Alone once again.
I hadn’t slept alone in weeks, and I hated it. I woke up grumpy and decided a hot shower would be the best medicine for my mood. It hadn’t helped that Pete still hadn’t called or messaged me. I’d checked my phone several times as I woke from the tiniest creak. I’d slept holding my phone like it was a teddy bear and I was a scared childwithout it to soothe me. What was his reasoning to ignore me? Had I really messed up that badly?
I didn’t have time to wonder just how badly I’d treated him. Today, Harold and his men would empty the pool and repair it. I wanted it to be bigger, so they’d start digging next to it, removing the existing tiles and everything, starting over with all new tiles and much more room to swim in. I also wanted a shallow end. Maybe add a bar outside for the summer months. We had so many fun plans on what to do with the place, and if things stayed on schedule, the pool would be ready before the start of summer. I’d found some tiles I liked to go around the pool area, but Harold had rejected them on sight, saying they were too slippery. I still hadn’t seen the ones he’d picked out, but I would today so I could approve and place the order.
Getting dressed took longer than usual since I kept looking at my stupid phone. Then by some miracle, it rang. But instead of it saying ‘My man’on it, it said,‘Mike’. I groaned loudly, then answered.
“Hey man,” Mike greeted, cheerily. This was the second time I’d spoken with him since he’d left, and he didn’t deserve to feel my sour mood through the phone, so I mustered up a fake smile and greetedhim back. “Where’s Petey? I’ve called him several times already; he never picks up.”
Hellosour mood, welcome back.
“He broke his phone on his current assignment,” I explained. “I still haven’t heard from him either.”
There was a beat of silence before he asked. “When did he leave?”
“Yesterday just before lunch,” I replied, feeling my mood sour further as I realized it was almost a full day since I saw him last.
“That doesn’t seem like Pete,” he stated, sounding a tad accusing. “What happened?”
“Well, he told me others had been hurt and were in the hospital so he had to take over the case. I, um, didn’t react well to that.” Mike cursed at me and I sighed, admitting defeat. Right now, I wasn’t Mike’s friend, I was his little brother’s boyfriend, and I was about to hear just how badly I’d fucked up.
“I get it,” he said, sounding resigned to the whole thing.
“Wait,what?” I had to have misheard him.
“I said, I get it. I hate that he and Mom work such dangerous jobs, but they’re stubborn about it. But just because they like their jobs, doesn’t meanyouhave to, too. You’re allowed to not like it, orhell, to argue with him about it. He wouldn’t have liked it either if it were you in danger.” I sucked in a deep breath and did some calm breathing exercises. “Hello? You still there?”
“Yeah,” I quickly answered. “I just hadn’t expected you to understand. Sorry that I doubted you.”
He snorted, “Doubted me? I understand why you’d think I was on their side, but truth be told, I was the one who was most against Pete working with Mom.”
“Seriously?”
“Oh, yes. I remember Mom coming home battered and bruised from assignments gone wrong, and even though they are mostly safe and boring ones, the dangerous ones can show up at any time. The one Pete had to take over likely started out sounding like a boring one, and that’s how people got hurt.”
“I really don’t want to talk about how much danger he could be in, Mike. Please talk to me about something else.”
And so, he did, and when we hung up twenty minutes later, I felt my mood lifting, and when Harold and his men showed up, I was distracted enough to push through and hope that Pete was okay.
Wherever he was.
“These look amazing,” I said, praising the tiles Harold had picked out.
“I know, right?” he chuckled. “Then we’ll do these in the pool.” He showed me a smaller tile that had little specks of silver in it. “They’ll reflect some sunlight, so only a few of them will be with the silver in them, the rest is this light blue shade.” He showed me another tile, similar to the other but without the flecks in them.
“I can’t wait to show Pete,” I said, my excitement growing. I’d decided to busy myself with work so when Pete came home more would be done. It also helped that my focus was elsewhere. It truly did no good if I kept worrying about him.
“What about the lights?” Harold asked, taking out his phone to show me the options. “This one is motion censored, which will help if animals get too close at night. If you turn them on manuallythe animals don’t always see the pool and fall in. It does help with the shallow pool and the steps leading up, but you never know with wildlife.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I admitted. “Whatever you think is best. I trust your decision on it.”
Harold simply nodded and went to give his men their next order for the day. I had my own stuff to do now, and it involved online shopping. I went back inside and walked into my office. I left the door open and sat down in front of my computer. Pete had told me how much he adored his cat mug collection, so I figured some open shelves to display them would please him. After adding the shelves to the basket, I also found two cat mugs on the site and added them. I didn’t think he had those, so it would be another added surprise for him. When I went to check out, I saw they had things listed that others had bought too and a white fluffy cat bed caught my attention. Would Pete want pets some day? He seemed to love everything that involved cats, he even had one shirt with cats on it. They were small and you had to stand close enough to see the black dots were cats, but still.Cats. Would he want a real one? With me?
My phone rang, stopping my thoughts of cats and their fluffy bellies. An unknown number was calling me.
“Baby?” I answered, almost breathless with emotion.
“Hi Jackson,” he greeted. I swallowed a whimper down hearing his voice. He sounded okay, and it wasn’t until now that I could finally breathe with ease.
