“A round mattress?” Tommy asked. “Far out.”
“It cost me a ton of money. And you wouldn’t believe how much the sheets alone cost,” she said. “But I am gonna keep the round bed at least to start. Maybe I’ll get all new stuff when I get bored of the retro look,” she said, a little embarrassed. The guys worked to get the old one out of the room, which was a chore. Then they lost control of it as they wrestled it down the stairs. It rolled merrily along, finally crashing near the front door. “Well, that was easy,” David said, and dragged it out to the front yard to be picked up on trash day. They had to struggle to get the new one into place. “Getting a round mattress up the stairs is gonna cost you extra, lady,” David joked. Molly helped her put the new sheets on it.
“They say that getting your bed set up should always be the first thing you do when you move,” Molly said. “That way, when you’re ready to drop after all the moving, you have a place to crash.” She paused. “Well, here’s an advantage to round sheets I never thought of. You can’t put them on wrong! I hate it when I’m trying to get the fitted sheet on and I have it turned the wrong way. You won’t have that problem, anyway,” she said.
“Would you stop helping with this?” Lori said. “You shouldn’t be leaning over so much. Let me finish this.” She tucked the bottom sheet in all around, and launched herself onto the surface. Molly more carefully arranged her pregnant body next to her.
“Oh, my,” Molly said, noticing the mirror that reflected them. “This is different.” Lori laughed. “I am just guessing you’re the first hugely preggo lady to lie here,” she said. “Hold on. Now that the guys are out of here, I’ve gotta show you something.” Lori jumped up and pushed the button on the wall, putting the disco ball into motion. Molly laughed. “Oh. My. God. You’re going to have some fun in here. But I think I’m in no condition to enjoy this.” Lori took her hand and helped her up, then turned off the disco ball. They went downstairs and resumed wiping out cabinets, sorting the old things into the throw-away and donate piles, and conferring on which old items might be worth keeping. “Some of this reminds me of stuff my grandma had,” Molly said. “But not this.” She held up an elaborate chip and dip ensemble. The chip bowl was shaped and painted to resemble a Hawaiian woman in a bikini bottom and coconut bra lying in a pool. Two matching dip containers suspended above the chip bowl were made to look like twin cups of a coconut bra. “I guess this would give a whole new meaning to double-dipping,” Lori said.
“Keep it or what?” Molly asked.
“Keep it,” Lori said. “I doubt that would be welcome at the church rummage sale anyway. And it’ll be a great conversation piece when I have my housewarming party.”
Tommy ran Lori’s vacuum all over the place while David continued carrying the last few boxes into the house.
Molly started on a new cabinet and positively squealed! “Oh, would you look at this! These are probably worth a little bit of money if you don’t want to keep them.” She held up an orange-red Fiesta dinner plate. “It looks like a huge set,” she said.
“Oh, I’m keeping those!” Lori said. I’ll give away my boring old dishes and I’ll use these instead!” There was indeed a whole set of the bright vintage dinnerware, and Lori added them to the pile of things that needed to be washed and put away.
“You’ve done enough, Molly,” Lori said. “I think you should go home and take it easy, unless you want to stay for the pizza I was about to order. I’ve got it from here.”
“You sure?” Molly asked, but she looked relieved. “I think I will go home. Pizza just gives me heartburn right now. I’ll probably just have something light.” She gave Lori a big hug. “Congratulations. This is going to be a fun house for you. I can come back tomorrow and help a bit more. And we can talk, if you want to.” Lori knew she was referring to Jake. Lori just hugged her back, carefully because of the bulge of her pregnancy. “I’ll send the guys home in a while,” she said.
Lori called Sorrentino’s and ordered two large pizzas — she knew better than to scrimp on pizza when Tommy was around — and set the table with the freshly cleaned bright Fiestaware and her own silverware and glasses. Then she went back to cleaning and setting up the kitchen. She wished the new dishwasher was already installed. She didn’t dare try to use the ancient one there now. It was sure to leak everywhere. So she continued washing dishes and sorting through the kitchen things until Theresa Sorrentino arrived with the pizza. She couldn’t help noticing the smiles that passed between Theresa and Tommy as Lori handed over the money and a tip.
“This place is far out,” the girl said. She was the youngest of the Sorrentino children, and through the last decade Lori had seen all of her older siblings on pizza delivery duty at one time or another. “I’ve never delivered a pizza here before,” she said.
“I just bought it today. Tommy is helping me move in,” she said, noticing the girl’s eyes on him. “And he’s going to help with some painting and landscaping and stuff, so get ready to deliver a lot more pizzas here,” she said.
The girl smiled. “Enjoy your new house — and your pizza,” she said, and was off to her next delivery.
“Pizza!” Lori yelled, bringing Tommy and David into the dining room. Only a few of the light bulbs were in order, so the dining room’s startling gold colors were a bit more subdued than they would be under better light. “I didn’t think about ice, so the soda is a little warm,” she said. “Sorry.”
