Page 9 of Isolated (Harper Security Ops #21)

Iris

When it rained, it poured.

Or so the saying goes.

But it appeared that I was battling something just a bit more powerful than a late summer thunderstorm. This felt like the unrelenting battering of hurricane-force winds, rain, and destruction.

Because as though the ridiculousness that I was dealing with at work wasn’t enough, I now had a problem at home.

It was late Tuesday afternoon, and I’d just gotten back to my place after a long day at work. Fortunately, there hadn’t been anything unreasonable that had happened at work today, nothing new since the lunchroom stares and resentment coming my way last week as a result of the consultant interviews.

Today’s problem began when I’d gotten home from the gym.

Truth be told, it seemed the gym was now the only place where I could expect to have some normalcy.

And though I never mentioned it to him, my workout sessions with Landen were one of the only things left providing me with a sense of peace.

Obviously, I was aware that exercise itself was a great form of stress relief, but that I got that while being around him made it so much better.

Of course, any stress I’d rid myself of this morning had returned with a vengeance the moment I’d gotten back home.

I’d been forced to take a cold shower. While that could have been intentional in some scenarios—no doubt I had moments after workouts with Landen where it might have been necessary—that was not the case today.

Nope.

No matter that I’d turned the water to boiling, all I got was miserable, ice-cold water.

It was the worst shower I could ever recall taking in my entire adult life.

Sadly, I hadn’t been able to stick around the house earlier today in order to deal with the problem.

With the way things were going at work, I needed to be on my A-game.

There wasn’t a chance I was going to do anything to create any additional doubt about my ability to do my job and do it well.

So, I went to work, did my job, and avoided the lunchroom.

Granted, my reason for steering clear of that spot had been two-fold.

I was still seeing so many sidelong glances from my colleagues, and it was clear many of them believed I played a part in the steps being taken by the consultant that Robert had hired.

And though Kasey and Steph felt some uneasiness about it, they hadn’t shunned me. Thankfully, they seemed to believe I was just as surprised by the news of the interviews as the rest of our coworkers.

I could have joined them for lunch today as I did yesterday and ignored the stares and quiet murmurs from others as I walked past, but the other reason I decided to remain in my office was so that I could deal with the latest catastrophe in my life.

I’d spent my entire lunch break making calls to find someone who might be able to diagnose and repair the problem with my water.

For most of my life, I’d excelled at coming up with solutions to problems. But it had been rare to have this much trouble all at once.

And in most of those instances, the issues weren’t exactly impacting me directly.

It was almost always related to a problem a client, friend, or family member might have been having.

My hot water situation was not something I was equipped to deal with.

And while some of the folks I’d called during my lunch break had offered to help me, timing was the issue.

Everybody seemed to be swamped, and the soonest anyone could help was a week away.

With everything else going on in my life, having to add a week or more of cold showers to the mix was likely to push me over the edge to insanity.

At this point, all I’d wanted was to come home, call my sisters to check in, and make myself a delicious dinner. But it seemed that was going to have to wait, because I needed to continue making calls.

“What are you running for?”

I spun around at the sound of Walter’s voice. Judging by the rocker that was moving on his porch, it appeared he’d been outside enjoying the weather, but now he was making his way in my direction.

Sometimes, he did this. Every so often, Walter would approach me when I got home from work, simply because he wanted to have a conversation with someone. Normally, I didn’t mind, and I understood he was lonely. But I really didn’t have the time today.

As he closed the distance between us, I answered, “Oh, hi, Walter. I’m so distracted, I didn’t even see you sitting outside.”

“Is everything okay?”

I shook my head. “Not exactly. I’ve got a fire I need to put out.”

“A fire? Where?”

“A figurative one,” I clarified. “Something is wrong with my hot water. I had to take a cold shower this morning, and everyone I’ve called today in hopes they might be able to come and look at it can’t come out for at least a week.”

“It’s probably your hot water heater. I can check it out for you.”

Shocked, I asked, “You know how?”

He shrugged. “It’s pretty easy. If you touch the tank and it’s cold, that’s usually a good sign the hot water heater needs to be replaced.”

