Jensen carefully squeezed the purple frosting out onto the top of the cake in perfect script letters. He smiled as he finished the words “Happy Birthday,” and he started in on the letter “L.” He remembered that Alec mentioned his birthday was around the first week of November, too, as he continued decorating his baking masterpiece.

The loud pounding on the front door came as a complete surprise. The bottom end of the “L” suddenly turned into a line spreading halfway across the cake. Jensen growled, “Damn! What the hell?”

He laid the pastry bag down on the counter, and the pounding started again. It sounded like someone slamming the front door with a bowling ball. Jensen called out, “Cool it! I’m coming! I don’t need a broken front door!”

Jensen peered around the curtain to the right of the door. It was a huge man, but something about the way he had his hands shoved in his jacket pockets and his head slightly lowered took away from any sense of threat. Jensen pulled the door open and asked, “What’s this about? Have you got a stalled car or something?”

“I’m a friend of your neighbor.”

Jensen smiled. “Cindi’s got a new boyfriend? She told me she had to go see her parents this weekend. She should have told you that.”

“Cindi? No, your neighbor Alec. We go way back.”

Jensen’s smile faded. He pointed toward the left. “You mean in this house?” He started to say he didn’t know Alec had friends, but he held his tongue. “What do you want with me?”

“Can I come in first? It’s cold out here, and I didn’t wear the right coat.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Jensen held the door open wider. He wasn’t used to letting strangers into his house, but something in the man’s expression told him that everything was okay. So few people probably knew that Alec lived next door.

The man held out a hand to shake and said, “I’m Gerald. My friends call me Beef. Actually, everybody does. Even my wife.”

Jensen chuckled lightly. He said, “I can’t imagine why.” As they shook, Jensen added, “I’m Jensen.”

Beef said, “I guess I’ll get right to the point. I was next door visiting Alec, and I was upset by what I found. Do you know what’s going on over there?”

“Well, you don’t need to stand right here if we’ve got something to discuss. Why don’t you have a seat? I can get you something warm to drink. Coffee? Tea?”

“Tea? Really? I thought I was the only guy around that still drank tea. Yeah, that would be good if it’s not a bother.”

“No problem if you don’t mind it brewed from a K-cup.”

Beef chuckled. “That’s the easiest way.” He found his way to the couch while Jensen headed for the kitchen. Beef called from the living room, “Do you know Alec? He’s your next-door neighbor. I expect you’ve at least seen him.”

“I don’t know him much more than that.” Jensen stared at the cake and sighed while he hit the button for the cup of tea. He dug his mom’s old Tupperware cake cover out from behind the pans in the lower cupboard. At least it would keep the cake moist until he could get back to the decorating.

Beef looked around the room while he waited. In a gravelly voice loud enough for Jensen to hear, he said, “Wow, what a contrast. You’ve got a nice place here. I love the old bungalows. They should never have stopped building houses like this.”

A minute later, Jensen returned carrying a mug. “A contrast? You mean from Alec’s house? My friends call me a neatnik. I don’t think I’m that bad. I like it tidy. My mom raised me that way.”

Beef reached for the mug. “Didn’t you get yourself something?”

“Oh, I had a mug of tea about half an hour ago. I was decorating a birthday cake when you pounded on the door. I thought you were going to break it down.”

Beef sipped the tea and set the mug down on a coaster. “Oh, man, I’m sorry about that. Sometimes I do get carried away. I’ve got big hands, and, well, yeah.” He held up a hand with the palm facing out and smiled. “Sometimes I forget how strong these are.”

Jensen grinned. “Lethal weapons. Anyway, you said something upset you next door at Alec’s place. I have to admit I don’t know Alec very well at all. I know his mom died recently, and that’s hard for anybody.”

“Have you seen him in the last few days?”

Jensen quickly calculated that it was nearly two weeks since he took the lasagna next door. Since then, he didn’t think he’d seen Alec outside. It could have happened, and he didn’t notice, but nothing stood out in his memory. Jensen said, “No. I guess the last time I saw him was almost two weeks ago. I took some food over after his mom passed. I knew she was sick, but I didn’t know she’d died until I got there.”

Beef leaned forward. “Did you see any signs of drugs while you were there?”

Jensen shivered. He didn’t know why it never occurred to him that Alec could be an addict. He had plenty of students through the years that struggled with addiction in their families. Alec’s loner behavior would match a lot of profiles. He said, “No, I didn’t, but I have to admit I wasn’t looking for that.”

“Do you know what to look for?”

“Well, yeah, if I was searching for it. I’m a counselor at a middle school. There are plenty of kids who struggle with addicts in the family. Did you find something?”

“So you’re a professional. That means this conversation can be confidential, right?”

Jensen nodded slowly. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know what was going on next door in Alec’s house, but his professional ethics wouldn’t let him back away. “Yes, this is all confidential. What did you find?”

Beef pulled the bottle of pills from his pocket. “The label says, ‘Coral Samaras.’ I assume that’s his mom. It’s the same as Alec’s last name. I found it in the bathroom without a lid. He didn’t deny taking at least a few pills.”

