by J. Daniels
“I do know him. He’s my friend.”
She frowned.
Shit. Too obvious. Too obvious. Now everything I say, she’ll think I’m doing for him.
“I mean, we work together, remember? He’s my work friend,” I covered, which wasn’t a lie. Not at all. We were friends who met at work.
That was exactly what we were.
“Oh, that’s right.” She waved a dismissive hand. “I keep forgetting that. That is so crazy to me.”
I smiled.
Then, as his work friend, I gave in to the urge I was battling something fierce and said what needed to be said.
“He’s a really decent guy. More than decent,” I told her. “He’s helped me out of a few jams, and he seems to really have his shit together. He’s done amazing work on that house. It looks great.”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled, her gaze falling away.
“It’s your choice. They are your girls, and you will protect them and make the right decision. I know you will.”
Valerie reached up and placed her hand on top of one of mine. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” I winked at her. “Now, it’s dryer time. And then, hellllo, Ms. Pink.”
Valerie giggled, then followed me over to the dryer so she could cook.
After washing and a quick blow dry, followed by some curls, because I never let any woman leave here without a little something fancy, I spun Valerie in the chair and let her check out her new look.
“Oh, my God. I actually love it!” she squealed, fingering the ends of her hair to see the pop of color underneath.
“See? You doubt me. I told you it would look awesome.”
Valerie sprung from her chair and wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you,” she whispered, leaning back to smile. “For this, and the listening, and just…thank you.”
“Anytime,” I said, meaning that.
I really, really liked her.
After she paid and made sure her follow-up appointment with me was booked, I walked Valerie to the door, stepping out and waving as she climbed the stairs.
“See ya!” I called out.
“Later, Shay!”
The door across the hall opened as I was turning to head back inside, and Monica (6B) stepped out, directing her son, Thomas, who was carrying a nightstand.
“Hey, Shay!” she said, seeing me, then looking to her son, she said, “Just go stick it at the curb. It’s broken.”
Thomas carried the small table up the stairs.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Girl, tons. First of all, Victor loved my hair!”
I high-fived her. Sweet!
“Of course he did,” I said. “You look amazing.”
“Thanks.”
“What else is happening?”
“Well, he got a transfer.”
“No way! So, you guys are moving?”
Bummer. There goes that client.
“Yeah, but, girl, this is a good move. Guess where they’re sending him?”
I shrugged.
“Hawaii!” she shrieked.
“What? Oh, my God, that’s awesome!”
“I know! We’re so excited,” she said, pressing her back against the door to hold it open when Thomas went back inside. “The kids especially. You know, it’s just been hard with their dad being gone so much.”
“I can imagine. When are you guys leaving?”
“Victor doesn’t need to check in until the end of the month, but we’re taking the kids on a nice, long vacation before we go. Disney.”
“Disney World!” the kids screamed from inside.
I laughed.
“They’re a little excited,” Monica chuckled. “We’re planning on leaving right from Disney. It would be a waste to come back here. We’re selling all our furniture now, and what we don’t sell, I’m just sticking out by the curb.”
“Wait, what?” I stepped closer. “You’re not taking your furniture with you?”
Her eyes doubled in size. “Do you have any idea how much it would cost us to ship our furniture to Hawaii, Shay? Like, I don’t know, but I’m guessing a lot. No way. We’ll just start fresh there. It’s on-base housing, so that’s cheap. And Victor is getting a good chunk of money for transferring. We’ll be fine. Most of the stuff we have are hand-me-downs anyway. I’m excited to buy all new stuff.”
Thomas stepped out carrying the matching nightstand.
I blocked him.
“Hey,” he grumbled.
“How much are you selling everything for?” I asked Monica, keeping my arm around the table so Thomas couldn’t move.
“Why? You interested?” She looked perplexed. “Isn’t your place fully furnished?”
“Yes, but I have a friend who is needing a lot of stuff. Like basically, everything.”
“Really? Well.” She shrugged. “For you, Shay, nothing. Just take it.”
“Oh, my God, I can’t do that!” I gaped. “I at least need to give you something.”
“You gave me fantastic hair.”
“Which you paid for.”
“After a discount…”
I cocked my head.
She cocked hers. “Fine. What do you want to pay me?”
I smiled, patted Thomas on the head after dropping my arm away, stepped closer, and keenly suggested, “How about six dollars and fifty-seven cents?”
Monica cracked up. “Well, that’s a specific amount!”
I nodded, still holding my smile and ready to throw more money on top of my offer if she came to her senses.
But it wasn’t needed.
Monica stuck out her hand. “Deal!”
After I paid Monica for her entire apartment full of furniture (six fifty-seven, what a steal!), we discussed when she wanted the furniture out. Anytime this week would be perfect, the sooner the better.
And what was sooner than right now?
Stepping back inside my apartment and shutting the door with my hip, I sent out a group text to Syd and Tori.
Hey! If I can get a hold of a moving truck, can I borrow your man muscle tonight to deliver some furniture? Pretty please? ;)
The first response came from Tori: Where are you delivering furniture to?
Stitch. I just bought him a shit ton of it for under seven bucks. BOOM!
