“Well, I suppose I should get back to this.” He points to the bushes and then picks his pruning shears back up.
“Oh, before I forget, I found a job.”
“That’s wonderful! Doing what?”
“I’m actually working directly for Alvin Hamilton now. He’s hired me as his marketing manager.”
“You seem happy about that.”
“I am. I loved working at Poppy Haus, but working directly with an artist I admire is something I never thought I’d do. So it’s pretty cool.”
He nods and tilts his head toward the champagne. “Sounds that way. Are you celebrating?”
“You bet.”
“Nice. Do you have anyone to share it with?”
I don’t want to read into what he’s said but it’s hard not to. I don’t want to open that door, though. He’s leaving in a matter of months.
“Just me, myself, and I. We make a pretty good team, though.”
“I suppose I should get back to what I’m doing. There’s supposed to be some rain tonight so I want to finish what I can.”
“Sounds good. It was nice seeing you,” I say to him. I mean it, too. He looks good and I’ve missed talking to him.
I walk back to my house, by myself, and when I look back at his house, he’s still looking in my direction.
20
The chicken potpie I make for dinner is just okay, if even that. It’s food. Only took a few minutes in the microwave. It gets the job done. Celebrating a new job, though, should call for something more extravagant than a Banquet microwave dinner but yet, here I am.
I finish my lame meal and toss the leftovers in the trash. Thunder rumbles outside and almost immediately after, the rain starts. I smile. Jimmy was right. I hope he finished his work before this.
The thunder makes me think of him and now that he’s in my mind, I miss him. I guess since I’ve been back at my own house, the evenings are a little lonely. Even though Jimmy and I slept apart, I’d gotten used to saying goodnight to someone. He at least has Kale. It’s just me here.
I pour myself a glass of champagne and raise it in toast to myself.Here’s to me. I take a sip and move over to the couch, pulling my knee into my chest. I’ll drink my champagne and watch some television.
Same old, same old for most of it.Friendson repeat,Shark Tank, and more food competition shows. Then I see it.A Quiet Place. That’s the movie I watched with Jimmy. I turn it on and set the controller down, pulling a blanket over me as I watch.
I’m about twenty minutes into the movie when my doorbell rings. The rain is pounding on the roof now, and when I open the door, a soaked Jimmy stands on my porch.
“What are you doing here?”
“A Quiet Placeis on. I thought maybe you’d want to watch it together.”
“I’m actually watching it now. Come in, you’re soaked.”
Jimmy steps inside. “It’s really coming down out there. I don’t think there are supposed to be any severe storms though. Just the rain.”
“Why don’t you take that shirt off?”
“I’m barely in the door and you’re trying to take off my clothes?”
I roll my eyes. “No. But if we’re going to watch the movie, you’re not sitting on my couch in that wet shirt. I’ll toss it in the dryer. I don’t have anything for you to wear over it, though, except maybe my robe.”
“Done.”
“You’re going to wear my fluffy purple robe?”
