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I had a cup of tea, holding off on eating breakfast until Laurie arrived. I removed all of Harry's things that were left in the bathroom and was emptying, sorting, and cleaning kitchen cabinets when she knocked on my door.
"Good morning. It looks like you're already hard at work. I haven't had breakfast yet, want to take a break and eat at the cafe?"
I filled her in on my date with Jim and quizzed her about what guys she was interested in. We had fun but didn't linger. I was really committed to getting the entire apartment cleared and cleaned today.
I'd set out boxes for stuff to donate and stuff to go to the dumpsters behind Hairy's. There were a lot of mis-matched or chipped dishes in the cupboards. Those went to the trash. The kitchen needed a complete upgrade, but that would have to wait until I got some other things out of the way. As I realized things I needed, I added them to a list I'd hung on the fridge with a magnet.
The kitchen was small, so it didn't take us long to finish. "Is Tom watching the store today?" I asked.
"Yeah. He doesn't mind when he's in town. It's only a problem if he gets called out for a fire or a search. He'll call mom or I to come in or we just close the store it that happens. It's not a big deal." I didn't really understand how Laurie's family made enough money from their consignment store to provide a living for her and her parents. I knew Tom had jobs of his own. "Does your Mom work other than at the store?"
"She retired from teaching a few years ago. She and dad opened the store more for something to do than with any hope that it would be a truly successful business. We're going to have to figure out what to do with the store soon, but with Dad getting sick, we just kept it going until we're ready to deal with it. Someday soon," Laurie said, “I'm going to have to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I'm going to have to get a real job."
"Sounds like something we need to talk more about."
There was a knock on the door. I opened it, and Tom wrapped me up in a hug. He bent down and kissed me leaving me a little breathless and embarrassed.
"Hi, Tom," Laurie said. "Did you forget I was going to be here?"
"Nope. I just decided at my age I was old enough to kiss a girl I care about in front of my sister."
I could feel myself blushing. "I'm glad you came to help, but I thought you were manning the store."
"I opened up, then Mom and Dad came in to take over. Dad can't do anything strenuous, but it's good for him to feel like he can get some normal back in his life for a few hours."
I explained our system for sorting, and the three of us began the task of sorting the piles of books and papers that were all over the living room. After some trial and error, I decided that I needed more boxes to segregate different types of things we were finding. I created a box for cryptid books and another for Harry's journals and personal papers. Laurie and Tom were great, but they were worried they'd throw out something of Harry's that I wanted to keep. I ended up with a huge pile of things I needed to evaluate myself.
We took a break, washed up, and went downstairs for lunch. We had all worked up an appetite, so we ate well and enjoyed our break. We'd just gotten back into the rhythm when there was a knock on the door.
I laid down the papers I was going through and opened the door. Jim pulled me into a kiss before I could explain that Laurie and Tom were there. This was getting awkward. Laurie tried to make it easier. "Hi, Jim. Did you come to help too?”
"Hi, Laurie. Hi, Tom." Everyone was cordial enough, but I knew my face was red. I was afraid to look at Tom. Jim walked in and surveyed the situation. "Where do you want me to start?"
We already had a lineup of trash bags, and donation boxes, so I put Jim to work hauling the trash to the dumpster and loading the donation boxes in the back of Tom's truck. He offered to drop them off later.
I went back to my seat on the sofa and returned to going through paperwork. Laurie sat down beside me and whispered in my ear. "You've got a problem." I turned to look at her. "How are you going to choose?" she asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied. I knew exactly what she meant. Though I was tense and embarrassed, Tom and Jim acted like nothing was odd at all. After Jim finished hauling out everything we could get rid of, I put him to work on going through the boxes from the office at Hairy's. I figured a lawyer wasn't likely to throw away anything important. I just sat back down with my own pile to sort, when my phone rang.
"Hello."
"Hi, City Girl. How's the cleanup going?"
"We're making good progress, but there's still a lot to get through."
"I'm downstairs. Can you come help me?"
"Sure. I'll be right down." I laid my phone back on the coffee table. "I'll be right back. Anyone need anything from the cafe?"
No one needed anything, so I headed down to see what Chance needed my help with. He was standing at the bottom of my stairs just watching me. "Hi, Chance. What did you need help with?"
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. "Didn't figure you'd want an audience," he said, lifting my chin and kissing me.
I was surprised, confused, breathless, and my body was reacting to Chance in ways I hadn't felt in a long time or maybe ever. "Fudge," I said.
"Sorry. Did you not enjoy that?" he asked with a smirk.
He was right about me not wanting an audience, but it pained me to think that Chance was the only one of my guyumvirate that understood that. "Fudge with nuts."
"Geez, Is it that bad?" He laughed. "I'm here to help. Let's get to work." Part of me wanted to laugh with him and another part really wanted to send him away.
"Do you need help on the stairs?"
"I'm good, just slow," he said, turning to wink at me.
This was bad, very bad. I was almost wishing snarky Chance would return because I was out of my league trying to deal with flirting Chance.
"You go first. I'll follow behind in case you need a push."
"I'll be fine, but you take it as slow as you need to," he said, this time with a wink over his shoulder.
My god the man was shameless and hot as my mama's kitchen in July.