“Oh. Okay. You wouldn’t mind?”

“I don’t have anything else to do at the moment.”

At least I could have an official diagnosis of the problem. It might not fix it, but it’d get me one step closer. “I’d really appreciate that, Walter.”

He followed me inside, and I led him down into the basement. Sure enough, the hot water tank wasn’t warm.

“So, this means the hot water heater needs to be replaced?” I asked him.

“Yep.”

“Great,” I muttered. “I have to try to find someone that can do that.”

“For what? ”

At this point, all I could do was laugh. “Well, I prefer to take warm showers. And I know this may come as a shock to you, but I do not have the skills to replace it myself. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“I can do it.”

Surprise mixed with an immense sense of relief. “You can?”

Walter puffed up his chest with pride. “I did my own about two years ago. I think it was right before you moved in.”

More tension eased out of my body. “Oh, Walter, you’d be doing me a huge favor, and I’d owe you big time. When could you do it?”

“I already told you I don’t have anything else to do right now.

We’ll just need to run out to pick up a new water heater, and I can take care of the rest. If you want to save time, it might help to decide on which one you want and confirm they’ve got it at the store first. This way, we won’t need to be running all over town looking for one that’s going to be an easy replacement for this one.

Unless, of course, you wanted to switch to an on-demand system. ”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “I want whatever is going to be easiest and will get me up and running quickly again.”

“Fair enough.”

Walter and I went back upstairs, where I pulled out my work laptop so we could look at my options. Fortunately, I was able to put in my location and find our local store, and that allowed us to see what units were in stock. Just as we found one that would work, my phone rang.

“Oh, can you excuse me for one second? That’s my sister. ”

“Sure. I’m not going anywhere.”

I got up from the table, leaving Walter to read over the details of the water heater as I answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, Iris.”

“What’s going on, Eleni?”

She sighed. “I told Flora I’d call you to let you know that we aren’t going to be able to make it out to visit this weekend. Something came up, and we need to reschedule.”

Just like we’d discussed when I went home to celebrate my birthday, my sisters were supposed to be coming out to spend time with me this weekend. I’d been looking forward to it. In fact, with everything going on, I thought I needed time with them more than anything else.

“Oh, no. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I just scored a large account at work, and I need to spend some extra time this weekend working through some stuff. I know that you, better than anyone else, can understand that.”

Disappointed, I paced in my kitchen. “Of course, I do. Congratulations on the account.”

“Thanks.”

“So, do you want to reschedule for the following week?”

Eleni didn’t immediately respond, which only served to increase my disappointment. “I would love to, Iris, but I didn’t actually talk to Flora about it. I’m not sure if she’s available. Maybe we can touch base sometime next week and figure things out.”

“Yeah, sure. That’ll work.”

“I’ll call you then.”

I moved out of the kitchen, looked at Walter, and noticed his eyes were narrowed on my computer screen like he was concerned.

Right.

I needed to deal with this water heater anyway.

“Sure, Eleni. I’ll talk to you next week.”

My sister and I said goodbye and disconnected our call. I returned to the table where Walter was sitting, and he quickly turned his attention to me. “Everything okay?”

“Just my sister needing to cancel her visit with my other sister out here this weekend. Anyway, I’m ready to get out of here when you are.”

The two of us wasted not an ounce of time. I should have already been making dinner—Walter likely hadn’t had anything to eat yet, either—and we were heading out to get a water heater.

Walter locked up his house, and he insisted on driving us in his truck.

I was beyond grateful for him. Over the years I’d been here, I’d asked for his help on small projects, mostly because I knew he liked feeling useful, but I hadn’t realized he’d be able to tackle something like this, too.

If I had known, I could have likely saved myself hours of stress today.

Since he’d been smart enough to suggest we locate a water heater before even leaving my house, we were able to run in, grab what we needed, and get out in no time at all. And before I knew it, we were pulling back into the driveway.

“I’m going to grab my hand truck to make moving this thing a bit easier.”

“Okay. Do you need my help getting this out of the truck?” I asked .