A Toony Kind of Love

Chapter 3 - I Don't Work For Toons!

"Hey Mister. Ain't you got a car?" One of the boys asked.

"Who needs a car in L.A.? We've got the best public transportation system in the world." Eddie answered.

...

The trolley was coming up to the Red Car parking place, where all the trolleys were kept during off hours. A new sign was being put up outside of it, reading 'Now a Cloverleaf Industry' though not many paid much mind to this.

Eddie and (Y/N) hopped off the back of the trolley as the boys waved them off. They both turned to wave them off as well, (Y/N) having a silly spin in her turn due to her toony nature, which made the boys giggle.

"See ya later." The eldest boy shouted out to them.

"Thanks for the cigarettes." Eddie called back, pocketing the two the boy had given him.

The pair walked across the road and over to an apartment building, where a sign hung lopsided on the side of it and read 'Valiant and Valiant Private Investigators'. Eddie walked over to it, turning it right side up and popped the loose screw back in, to hopefully hold the sign up for a while until it eventually fell over again.

(Y/N) glanced at the sign with empathetic eyes as it had been falling more and more frequently. It wasn't going to hold much longer by the looks of it.

"Hi Eddie. How's it going?" A mailman casually asked him.

"Okay. What you got for me?" 

(Y/N)'s gaze turned to one of worry as the mailman handed Eddie a pretty hefty stack of envelopes, simply stating, "The usual bills."

He went inside the building to deliver to other apartments while Eddie was left to pace nervously outside. He didn't seem to stay nervous as he glanced over at the bar, occupied close-by to the trolley station. He simply tossed the stack of letters into the trash, much to the concern of (Y/N).

"You coming, (Y/N)?" He asked.

"You go on ahead, Eddie. I'll catch up." She politely replied, a sweet smile plastered on her face.

Eddie didn't pay it much mind as he walked over the street and towards the bar. Once he was already over, (Y/N) quickly leapt over to the trash, digging out the letters and began to open them. She didn't like going behind Eddie's back like this but she worried too much to not do it.

She adjusted her glasses as she looked down at the bills. Almost all of them were warnings or overdue notices. And it worried her to no end. She wasn't going to make many excuses for him but she knew this wasn't the Eddie she had been long-time friends with. He had changed since his brother's death and had been drinking himself into numerous blackouts since then. He also didn't have a steady stream of clients, for multiple reasons - mostly him turning them down.

And he turned down very specific clients too, much to her disappointment and sadness.

But, even when Eddie was doing all this bad stuff to himself, (Y/N) refused to give up on him. She'd find a way to help him out...even if it meant looking for better employment.

...

Eddie walked up the stairs and into the bar, greeting a few of the locals and making sure they were well before heading towards the counter. He passed a man who was asleep on the table, snoring away loudly with a half-drunk beer in his hand.

Eddie merely plopped the man's hat back on his head before asking one of the guys by the counter, "What's with Earl?"

The man wrote down on a small paper pad tied around his neck before showing it to Eddie.