I’m surprised he’s offering an invitation without him being there. I doubt it was easy for him. He probably just wants to make sure she’s okay since he can’t be there. It’s also a good excuse for me to see her, so I’ll take it. I just don’t know if it will be weird for her if I stop by since she doesn’t know me very well.
Me:Should I text her to let her know?
Memphis responds by sharing contact info with me. I have to type in her name when I save her number since he doesn’t have it listed, or maybe he’s just not sharing what he has her listed under with me.
Memphis:Don’t try to steal our girl for yourself.
Me:Not that I would, fucker, but she wouldn’t go for it anyway.
Memphis:I know.
I snort. That’s more like my cocky best friend.
Me:Hey, it’s Bates. Memphis gave me your number. Mind if I stop by?
Waylynn:Sure. I’m here.
Me:See you in a few minutes. Do you need anything?
Waylynn:No thank you.
I check around the side of her house before I even knock. The tree limb is still on the line, meaning she still doesn’t have power.
When I rap on the door, she answers it quickly and steps back for me to enter the kitchen. The cast on her foot is dangling behind her with her knee bent. She’s wearing tight shorts that go to mid-thigh and a gray shirt that is probably supposed to be loose, but it’s pulled tight across her chest because of the way it’s tucked under her arms by the crutches. “Hey, have you heard anything from the power company?” I meet her eyes so I don’t stare at her body like a total creeper.
“Nothing yet. Did you want to come in and wait for the guys? I don’t have anything cold to drink, and it’s getting pretty warm in here,” she confesses on a wince.
“The company is worth the inconvenience.” As soon as I say it, I realize how dumb that sounded, so I try to recover. “Not that it’s an inconvenience to be here at all. I just mean I’d go through much worse for your company.”Smooth, Bates.
Waylynn tilts her head to the side. “Um, did you want to sit down?” she offers after a second of weird silence.
I look down at my clothes. I didn’t really think this through. My jeans are grimy from crawling around on my knees in shitty apartments. At least the stools at the counter don’t have fabric. When I move over to pull one out for her, she says, “Come on in here.”
I follow her into a room off the kitchen filled with windows. She lowers herself into a brown leather chair and props her foot up on a matching leather ottoman. “My battery on my computer died, so I’ve just been catching up with schoolwork,” she explains, piling a few textbooks on top of each other. “Are you going to sit down?”
“I just got off work. I don’t want to get anything dirty.”
“Oh gosh, you’re fine. Please sit,” she urges.
At least it’s leather, I think before sitting down across from her in a matching chair. “What are you working on?”
“Math.” She makes a cute face that tells me everything I need to know about how she feels about the subject.
“Memphis is good with numbers. He was always able to make it make sense to me in high school. I swear the teachers made everything more difficult.”
“Oswald pretty much volunteered him as tribute when he found out I was going to the study group.” She laughs softly.
“I’m sure Memphis doesn’t mind.”
“I haven’t needed help yet, but I might ask him later since I wasn’t there today just to make sure I have it down. Did you work nearby?” She changes the subject smoothly.
“Only a few blocks away on the other side of campus. We were putting new plugs in an apartment. Speaking of electrical, you should call the power company to see if they have a time estimate for you yet.”
“Oh, okay.” She grabs her phone off the arm of the chair and pokes at the screen a few times before setting it back down. She goes through all the prompts again, but this time, it announces they know about the power outage in the area, and it should be restored by nine PM.
“Good news,” I say once she hangs up.
“Yeah, I hope my phone makes it until then. I’m all out of backup chargers.”