“No problem,” David said, chugging a big glass and refilling it immediately. “We’ve got all the boxes in the right rooms and it looks like you and Molly got quite a bit of the kitchen and bedroom done, so you’re in good shape for your first night, I think,” David said. “Have you thought about what projects you want to tackle right off?”
“Well, tomorrow I get the new kitchen appliances,” she said. She turned to Tommy. “I was thinking maybe tomorrow you could help me tackle the landscaping a little bit? It’s too late in the year to plant anything, but basically I just want to clear out the overgrown crap and neaten things up. Next spring I’ll do some planting.”
“Sounds good,” Tommy said. “I can come right after school.”
“I’ve got a lot of cleaning. And I need to buy about a hundred light bulbs. There are so many that are burned out. Oh, and I’ve gotta buy a lawn mower. I didn’t think of that, but I’ll need one right away,” she said.
“And a rake, and a shovel, and a branch lopper, and a hedge trimmer,” David said. “But you can borrow everything but the mower from us to start. Ours is too big to easily move and you’re going to need one anyway. But you’ll probably only use the hedge trimmer once a year. Might as well put that off until next year.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate that,” she said. She’d already spent a lot of money on the down payment and the appliances; not having to purchase all the lawn care items right away would be a big help.
They finished almost all the pizza and she urged them to take the rest of it home, since she didn’t have a working refrigerator yet. Tommy didn’t try to talk her out of it. And then she was alone in her own house for the first time. She busied herself cleaning the master bathroom and putting away all her toiletries, towels and miscellaneous bathroom items. That took about an hour, and she was genuinely tired when she was done. She tiptoed down to the kitchen, turning on every light on the way to dispel the slight feeling of creepiness she felt being there alone, and brought out the bottle of red wine she’d purchased for her first night. She had thought she might be sharing it with Jake. Instead, she poured a single glass and took it up to her new bedroom.
She turned on the disco ball and wished she’d set up her music system. No matter. She’d get to that soon enough. She slipped into her big round bed and looked up at her reflection. She saw a sad, pretty woman in dusty old clothes holding a wine glass. She didn’t like seeing herself that way, so she set down the wine glass, took a super-fast shower and slipped on a black lace nightgown. Now she looked more li
ke herself. Her feelings ran the gamut. She was happy that she was here, in a house that she’d chosen and paid for all by herself. She was pleased she had at last found some direction in her financial life. But she was sadder than she thought she’d be about Jake having brushed her off. What had happened between his hot kisses in his parents’ kitchen and his cold manner at the closing today? He was like night and day. Well, better not to think about it. She’d been hurt before and she’d likely be hurt again. She knew how to survive a broken heart. She knew only too well; she’d certainly had enough practice.
Somehow, she had thought her decision to make changes in her life and to start dating non-doctors would have changed things, but here she was, sleeping alone again. And maybe that wasn’t the worst thing. Maybe the big change she needed to make was learning how to be alone. She’d probably never get married, but she had good friends and she had a mostly good life. This was how it was going to be, apparently. She drained her wine glass, brushed her teeth, turned off the lights and disco ball and slipped into the giant round bed, a bed clearly not designed for celibacy. She spoke aloud. “Sorry, bed, looks like it’s just me from here on out.” She had time to decide that she was OK with that before she fell into her first night’s sleep in her new home.
Chapter 12
The next day, Tommy came over bright and early, driving David’s pickup truck, bringing a whole assortment of lawn care tools. He got started while Lori made a quick trip to the hardware store, using David’s truck. All the lawnmowers were deeply discounted for the season, so she was able to buy an electric push-mower for less than she’d feared. She’d never owned a mower before, but she recalled from her teenage years that messing with gas cans wasn’t fun. This mower would be easier, once the batteries were charged. When she got back, Tommy helped her get it out of the packaging and get the batteries on the charger it came with. Then she surveyed the ancient, overgrown bushes. They were monsters, and trimming them, even with David’s electric trimmers, was much harder than she thought it would be.
It was chilly, but soon enough she pulled off her jacket and worked in her T-shirt. She wrestled just the first two into shape before her muscles began aching and blisters formed on her hands. She switched to using a string trimmer to tackle the overgrown mess around the fence in the side yard.
She had envisioned getting the yard work done in one day, but she now saw it would likely take several days just to get things minimally whipped into shape. Tommy took over the hedge, moving the trimmer through it much faster than she had been able to do. She judged that the mower batteries were probably charged enough to use by now, and took the mower out for its maiden voyage. That wasn’t so bad. The mower was quiet and efficient and she had the front yard done in good time. The backyard would have to wait; she hadn’t let the battery charge long enough. She popped it back into its charger and took a little break. Her hands couldn’t take much more of this.
