“Would you like me to help you with the router?” I asked patiently.
“Well, why else would I be on the phone?”
Sometimes, during moments like these, I thought maybe risking staying with my parents until I graduated high school would have been a better choice. Most jobs were impossible to get without a diploma, and the ones I could get that paid halfway decent were like this.
My headache was back, my eyes burned, and the headset over my ears felt heavy and hot. My fingers were warm and swollen already, and I’d only done half my shift so far.
Gonna be a long night. Hiro will be home soon.Honestly, I was surprised he wasn’t back already.What if he leaves again?
I shoved aside the gloomy, panic-inducing thought. I needed to focus. “Okay, so the first thing you’re going to want to do is go to where your home router is located and unplug it.”
“Fine,” he grumbled into the line and started moving around.
I waited patiently, thankful for the moment of reprieve.
“Lynn!” he roared so loud I jerked back in my seat, hardenough to pull the plug leading to the headset out of the computer. “Where the hell is the damn router?” His voice boomed out of the speakers and filled the dining room.
I glanced guiltily at my plant babies because they had to hear him yell. Before they could be traumatized, I groped toward the floor for the end so I could plug it back in.
As I fumbled, the front door burst open. “Pip, I’m home!”
Startled for the second time, I fell out of the chair, landing in a heap beside it. Quickly, I scurried up, grabbed the cord, and stood, only to bang my head on the underside of the table.
“Ow!” I swore, grabbing the back of my head.
“Pip?” Ghost called over his boots stomping across the floor.
I straightened just as he rounded the table, and he pulled me against him. The headphones slid onto my shoulders when he cupped the back of my head, checking for lumps.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said softly.
I pressed my face between his unzipped leather jacket, into the cotton of his shirt, and inhaled.
I will never get enough of him.
“You okay? Let me see,” he said, trying to pry me out of my safety zone.
“It’s off. Now what?” The man’s voice boomed through the room again, and I stiffened.
Shit.I’d forgotten about him again.
I pulled back and reached for the headphones.
Hiro caught the headset, eyes pinched into narrow slits. “Who is that?”
“A customer,” I whispered, tugging on the device. “I need these.”
His grip on the headset only increased. “I know he ain’t talking to you like that.”
“Hello?” the man bellowed. Then, “Stupid moron can’t even use a phone. How’s he gonna fix my router?”
Hiro made an angry sound, and I dove onto the laptop, hitting the speaker button so I could answer without the headset. “I’m here, sir. Now that the router is off, we will leave it like that for—”Shit, how long?My brain was so scrambled. I grabbed the manual and flipped the pages, looking for the section I highlighted to make it easier to find. “Ah, thirty minutes,” I quickly finished.
“Thirty minutes! Are you out of your damned mind?”
That’s not right.Frantic, I pulled the manual closer to look again. “I mean thirty seconds.” I corrected. “Just long enough for it to reset itself.”
“Well, which is it? Are you stupid? Can you even read—” His tirade cut off suddenly, and I looked around in surprise, panicking that I’d somehow cut off the call.
