Page 123 of The Last One to Let You Down

Those words echoed in Tom’s mind the whole drive over to the funeral home. Even as his erection subsided, he was still running through an entire litany of erotic thoughts. He prayed as hard as he could that this would be a simple removal, and he’d be done quickly.

Once he arrived at work, he grabbed one of the suits he kept in his car to change into. He looked around to make sure there weren’t any monsters hiding in the shadows and hurried over to the back door.

He found Bosco inside the office getting all the removal paperwork together. They exchanged waves, and Tom went into the bathroom to get changed.

When he was ready, he met Bosco back in the office and headed outside to the van to get going.

“Thanks for helping out tonight,” Bosco said when they were both getting buckled up. “I know Scott appreciates it.”

“No problem.” Tom fidgeted, tugging at his seat belt. “Hopefully this will be easy, in and out.”

“In and out,” Bosco agreed.

There was nothing in and out about it.

When they arrived, there were at least a dozen cars crowding the deceased’s residence. The house was full of family and friends, and even a few neighbors. Bosco managed to find the next of kin, the husband, holding court at his kitchen table.

The smell of alcohol was almost nauseating, and it was clear everyone here was drinking. Tom stayed out of the way, already mentally tracking how they were going to get the deceased out of the house.

He was confused when he saw the hospital bed in the living room was empty.

Where was the body?

Turns out the husband had decided to take his wife upstairs to their bedroom so he could hold her one last time. Tom knew this because he could hear the poor man sobbing out the whole story from the front door.

And oh, would they mind waiting? They had a few more family members coming by to see her.

Bosco joined Tom where he was posted by the door, mumbling under his breath, “It’s gonna be a while.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Tom whispered back. “It’ll be fine. I mean, how long could it possibly take?”

Two hours.

It took two miserable hours for the remaining family to arrive and another half hour to get back with the deceased’s body to the funeral home. Navigating the stairs hadn’t been very fun with such a large audience because of course, no one wanted to leave.

Tom’s heart had been jackhammering with a flood of adrenaline the entire time, and he’d never been so grateful to leave a removal. He kept Cypress posted on what was going on via text, apologizing profusely for running so late.

It’s okay, Cypress texted back.Just be safe.

Bosco parked the van outside the garage door of the funeral home, turning the jazz off that he’d been playing for the deceased based off a Louis Armstrong picture he’d seen in the house.

“You unload, I’ll do the paperwork?” Tom offered.

“No,” Bosco grunted. “You go home. I got this. If anything else comes up, I’ll call Scott.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Get the hell out of here.”

It was already almost midnight, and Tom wasn’t going to refuse such a kind gesture. He hopped out of the van, exclaiming, “Thank you so much. You have a good night, Bosco. Hopefully, this will be your only call.”

“Thanks, Tom. Night.”

Tom practically sprinted to his car, doing another quick scan of the parking lot to make sure it was safe. He sent Cypress another text to let him know he was on the way back and quickly drove over. He left his suit jacket in the car when he got there, opting to change later.

After all, he was fairly certain his punishment wouldn’t involve any clothes, so it wasn’t like he’d be wearing them for long.

Tom used the key Cypress had given him earlier to let himself in through the back door. He locked it behind him and started to turn to go upstairs, but he noticed there was a light on in the flower shop.