His phone buzzed at two-seventeen.
He was mid-email, the kind that required concentration, and he glanced at the screen with the intention of ignoring it until he was done.
Then he saw the number.
Meridian Medical.
He stood up.
"Excuse me," he said, to no one in particular, and walked to the corridor.
He answered on the third ring.
"Mr. Valez. This is the billing department at Meridian Medical. Regarding your mother's account…"
He already knew what was coming.
He pressed his back against the corridor wall and listened and kept his face completely neutral in case anyone walked past and looked at him, which was a reflex he'd developed at seventeen and had never managed to lose.
The deposit. Larger than the last one. Required by end of week.
"I understand," he said. "I need to arrange a payment plan."