“He did say his mom’s name was Coral.” Jensen set his mug of tea on the coffee table and rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans. “Do you think he took a lot? When I was there, he was lucid and didn’t act like he was high on anything.”

Beef shrugged. “It’s impossible to tell. Alec spoke normally, and he wasn’t acting like he was in the clouds, but that house is a pit. He’s not taking care of himself. I went shopping with him for food, and I made sure he got home with some decent fresh vegetables, meat, and fruit.”

Jensen nodded. “His house was a mess the last time I was there, but I don’t think housekeeping’s the first thing on your mind when your mom’s dying there. It didn’t surprise me that much.” Jensen realized he sounded like he was defending Alec, and that wasn’t his intent. Still, he thought it was important to look at the overall picture. “Can I ask how you know him?”

“We’ve been friends for years. We started as friends at work. I brought him home from the bar one time after he drank a little much when we wrapped up a show. He helped me out the same way a few times. I’m no saint, but I’ve got a wife, and these days I’m clean. I have a few beers once in a while, but that’s it.”

“Congratulations. It’s not an easy road. I know that. To give you a little more context, my last visit went well for most of the time I was there. Alec was fully lucid. I didn’t pick up on any signs of intoxication by either drugs or alcohol. We drank a beer together, but he stopped after one. He did show a temper. That can be a sign, but it’s also very common when dealing with grief. I’d hesitate to draw any conclusions from the anger.”

Beef laughed softly. “Alec’s always had a temper. That would be nothing new. If he was angry, that was a sure way to tell that he was alive and still engaged with the world. Some of us are a little more wired than others. That’s Alec.” Beef leaned forward again. “Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not here to make him look bad. He’s a good man. I’m concerned. Will you help?”

Jensen felt a warm sensation in his heart when he heard someone else say Alec was a good man. In addition to the sad stories of kids who had parents end up in prison or in a casket due to their addictions, Jensen also heard plenty of cases of parents who cleaned up their acts. So many of them were warm, gentle people underneath the weight of problems that accumulated throughout their lives. He’d met them.

“Help? I’m not sure about what I can do. As I said, I don’t know Alec well. That last visit was the first time I’d ever seen the inside of his house, and I’ve lived next door for three years.”

Beef reached out and slapped Jensen’s thigh. “Maybe it’s time for you to get to know Alec better. Neighbors shouldn’t be strangers.”

Jensen was always uncomfortable with suggestions that he make the first move. That was the primary reason for dragging his feet with the lasagna. “I..I don’t know if I can do that.”

Beef’s mouth curled up into a frown. “You’re not willing to check up on your neighbor once in a while? I’m not asking you to move in.”

Jensen shook his head. “Oh, it’s not that. My visit ended badly. He sort of threw me out.”

“You did something to him?” Beef quickly scanned Jensen’s body. “You don’t look like a guy who could hurt Alec…much.”

“Let’s just say there was a disagreement.” Jensen didn’t want to explain about the touching. He didn’t know if Beef knew Alec was gay, and the last thing Jensen wanted to find out was that a homophobe built like a boulder was sitting across from him in his living room.

“Then you’ve got some work to do.”

“I…” Jensen struggled for words.

Beef squeezed his thigh. Jensen winced at the tight grip. Beef said, “I’ll help you out. In fact, let’s share cell numbers. I can get here quickly if something goes ass up. It’s only a five-minute drive. Let’s put together a plan. You’re a good man. You do good work. You won’t turn your back on Alec. Right?”

Jensen felt the flight response stirring itself in his gut. It was ready to pull out a sword to fight with the crusader spirit that got him into counseling in the first place. Fortunately, Beef’s presence tipped the scales. He was so earnest. Jensen didn’t want to disappoint him. Social pressure is an effective weapon, even when it’s waged against a well-trained psychology professional.

Jensen said, “No, I won’t abandon him. I suspect you already have most of the plan drawn up. What do you want me to do? I’m not moving in with him. I can’t protect him from all of his shadows.”

“It’s simple. I want you to stop by. Maybe you can do it twice a week. Even better would be if you get Alec to go somewhere with you. Get him out of that damned house. Get him away from the ghost of his mom. You said she lived there before she died, right?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, shit, that’s rough. My grandpa lived in our house when I was a kid while he was sick. As an adult, I think my mom should have sent him somewhere like a nursing home that could have taken better care of him, but she didn’t. She waited hand and foot on her dad. She told us as kids that he could get better. He didn’t. It was a steady decline downhill that lasted about six months. One night she took him back to the hospital, and he never came home again. I refused to set foot in the bedroom where he was sick for the next year.”

Jensen started to respond with, “But...”

Beef lowered his head into his hands for a moment before looking up again. “Just do it, man! Grow some balls. You might save a life. Isn’t that what your profession is about?”

Beef knew how to strike where it hurt. “I don’t know that I save lives.” As soon as the line tumbled out of his mouth, Jensen wished he could take it back.

Leaning forward, Beef growled, “If there’s not at least one of those kids who didn’t kill himself because you listened, and you helped him find other people to talk to, then you’re not doing your job. I know that for a fact. I was there. I had friends who were there. Counselors talked me off the ledge. You’re going to help keep Alec alive. Don’t tell me no.”