Page 30 of The Handyman
Hannah nodded with a littlehumpf.
“D— don’t you want to spend it on yourself? Or sell it online or something? Or just keep it and use it when you can?”
“I’m honestly not that concerned about it. I have a great job, and I figured that since you wanted to work in an office, you could use it more. Not to say you’re destitute or anything, but seriously, Riley, you budget down to the dollar. You deserve some blow-back-free splurging, and you need to go through all your clothes, anyway, right?” She giggled at my quizzical expression.
I ducked into my refrigerator to cool my flaming face.Were my struggles that obvious?
“So, tell me about this new guy.”
“Reece? He’s, like, my soul mate.” My utter lack of sarcasm settled the light atmosphere, and I grabbed my eggs to just toss them into the garbage without bothering to look at the date. “I messed up. I should’ve just stuck with my gut and stayed with him, but I didn’t, and—”
“There was no way of knowing you’d be good together outside your freaky sex stuff, though, so maybe all this is a good thing?”
Scrunching up my nose at that, I shut the refrigerator door to sigh, leaning against the sink.
Hannah pulled a chair up to drop heavily into it. “You’re right, though, Riley. You should always trust your gut in situations like that. And that sucks. But. . . like, it’s not like you’ll leave him again, right?”
“I asked him if he wanted to get married the other day.” Covering my face to keep my cheeks from melting off my skull, I flopped my head back to groan. Mortification slithered up my neck, and Hannah’s gasp rang in my ears. “I meant that— you know, if he ever thought that he would get married or something, but then he was all like ‘I’d rather the government not fuck me in the ass’ and whatever— which I expected, butcome on.”
“Pleasetell me you didn’t make it worse by saying something stupid, Riley.”
I felt as dumb as her tone sounded, but I shook my head anyway. My conversation with Reece was all I could think of for a second as I inhaled deeply through my nose. Even then, I couldn’t wash myself of my embarrassment.
Hannah stared at me. “What did he say?”
“He said that there’s a difference between a wedding and marriage, and that if he was gonna, he’d want to meet my parents first so he could tell my mom she’s a bitch.”
Hannah choked on her own spit in a shocked laugh.
I ran my hands down my face to lift my head. “I don’t know— maybe I’m jealous or something? Reece’s babysitting this uber-rich dude’s girlfriend, and for some reason, he‘s making her sleep on his couch. They have this huge tension, but I don’t think he realizes that she’s just miserable and sad.”
“Ew— is she one of those girls?”
Shaking my head quickly, my lips twisted sadly.
Hannah arched a brow. “Wanna invite her? I’m not paying though, but she’s probably got killer style? And if Reece hates her, why not?”
“Um, I wouldn’t say hehatesher, but he doesn’t want her around, and she doesn’t want to be around, so it’s contentious…yeah. I’ll ask.” Swiping my phone off the counter, I opened my texts to Reece to smile. “I’m supposed to get a call back from the person that interviewed me today.”
“You already got that in motion, huh? What company?” My mind went blank as I shot Reece a quick text, and I glanced up from my phone screen to lick my lips heavily. The interview with Vanessa had gone fantastic, and hope blossomed in my chest. “Brass Herring Solutions. They have branch offices all over the country and even in Canada. I did some research on them, but really not a lot. They marketeverything, like TV commercials for drugs and food and everything in between. It’s basically what I was doing before, but the huge difference is I’m not a contractor. The boss…I’m getting mixed signals. Reece says she’s a slave driver.”
“They all are.” Hannah nodded. “High-powered women like that are just control freaks in a position to exercise it. That’s great, though. Women bosses expect a lot higher quality work, but I’ve found they don’t nitpick as much compared to guys. And they don’t explode on you if you mess up.” She slumped in the chair. “I get glowing reviews, but the guy manager on my off shifts is an asshole. I don’t know why he’s not fired yet.”
My phone vibrated in my hand: ‘Reece: I will GLADLY drive you all anywhere you want to go. Just let me know when.’
“He said he’ll ‘gladly’— in all caps— take us where we want to go. You know, it’s really sad, honestly. I think Delilah is probably really nice ordinarily. Her boyfriend works overseas, so I guess, they’re not really dating, just sort of on and off again screwing around. But apparently, it’s been going on for almost five years. I can’t imagine how upsetting that must be. When she talked about him, she seemed so like soblah… like it just sapped the energy from her.” The more I thought about Delilah’s predicament, the sadder it seemed to have to live through. Her boyfriend was essentially stringing her along— the situation was probably a hell of a lot more complicated than I knew, but the essentials were the same.
He worked too much and didn’t spend time with her. That’d take a toll on anyone.
“Well, we’ll be her friends. It’ll be great. And who says shopping is a bad coping mechanism?” Hannah asked.
Chuffing lightly at that, I shook my head as I shot Reece a brief text.
22
Reece
“This issonice. . .” I stretched out in the driver’s seat of my car and pulled down the visor to savor being alone for the first time in a week. Delilah was such an unhappy person, and she had every right to be—butwow, was she a fucking drag.