Page 29 of The Handyman

“I’m gonna make breakfast. Eggs and bacon. You want any?”

“Yeah, please.”

Delilah looked and sounded so miserable, and my heart ached for her as she hoisted herself up to sit.

“How long have you two been together? Is Reece always such an ass?”

“Not always, no. We’ve only been dating a few weeks. What about you? The guy you’re seeing…it’s been a few years, right?”

Green eyes flashed behind her long, blonde eyelashes as she blinked blearily, only meeting my question with a heavy nod.

“Do you ever talk about the future or anything?” I asked curiously.

“There wasn’t a future until Darren got rid of that dick of a boss.” She inhaled deeply through her nose before standing up, raking her hands through her hair. Annoyance twisted her beautiful, sharp features. “He always said he’d leave when the time was right, but I was losing faith in him— which sucks, because I really love him. I just am not gonna wait around for another 5 years only to be disappointed all the time.”

“Are you excited he’s coming to the States?” Tossing the question over my shoulder as I headed for the kitchen, I frowned under tightly knit brows. How awful was it to love someone but have no future with him? This feeling that enveloped me with warmth and security and happiness— what if it had a time limit?

“As excited as I can be considering the circumstances, I think. He makes trips here and stuff, but Darren’s the kind of guy that likes to lump stuff together. I’m hoping that once we’re in the same hemisphere, that’ll change. I mean, logistically, I couldn’t be high up there on his list of priorities, but…He’s selling his black book to Santino in exchange for entrance. That’s not something to take lightly.”

What does that even mean? I popped open the fridge with a hum of acknowledgment.

Delilah sat down at the kitchen table to sigh dramatically. “Maybe, I’ll go back to being a teacher. I’m tired of all this powerplay drama stuff. This isn’t how I thought this would happen.”

Maybe, Delilah really has a lot to complain about.It got annoying because complaining was all she did, but— wow. Her life sucked! Loving a man that didn’t put her first— working a job she really didn’t like, but she didn’t want to be poor anymore— how crappy.

21

Riley

‘Riley: I’m waiting on this call back, still. How’s things going since you dropped me off?’

It’d only been about twenty minutes since Reece dropped me off at my apartment, but both of us had been reluctant. I didn’t want to leave my cozy, safe space with him, and he didn’t want to be stuck along with Delilah.It’s too bad, I got stuff to do here.

Laundry needed to be done, and I was waiting for Vanessa to call me back about whether or not I’d gotten the job. If I did, I wanted to go through all my clothes. I needed to go through my shoes, and things might need to be replaced if there was too much wear.

Right now, though, I was simply going through my refrigerator looking for items about to expire. Not having money to play around with was a blessing in disguise. Reaching to grab a package of sliced cheese, I turned it around in my hands and squinted to find the little date printed somewhere.

“Yeah…two days ago is bad.” Nothing mattered when I was with Reece. I never wanted to leave his bed or stop looking at him, and everything else was optional. Eating was optional.Breathingwas optional. There was nothing outside my field of vision— he was always in the center of it.

Tossing the cheese into the garbage, I snatched my phone as it buzzed from a call, and a wry smile stretched my lips. A fury of emotions sent shivers down my spine, but surprise rose my brows when I saw it was Hannah calling. “Hello?”

“Hey! Riley! I was just thinkin’ of you. This super rich lady from last night tipped me with a gift card to this place— Sophia’s Grand Boutique— and I just checked it, and it’s got like $10,000 on it. Wanna go shopping?”

I paused at the excitement that dribbled from Hannah’s tone, and the line crackled thickly against my cheek.

She went on enthusiastically, “I wasn’t very happy to take over those tables, but I’m glad I did. She was like, dripping diamonds and a huge bitch, and I thought she was gonna stiff me hard. While she was walking out, she said I looked a lot like a grandkid, and her grandkid loved this store, but everyone decided to go on vacation or something without her— it was really sad, actually. At least she had a reason to be grumpy, though.”

“U— uh…” I had no idea what to say to this.

Hannah giggled over the phone.

Her knocking on my apartment door echoed in my ear, and goosebumps washed my arms as I jumped. Hurrying across the kitchen, I unlocked the door to let her in, and she hung up to bop her head encouragingly. “I know I can’t spend it all myself. 75% of my clothes are work, and the other 25% are pajamas.Buuuuttt, you are trying to find a new job, yeah?” She bumped my hip playfully, and

I nodded dumbly as I tried to wrap my head around her offer.

Grinning ear to ear at me, Hannah slipped her phone into her ratty jeans to cross her arms under her bust. “Plus, I can’t cash it in or anything and I looked online, and their clothes are really much more your style.”

“My style?” Shutting the door, I did feel a bit excited now.