@vincent-carvalho
There were four schedules Phoenix had to juggle. His own and Bodhi’s were obvious. The other two were Juliana and her father’s. There were only certain times he was allowed into the Carvalho home. It was meant to be respectful. In truth, the chief didn’t like him there and Phoenix didn’t like being there with him. He felt like there was no reason for the man to hate him. The explanation was and had always been that Phoenix was a bad influence. He could admit that he’d done things which might lead someone to such a conclusion, but he didn’t think he influenced Juliana to do anything. They’d been friends for over fifteen years, and she still wouldn’t do half of the things he suggested. In fact, she would try to talk him out of most of his poor decisions. While it didn’t always work, he thought the more likely solution was that she was a good influence on him.
Nevertheless, he could sometimes make mistakes with whose schedule was whose. As he walked to Juliana’s, he had full confidence this wasn’t a day he’d needed to loiter at American Grub. Juliana should be home. She hadn’t responded to many of his text messages, but he assumed it meant she was busy. He was almost to her house when he looked at the time. Okay, there were a couple of hours until her father got off of work. Perfect. This meant he wouldn’t need to climb through the window like he was a teenager and not (what he considered to be) a grown ass man.
He knocked loudly at the door, wincing a little when he heard the dogs barking. as much as he loved her, Phoenix could never get used to Juliana’s dogs. He was shifting on his feet when the door opened and revealed someone who was very much not Juliana. There had definitely been some confusion on whose schedule he’d been looking at.
“Oh. Hey, chief!” Not Chief Carvalho. Not Mr. Carvalho. Not even Vincent. It was always chief.
