Page 111 of Don't Cross Mo Ellery

A breeze wafts out of the bathroom and I gag.

It’s time to make some videos.

Pasttime.

An hour later, the apartment has fully aired out and I have some great material. Turns out punk rock dogs who can do tricks are excellent video subjects. Marlowe was really on to something.

I cleverly cut the ten minutes of Jacques ignoring me, Jean eating my shoe, and Louis XIV dragging his butt on my kitchen mat, and with a few special effects—boom.I have some very compelling adoption videos of three cuddly, well-behaved poodles.

As I fold Eva’s stolen green screen, I can’t help but think how much fun Hannah and I would have had doing this together. We’ve never had a fight this big, but it can’t be the end of the friendship. Right? Maybe it’s time I come clean, tell her about the murders, bribery, etc.? Let her know what I’ve been up to lately?

Nope. I can’t drag her into this shit show. I definitely wish Claudia had never draggedmeinto it.

And I especially don’t want Hannah to thinkI’mjust usingherfor advice. Not after I accused her of using other people. I won’t tell her about the murders. I’ll just see how she’s doing. Is that so hard?

I pull out my phone.

Me:Hey so I was a dick, and I’m really really sorry. You’re right. I’ve been super self-involved, and not at all present for you. I want to make it up to you. Can we meet up and talk? Name the time and place

I hit send and wait, but there’s no activity on her end. I probably deserve that. After a minute of waiting pathetically, just watching my lock screen, I toss it on my chair and roll up the green screen to keep it from wrinkling.

And then the phone rings.

It’s a video call from Hannah, and when I swipe to accept, I see that she’s crying. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Can you... get a drink right now?” she asks through tears, wiping a hand across her face.

I probably shouldn’t drink before my afternoon shift, but this is clearly an emergency, and I need to prove to Hannah (and myself? ) that I can do better.

Time to get my priorities straight.

“Absolutely. Where?”

“Not out here—somewhere near you,” she says, her voice catching.

We plan to meet up at Dickie’s, which is maybe becoming my place, against all odds.

I don’t want to bring the dogs along and annoy Hannah any morethan I already have. But they’re all hyped up from shooting the videos (and all the snack bribes I gave them) and can’t be left alone for that long. Too much temptation to do something terrible to my poop-free floors.

I text their favorite human and get a response right away.

Benny:Do you think I sit around all day waiting for dogs to hang out with

Me:Not only that, I think you have a picture of the poodles as my avatar on your phone

Benny:Guilty as charged

Benny:I reluctantly agreed to train Charlie today, buuuuuut

Me:???

Benny:I’ll reschedule

A few minutes later, we meet at the dog park by the school for the handoff.

“Thanks for doing this,” I say. “You’re gonna have to put it on my tab though. My dog handler budget is pretty tapped out.”

“Don’t worry, I actually turned down apaidgig to do this,” he says. “This one’s pro bono.”