Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

L uke had gone out with some friends for an impromptu Christmas party after his shift so now he was walking home with his shoulders hunched against the cold, his hands buried in his pockets. It was bitter tonight, like whoa. Still, it had been a fun couple of hours, even if he hadn’t been drinking. Because he didn’t want to be hungover for his shift tomorrow and Matilda was the designated driver, he figured he’d hang out with her and they could make fun of everyone else’s drunk selves.

He had stuffed himself with bar food, though, and he was pleasantly full. One of the reasons he’d decided to walk home. Besides, he didn’t live that far from the bar.

He heard a commotion coming from an alley as he passed by and he glanced over, frowned, and stopped. There were a bunch of kids—teenagers by the looks of them—harassing a homeless guy. What a bunch of assholes. He’d just decided to head down there and make them scatter when a couple of them pulled out their dicks and started peeing on the guy.

Fuck no, not on his watch. He charged down the alley. “Hey, you fuckers! Stop that right now!”

They all turned toward him, one guy still peeing and getting the piss on his friend. Good, they deserved exactly what they were dishing out.

“What’re you going to do about it?”

He waved his phone. “I dialed 911 is what I’m doing about it.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“He’s bluffing!”

“I’m not sticking around to find out. My parents get called and I am screwed.”

The majority seemed to agree with the guy ready to bolt, and the one who seemed to want the fight hesitated for only a moment before running to catch up with them.

Luke went farther into the alley. “Dude. Dude, are you okay?”

The grunt from the guy curled up next to the garbage scow sounded awfully familiar.

“Seriously, it’s too cold to be wet. And I’m not going to hurt you, I swear.” He put his phone in his pocket and went to help the guy get up.

He got a glimpse of a face, and he stopped cold for a moment. “Chris?” Chris was homeless? Why hadn’t he said anything? Luke would have been happy to help out. Right, like homeless people went around announcing it like they were proud of it. Don’t be an idiot, he told himself.

“Hey, Chris. Come on. It really is too cold to be out here and be wet. You have to be uncomfortable. Come back to mine. We’ll get you a shower and throw your stuff into the washing machine.” And then he’d insist that Chris stay with him for a while because it was too damn cold out here, period.

“If I’d known they were going to do that, I’d have fought back.” Chris fell into step beside him, reluctance in every movement. He did continue to walk with Luke, though, so Luke was taking that as a good sign.

“Why didn’t you before that?”

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone. They were just teenagers.”

“Getting hurt might have taught them a lesson.”

“I didn’t need to be the one teaching it.” There was a world of weariness and pain in the words.

“Of course. Yeah. You’re right. You did the right thing. And then they doubled down on being assholes, eh?” Luke shook his head. He wished there really was a Santa and that these guys got nothing but coal in their stockings.

He was downwind of Chris for the last half-block and damn, the piss was rank.

“Are you sure?” Chris asked when they got to his door, hanging back.

“Of course I’m sure. I was going to insist you come in and get you and your clothes clean even before I realized it was you, so just come on already.” He got the door unlocked and held it open.

Chris went in, and Luke followed him up, then let him into the apartment.

“Okay, you know where the bathroom is. Strip and leave your stuff outside the door. I’ll get the washer going.” He noticed Chris’s backpack and he nodded to it. “If you’ve got any other clothes, I’ll wash them too. That way, I’m not wasting water on a small load,” he added in case Chris was going to get proud and refuse the offer.

Chris met his eyes, and Luke made sure not to let any pity show. He was this man’s friend, and there were no strings attached to the helping hand he was holding out. And he wasn’t doing it out of pity, either. He was doing it because he was a decent human being, and helping out another human being was just the right thing to do.

“Thanks,” Chris finally said and headed toward the bathroom.

Luke went to his washer tucked in at the back of the kitchen and opened it up, adding as much soap as the container would allow. If it needed a second go-round so be it; he’d learned the hard way that extra soap didn’t mean extra cleaning power, it meant soap seeping out of the washer and getting everywhere.

Then he went to the hall in front of the bathroom to collect Chris’s stuff. Along with his coat, hat, mitts, and scarf, there were a couple pairs of jeans, five pair of underwear, five T-shirts and a heavy sweater.

Luke put everything in a laundry basket, so he didn’t have to touch any of the piss-covered items, then dumped the whole thing into the washing machine. He debated on whether to run a hot or cold load, but decided they needed the hot, and if anything shrank, he would replace it. He got the machine started up and then washed his hands.

Then he set out to make some hot chocolate. Once he got that started, he rummaged around in the fridge for the ready-to-bake cookies he knew were in there. He found them near the back, pleased to see they were chocolate chip, then he checked the best-by date on them, hoping they weren’t too old. They were still good for a few more days, so score.

He turned on the oven and cut the log into large cookies, setting the dough on a tray and putting it on the counter until the oven was heated up.

He wished he had a fireplace, even just a small gas one, so he could put it on for Chris, but he didn’t. He figured hot chocolate and freshly baked warm cookies would have to do. Oh, and blankets. Lots of blankets. One for Chris to wear in lieu of clothes to start with.

He found a lighter blanket that Chris could wrap around himself, and he knocked on the bathroom door.

“I’m just going to slip in a blanket for you to wear until your clothes are washed and dried, okay?”

He waited until Chris grunted at him, then opened the door just wide enough to drop the blanket on the floor by the door. As luck would have it, that was where the register was, so he went to the thermostat and nudged the heat up so it came on. That way the blanket would be nice and warm.

He grabbed his extra pillow and a couple more blankets and set them at the end of the couch so Chris knew he could stay overnight. Then he hotfooted it back to the kitchen to make sure he didn’t burn the milk.

The oven was nearly at temperature, too, so he threw the cookies in and set the timer to twenty minutes. Then he babysat the milk, stirring slowly after throwing in the chocolate mix.

He couldn’t believe someone he knew was homeless. That was harsh anytime, but as cold a winter as they were having, it was even harsher. He wished he’d known sooner. He wasn’t sure what he would have done, but he definitely would have done something. He knew he could help. He wasn’t entirely convinced that Chris would let him, but he was determined not to let Chris spend the rest of the winter out on the streets.

By the time Chris finally got out of the shower, their hot chocolates and a plate of cookies were on the coffee table and Luke was scrolling through his non-Christmas-themed options for movies. Chris had been in the shower forever, but Luke guessed he didn’t blame the guy.

“Hey. Come and sit. There’s hot chocolate and cookies. For Santa,” he added, deadpan.

Chris blinked at him for so long, Luke thought maybe he’d misstepped badly. Then Chris gave him a terse smile.

“Ha, ha,” he said.

Luke beamed at him. “I figured we could watch another movie together? I really enjoyed it last time.” He wasn’t bullshitting, either. He enjoyed Chris’s company. A lot.

“Sure.” Chris sat next to him on the couch and pulled one of the extra blankets over his legs. Luke just smiled at him.

He knew they were going to have to talk about Chris being homeless and what they were going to do about it, but he was willing to give Chris time to process what had happened earlier tonight. And he wasn’t going to make a big thing out of it, but he was not letting Chris continue to be homeless. Not when he had a perfectly good apartment and was willing to share.