I have a creator, and sometimes I can even hear them speak to me. Is that too weird? Am I crazy?”

Brandon grinned, though not in a mean sort of way. “Finn, lots of people believe in a whole lotta different things. Some people believe in the Watcher—praise Him—and others believe that there’s a giant llamacorn in the sky, shedding its coat to bring on the night. It’s not my job, or anyone’s job, to say who is right or wrong. If you say you have a creator, then I believe that you must have a creator.”

His words almost brought tears to her eyes. She could never imagine telling Manu about her beginning. She knew that he’d never be able to give a response even half as good as that. Finley hadn’t necessarily thought of her creator as a secret until she felt a massive relief after confiding in her friend. Before she left that day, she gave him the tightest hug of her life. She didn’t even care that she was sweaty from her jog and heavily weighed down by her second child.

          Near the end of her pregnancy, Finley had a surprise while she was working in her garden. Somehow, she’d missed hearing his sneakers on the cement sidewalk and even on the normally creaky steps. It wasn’t until he knocked that she realized that Brandon was standing on her stoop. “Is this a bad time?” he asked with a bright grin. “Figured I could swing by and pay you the visit today. I still haven’t seen your house, and I want to meet Manu and little Eddie.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Finley got to her feet, brushing some loose dirt off the front of her jeans.

          There was a bad feeling in her gut as soon as she led Brandon through the door. Manu was watching TV, so far unaware of their guest. “I s’pose it is a little plain, but I still think your home is lovely,” Brandon announced. His eyes were taking in her tiny house while his arms swung back and forth in front of him.

“Who’s that?” Manu asked. There was a certain irritableness in his voice.

Finley hoped that her sudden nerves wouldn’t show through. “Manu, this is my friend, Brandon. He’s the neighbor I’ve been stopping by to see sometimes.”

Manu stood and Brandon took two steps towards him, hand extending outwards. He halted when he saw the fisherman’s eyes narrow.

“I didn’t think you were seeing a guy.”

“Well, I didn’t really think it mattered that much.”

“Really?” he scoffed. “You don’t think it’s inappropriate for a woman whose carrying one man’s child to be alone in another man’s house?”

Finley opened her mouth to speak, but Brandon beat her to it. “I do apologize Sir, I’ve only just now thought about how our friendship could be taken. I assure you that nothing funny has been going on between the two of us.”

Manu held his gaze for a steady moment, then shrugged and returned to his seat on the couch.

          For an early dinner, Finley decided on preparing a quick garden salad. Her hands were shaking too badly to be tasked with creating anything hot, and she was trying to eat healthier anyways. Unfortunately, her nerves were too strong to even make a decent salad. She grabbed the older bag of iceberg that was far gone past the expiration date, and then drenched the browning leaves with too much dressing. The meal was of such poor quality that it even emanated a green aura.

       Pregnancy tended to make Finley anything but a picky eater, so she happily picked at her unfortunate salad. The two men exchanged questioning looks. Eventually Brandon dared selecting a single leaf of lettuce with his fork. He only brought it to his mouth out of politeness. Once he’d finished his first bite, Manu’s upper lip curled before he forced a rather large bite into his own mouth. Sensing competition, Brandon continued to eat and soon the two had polished off their bowls. They each seemed proud of their accomplishment for a moment.

       As Finley took her time finishing the dinner, Brandon tried to start several conversations. Manu shot each one down mercilessly. Even civil openers, like how the weather had been great, fell victim to Manu’s distaste for the other man. “What kind of a statement is that? It’s always the same. Either it’s bright out or it’s night.”

       Once she’d finished eating, Brandon helped Finley clear the dirtied bowls and forks. Manu went to work on a more edible dish (probably to get the taste of rancid salad out of his mouth), leaving the couch free for the two of them to enjoy some television. From the outside, it appeared like any of the other channel surfing sessions they shared at his house. Finley could feel an air of tension tight enough to snap though. And as soon as Manu finished eating and disappeared into the bedroom, Brandon gave solidity to it. “Your boyfriend is a real jerk, Finn.”

She could have corrected him and said that they weren’t even at a boyfriend/girlfriend level, but she left it at, “Yeah, I know.”

          Finley waited until after Brandon was gone to retire to her bed, as common decency states one should do. Manu rose once she settled down onto the mattress. Without a word, he left the room.  As she struggled for sleep on top of the covers, she heard the front door open and then close.