Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 90098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
“Grandma?” Alvin came out of his room, holding up his purple-dyed hands. “Do we have more vinegar?”
I felt my forehead crease. “Are you making the bath bombs in your room, son?”
We’d agreed he should do that in the bathroom.
“Only the color paste,” he promised. “I’ve come up with a new ratio that creates better sounds in the final product.”
Right. Of course he had.
“Come here, love.” Ma ushered him over and turned on the water. Then she found the vinegar and grabbed a sponge. “Nothing on your clothes?”
“Not this time!” Alvin was triumphant.
My mouth twisted. He was too cute.
While he hadn’t been able to graduate from high school, he’d always done well with science. He’d loved chemistry and physics.
“I think you should stay here tonight, Ben,” Ma said. “Don’t you think so too, Alvin? It’s gonna be dark soon, and it’s just not safe out.”
“Ma,” I warned tiredly. She couldn’t fucking keep projecting her fears on to Alvin. He had enough anxiety in his life.
Alvin chewed on his lip and flicked his gaze between us. “I can take out the air bed.”
Fucking hell. No, I shouldn’t. It was better I found a spot over by there on Harlem and Wellington. I knew of at least two apartment buildings where the locks on the front doors were broken. That way, Alvin and Ma didn’t have to rearrange everything. Because the air bed only fit in Alvin’s room, but he couldn’t sleep in the same room as me since he claimed I snored—and if we brought that up, Ma would go on another bullshit rant about how only anxious people snored. I didn’t know where she’d gotten that from, but it was her firm belief that a stress-free person slept peacefully and quietly. That, in turn, posed a new problem because Ma couldn’t get up from the air bed on her own, so that resulted in me on the couch, Alvin in the air bed, and Ma in his bed.
No. Tonight wasn’t an emergency. I would make do. I’d be back here soon enough, when my exhaustion won out, when I hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours, and if the weather got worse. We’d just survived a snowstorm and a ten-below-zero cold spell with icy winds. Whatever we had today—I guessed around twenty-five or thirty—was practically spring for me.
A few days later, I scored a job interview that actually made me nervous, because I was qualified. In truth, I was overqualified, but it beat showing up with zero credentials to back up my experience.
Once in the city, I took the L toward River North and texted Angie.
If I dont text within the hour Ive thrown myself into the lake. Otherwise Ill see you outside McDonalds.
She responded pretty fast.
You got this! Btw, I forgot to ask how you found the listing? In the meantime, I’m gonna work on my breakup speech for tomorrow. Pretend you’re surprised.
Shit, again? She seemed to be a magnet for douchebags. After her divorce from Whatshisface almost ten years ago, she’d jumped from one to another in hopes of finding the guy she wanted to retire with. Luckily, she had some time left. She was only forty-five.
I sent her a message back.
Im mindblown. Job hunting at the library as usual. I applied an hour after the listing went live and they called right away.
The pay wasn’t great, but I’d long since stopped comparing wages to what I’d been used to when I’d had my own business. These days, twenty bucks an hour was enough to put my chest in a vise of hope, anxiousness, and dread. Plus, the company had good benefits, both healthcare and dental.
Not that I’d need the latter for a while, I hoped. I was still recovering from an extraction without local anesthesia. I wasn’t gonna complain; I was lucky Ma stayed in touch with coworkers at the clinic where she used to work, but fucking hell, that Joseph bastard was a sadist. He was long overdue for his own retirement, but I guessed helping sad fuckers like me for free was a hobby of his.
I got off the train at Grand and walked five blocks to my doom, and I couldn’t shake the emotions stirring within. I needed this job. I was fucking desperate to feel a semblance of…fuck, I don’t know, being a human? A provider?
Someone who might look decent standing next to a cocky Cubs fan who ran his own sports bar.
I blew out a breath and peered up at the building.
One of these days, I’d get over Trace. I hoped. But right now, I couldn’t get him off my mind—and it was ridiculous. I’d spent less than two days with him, for fuck’s sake. I had no business acting like a love-sick idiot. You didn’t catch feelings for someone that quickly.
Even if you did, what did it matter? I’d just been a liability, as fucking always.