Page 35 of Definitely Not a Thing

“Ugh, you sound like her,” I groaned. “When I told her what happened – after the fact, mind you, or she would’ve been on a plane immediately – she wassoconcerned about me being by myself in a building like this.”

Calvin’s head drew back. “What’s wrong with this building?”

“Nothing, not really. It’s just… older. She believes Ineedmodern amenities or someone to help me managenothaving them – which is why it was fine when I was living with Hunter.”

Calvin laughed.

Like… a full-blown fuckingguffaw.

“What was that for?!” I asked, mouth hanging open.

“My bad,” he said, clutching a hand to his chest. “I just… having met that nigga I cannot imagine him being useful for anything uh…”

“Maintenance-y?” I filled in, and Calvin snapped his fingers.

“Yeah. That.”

“Yeah – absolutely not,” I laughed. “She didn’t know – or hell, she probably did and was just letting me figure it out. EitherIfixed it with help from a video I found, or it was put in a maintenance request. Which… shit, maybe that should’ve been a little more of a red flag than it was.”

“Nah – not everybody is handy, you know? I’m not knocking him for that.”

“Oh, me either,” I explained. “The thing is, Ihatedthat shit. Like, I would be stressed out, crying, spending my whole day on a task that would’ve been a twenty minute thing for a professional. And Hunter would just be off doing his own thing while I suffered.”

“So why didn’t y’all just puteverythingon the maintenance list?”

“Because it made him feel like a bitch,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Calvin frowned. “And… having his lady stressed out over the faucet leakingdidn’t?”

“So you see the problem then,” I sighed. “Anyway though… I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Me either,” he scoffed. “Go back to what’s wrong with the building.”

“I already said it was nothing,” I laughed. “Just normalold buildingstuff.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be moving into a historic brownstone though?”

“Yeah – a renovated one. With a solar backup generator.”

Calvin whistled. “Nice.”

“Very,” I agreed. “No worries about a blackout – which, my mother anticipated, by the way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she sends me stuff all the time – random things from her online shopping hobby. Literally a few days ago, I come home to a package. It’s a damn portable air conditioner that runs on batteries and ice. Who even thinks of something like that?”

He leaned over the rail a bit, getting closer. “Wait a minute – we’re out here sweating and you’ve got an air conditioner that doesn’t need electricity?”

“Calvin… do I seem like I have what that thing needs to run?”

“Amelia… do I?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Yes, actually.” We stared at each for a moment before I stood. “Bring me another one of those margaritas when you come.”

“Bet.”

9/