Syd responded next: You bought Stitch furniture? Why?
Because he doesn’t have any. Can I borrow your man muscle or not? I gotta make a call.
Tori: Holy shit. You’re in love with him.
Syd: I was just typing that. Twins!
Oh, my God.
He’s my FRIEND.
Tori: So are we. Where’s our furniture?
Syd: Good one. Also, I’d like to be filled in on the hows and whys of this new friendship. I feel like we have a lot to discuss.
Tori: Sounds like we need a girls’ night.
Syd: I second that.
I had zero problem with planning a girls’ night, so I shared that, but kept on topic.
Third it. Now FOCUS. Man muscle? Yes? No?
Syd: Trouble is in. Just say when and where.
Trouble was her fiancé, Brian. She always called him that.
Awesome. Thank you, Syd!
Tori: I’m closing tonight, but Jamie can help. Just don’t use up all his muscle. I’ll want some of it later.
Yes!
Thank you! Okay, let me call around and I’ll let you both know. xoxo
After Googling Budget Rental, calling them, and finding out they were booked until next week, I got the number to Penske and dialed them up. That’s where I hit the mother lode. They had a truck big enough for a fully furnished, two-bedroom apartment available immediately.
Smiling from ear to ear, I reserved the truck and sent out the text to Tori and Syd.
Then I helped Monica with some packing.
Stomach fluttering and breaths coming quick, I knocked on Sean’s door while the boys and Syd waited by the truck.
It was just past six,
and the sun was beginning to set low behind the house. The sky glowed orange and dark mustard yellow.
We made it just in time to take care of this with some light out.
The door swung open and Sean stood there, suspicion pinching his brow. To be expected: I hadn’t alerted him of my amazing stroke of luck.
“Hey.” I smiled at him and took his hand, tugging it gently. “Come here.”
“What?” he asked, stepping out onto the porch.
I pointed at the truck and yelled, “Do it!”
Jamie, Tori’s boyfriend, flipped the lock on the door and pushed it up, revealing the truckload of home goods.
“Surprise!” I yelled, looking back at Sean. “My neighbor is moving to Hawaii and isn’t taking her furniture with her, so it’s yours! All of it.”
Sean cut his eyes to me. “What?”
“Now you have furniture. My neighbor had a little girl, so there’s a pretty sweet pink dresser in there with ladybug designs along the edges. Plus, two twin beds. A couch. A kitchen table—”
“What the fuck are you doing?” he grated, jerking out of my hold. “You got me furniture? Are you fuckin’ with me?”
His sharp tone stepped me back.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Sean stared at me, his chest shuddering, his eyes wider than I’d ever seen. He looked terrified.
Then he turned his attention to the truck, and hollered, “Take it back!”
I gaped at him. “What? Why?” I questioned. I heard murmuring at my back, then the sound of the heavy door sliding. “Wait! Just wait a second!” I yelled, pausing Jamie and Brian, who were both closing it up. I turned back to Sean. “Why can’t you take it?”
“What the fuck, Shayla?” he half growled, half whispered.
I shook my head, confused.
“You think I can’t do this myself? Is that it?” His voice quaked.
“What? No!”
“Then why? I didn’t ask you for shit! I don’t ask you for nothin’. I don’t deserve…” He cursed and took a step closer to the edge, bellowing, “Take that fuckin’ shit back now!”
“No!” I hollered, pointing at Jamie, who was yanking the door back down. “Don’t you move! Keep it open!”
Brian started shaking his head, saying something I couldn’t make out at this distance. Syd looked so nervous, I was surprised she wasn’t crawling behind that furniture and hiding. Jamie just looked amused, which was typically how he looked, but he took his hand off the door as instructed.
Good.
Then, knowing they weren’t closing it up, I planted a firm hand on Sean’s chest and pushed him back. “You don’t get to decide whether or not someone does something nice for you, do you understand?” I snapped.
He blinked down at me, still looking terrified. Plus, he was panting now. I could feel his heart pounding against my palm.
“You do not ever get to decide whether someone treats you with kindness, Sean. Not ever,” I told him, holding his stare and speaking with boldness, but also keeping my voice gentled. “You paid six fifty-seven for my tacos. I paid six fifty-seven for your furniture. You did for me. I’m doing for you. But get this, even if you hadn’t done for me, I’d still be doing for you because you’re my friend, because you deserve kindness, because you’re a good person who should be having good put back on them, and because I wanted to do it. Don’t look at this as a favor. Look at it as a gift. And take it.”
Sean rushed out a breath. Then he swallowed thickly.
“Okay?” I whispered.
Hesitating, he waited for me to wrap my other hand around his wrist before he closed his mouth, inhaled shakily, and jerked his chin.
I smiled and gave his wrist a squeeze in comfort.
“Okay, we’re good!” I hollered over my shoulder.
The door slid open, and the boys got to work unloading and hauling stuff in while Syd and I directed them where to put it. Women just knew furniture placement better than men. It was a fact.
Sean stood back at first, just watching everything get carried inside, looking uncomfortable, like he didn’t feel like he belonged in his own house anymore, then, as if finally accepting what was happening, the second he saw that ladybug dresser, he jumped in and grabbed an end.
