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“Did you go through the normal procedure with the board? The interviews?”
                  Ozias looked more nervous now and he stared at his father with intensity. “Dad, let’s not worry Adira with 20 questions tonight. As you said you have a busy day tomorrow and she’s had an exhausting one. I’ll make sure she eats and doesn’t sleep on the floor tonight.” He turned towards me. “I have two extra bedrooms in my co-op. You are welcome to stay in one.” He held his hands up to stop me when he saw my mouth open to object. “I know we’re strangers and I know that under normal circumstances for me to even ask that of a woman I just met would be completely unorthodox, but I knew your aunt, quite well actually. My mom and dad did too. You will be safe with me. Claire was like family to me. Knowing you are her family, I would never do anything to harm you or make you feel unsafe. Each bedroom has a lock and I’ll even give you the emergency keys to each if that made you feel safer. Better yet, I could just stay at my parents and you could stay at my place. Either way, you really need to eat and rest so the most logical solution is for you to do both at my place.”
                  “My condolences to your family. Claire was a one of a kind woman. She’ll be greatly missed.” Doc said softly his brash demeanor softening. “She already is.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. Another trait that Ozias shared. “Son, just let your mom know what you’re going to do tonight. I’ll see you in the morning, Ms. McLeod.” He walked out of the co-op with a heaviness on his shoulders.
                  “I’m sorry about that. Dad and Claire, well, they were good friends.” Ozias said.
                  “I didn’t know she had any good friends here. She hadn’t shared much of her life with us in years. She moved here right after high school. I only saw her on holidays, weddings and funerals. Thank you for your offer. I am very hungry and tired so I will take you up on both, food and a bed. I can’t think about how insane a decision it is to stay with a strange man but right now my stomach and my body don’t care.”
                  He seemed surprised I agreed without a fight. “Great. Then how do you feel about Chinese? I can order delivery. There’s a great place close by.”
                  “Chinese sounds amazing.”
    He smiled that electric smile at me and I noticed a dimple on his left cheek and it made me warm all over. I smiled back as he came to help me with the crutches so we could go to his place.
                  “How tall are you?” He asked me.
                  “5’8”,” I said. This was the first time we were both standing and I realized we were the exact same height. I chuckled.
                  “Hey, no laughing at the short guy. I make up for it in other ways.” He glanced at me and turned red when he realized his remark could be taken in the wrong way.
                  “I didn’t mean---“
                  “Stop” I held my hand out. “I know you didn’t, but it was funny. I won’t judge you on your height if you won’t judge me on my looks. I can’t hold a candle to these supermodel women around here.” I waved my hand up and down my body to indicate I was referring to my curviness.
                  Ozias raised an eyebrow to that remark. “I don’t know what you see when you look in the mirror but I see only perfection in front of me now.” He clicked the crutches to the right height and handed them to me to try. “Keep your right foot off the ground. Place the crutches in front of you then step. Ok?”
                  I was too stunned by his perfection remark to care about the crutches. I took them anyway and robotically put them in front of me and then took a step with only my left foot. I was