Once everything was carried off the truck, Sean thanked Jamie and Brian for their help, shaking both their hands, which I think was the first time the three of them had ever conversed.
While this happened, Syd tugged on my elbow and whispered in my ear, “He needs to come to family dinner.”
I smiled at her. I couldn’t have agreed more.
The boys and Syd took off in the truck. I drove separately and got to work on saying my goodbyes.
First, to Mac and Cheese.
“You guys seem to be settled in,” I said, bending down in front of the pretzel barrel. The fish swam about, their mouths opening in search for food. “Be good to him,” I whispered.
I stepped out of the kitchen.
Sean was glancing around his fully furnished living room, hands on his hips, the shake of his head coming every few seconds.
“Am I more than you bargained for yet?” I asked him.
He turned to me and rubbed at the back of his neck, eyes squinted in confusion. “What?”
“Being my friend,” I explained, walking over to him. “I just basically forced a truckload of furniture on you. You already admitted to thinking I’m bossy.” I reached his side and smiled up at him. “Just wondering if you’re regretting helping me yet, now that you see what all you got yourself into.”
Sean looked all over my face. “I don’t regret it,” he answered, which made my heart skip and beat wildly. “But I ain’t used to this.”
“Friends doing stuff for you?”
“That. And friends…”
I frowned.
Sean looked at my mouth, then shook his head. “Don’t feel sorry for me.”
“You never had any friends? Not even when you were a kid?”
“I would’ve been a shitty friend when I was a kid,” he answered. “I was lookin’ out for me back then. I didn’t give a fuck about anyone else.”
I tried to picture a younger version of the man standing in front of me—Sean as a child. Alone. Never feeling love. Never knowing how to give it.
He was never shown kindness. He was never taught any morals. He wasn’t guided or tended to. He said it before—he took up space.
And still, coming from that, from nothing, Sean had good in him. A lot of it.
I thought that said more about the man he was than anything he could tell me.
“Well, I’m glad you don’t regret me, but I wouldn’t let you back out now even if you tried,” I said, feeling the need to remind him of my bullheadedness, in case he was forgetting about it.
“Can’t say that surprises me. It ain’t like you ever give me a choice in shit.”
I narrowed my eyes at his profile.
He smirked, then slowly looked down at me without moving his head. And because Sean smirking was damn near close to Sean smiling, I smiled back.
Then, side by side, we both got back to admiring all that furniture.
It was Wednesday night, twenty after nine, and I was pampering myself with a rose-infused sheet mask while posting client snapshots on my Instagram and Facebook feed.
To my delight, I was up twenty-some followers on my Facebook page, and over fifty on my Instagram account.
This put me in a fantastic mood.
I had also discovered, when I planted my butt on the coach after applying my mask, that Comcast had put all episodes of Shameless On Demand, free for subscribers to watch at no charge.
My fantastic mood elevated to tremendous status. I fucking loved Shameless.
I was halfway into episode one, season one, and enjoying myself immensely when a knock sounded on my door.
It was late. I wasn’t expecting any visitors; however, I was still getting walk-in hair cut appointments from fello
w Pebble Dune residents, so the knock didn’t surprise me.
In fact, I looked forward to these knocks.
Nevertheless, I had plans this evening involving Lip Gallagher and some pampering, so I was prepared to tell whoever it was to come back around tomorrow, or another day that worked for them.
Pressing close to the door, I peered through the peephole and saw Sean standing on the other side of it.
I gasped.
Not even Lip Gallagher showering me in Korean sheet masks would keep me from opening this door right now.
I hadn’t seen Sean in two days. I’d missed him.
As a friend and more.
But Sean never came to visit without the intention to help. And I knew I didn’t need any help…
So why was he here?
“Hey!” I called through the door, reaching for the deadbolt, then, remembering the current state of my face, I yanked my hand back and gulped. “Uh, just a sec!”
Dashing to my one and only bathroom, which was on the other side of the apartment by the kitchen, I glanced at the timer I’d set on the counter.
I still had two minutes left before my mask reached full oxidizing potential.
You have got to be kidding me.
Sean knocked again.
I looked at myself in the mirror and decided timed masks were stupid. They should start oxidizing the moment they touch your skin and reach full potential a second later.
Immediate gratification.
Ripping the thin sheet off my face, I tossed it into the wastebasket next to the sink, patted the essence into my skin, ran a quick brush through my hair to give it some life, pinched my cheeks, and then ran back across the apartment and unlocked the door.
“Hi!” I rushed out, holding the door open for Sean to enter. “This is a surprise. What’s up?”
Sean stopped in the entryway and turned to look at me.
He was wearing dark-wash jeans, his motorcycle boots, and a tight black T-shirt, skipping the thermal, I was assuming, since the weather tonight was on the warmer side.
“Val called,” he shared, rubbing both hands down his face, then reaching around to grip his neck so his elbows pointed straight at me.
My eyes widened to the size of baseballs. “She did?” I asked, pushing the door closed.
Sean nodded.
“What did she say?”