Molly arrived, bringing with her plenty of cold soda and some sub sandwiches. It wasn’t lunchtime but she tore into them.
“Yard work has given you an appetite, I see,” Molly said. “No apple for lunch today?”
“I’ve worked off enough calories to eat like Tommy today,” Lori said. She held out her hands. “Look. Blisters already.”
“You should leave the rest of the yard to me and go do your inside stuff,” Tommy said. “If you don’t, your hands are going to be worthless by the end of the day.”
“Who’s the nurse here?” Lori asked. “But yeah, I think you’re right. Anyway, the appliance people are supposed to be here about anytime now.”
They arrived just after lunch, and the antique kitchen appliances were gone, replaced by bright, shiny, white new ones. The starkness of the new items was in sharp contrast to the rest of the kitchen, and Lori decided that a fresh coat of paint would be the first change for the kitchen. Tommy could knock that chore out in a day, once he’d finished the outdoors. She and Molly headed to the living room after lunch, while Tommy, still energetic, headed back outside to finish up the mowing and attack a few more hedges.
“Careful stepping down,” Lori said, as they carried their cans of soda into the vintage conversation pit.
“This is really something,” Molly said, placing first her drink and then her feet on the round coffee table in the center. “No matter what you do, you definitely can’t get rid of this.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Lori said, “but check it out. On first glance it looks fine, but there are some stains and a couple of small rips on the undersides. Somebody just flipped the torn cushions upside down. I don’t know where I’d ever find another sofa set to fit this pit, though. I’d probably have to have one custom made, and that would cost a fortune. I might have no choice but to level out the floor and go to something more modern.”
“You could probably just have the whole thing reupholstered,” Molly said. “It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than getting a whole new custom set or doing major carpentry to the floor. There’s a lady in one of those little shops downtown who does it. Catarina something-or-other. David had her reupholster the fainting couch in my little upstairs reading nook. She did a great job.”
“There’s an idea. I’m spending a freaking ton of money on this place, though. It’s unbelievable. My payments aren’t much more than my rent was, but I didn’t realize how many other expenses come with home ownership. But then again, I haven’t bought so much as a pair of shoes in months, so that’s almost made up for it.”
“You and your shoes!” Molly said.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I have all these spare bedrooms. I’m actually going to use the little bedroom next to mine as a huge closet. I’ll have room for every pair of shoes and everything else. That’s another thing I’ll need Tommy for. I’m going to need a lot of shelving installed, and I’ll want to put up some kind of blackout curtain so nothing gets faded by the sun. I don’t have to have all that done right away, but it’s going to be awesome once I do.”
“I can’t help imagining the parties that took place here,” Molly said, glancing once again around the room.
“I am definitely going to have a housewarming party here just as soon as I feel like I have it whipped into shape,” Lori said. Her smile faded. “I really thought I’d invite Jake, but I guess not.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Here’s the thing. You know I went to his parents’ house that weekend to help with his brother. And I told you that he kissed me and more or less said he wanted to start dating me once I was officially not his client anymore.”
Molly nodded. “So what’s the problem? Your closing is over. There’s no ethical dilemma now, right?”
“That’s what I thought. But he was pretty cold at the closing. I invited him to The Clipper and he said he had showings. Then I suggested later and he totally blew me off.”
“Maybe he’s really just busy.”
“No, I know when I’ve been shut down.”
“But there was no indication before then? No misunderstanding or anything?”
“No. We had the kisses in his parents’ kitchen, and he was warm and friendly the next day. After that, we were both working and we had a couple of texts strictly related to the house closing and then he shows up for that and he’s all business, and then afterward just completely cold. Absolutely no reason that I can think of.”
“That’s really odd,” Molly said. “Something happened in between the kiss and the closing, that’s for sure.”
“Or maybe he met someone else. Who knows? Men often make no freaking sense.”
Molly headed home to take a nap and Lori went back to cleaning. She tracked down a number for the upholstery shop and made an appointment for the lady to come look at her sofa. Then her phone buzzed — it was work, wanting to know if she could come in. The ER had been slammed out of nowhere. She sighed, but texted back that she’d be there as soon as she could.
“Tommy!” she yelled out the back door. “H
ey, they’re calling me into work. Just carry on with what you’re doing, OK? And I’ll see you tomorrow.” She’d already given him a key, so there were no worries there. She took a very fast shower, changed, and, of course, applied her makeup. It would take a pretty dire emergency to convince Lori she couldn’t take the time to apply mascara.
The waiting room was packed. There hadn’t been a wreck or anything in particular to cause such a rush, but sometimes it just happened that way for no apparent reason. She quickly got into a rhythm, seeing patient after patient, getting into a zone, and working as fast as she could. A few times she passed Dr. Charles and she treated him with cold professional courtesy. He had not repeated his bad behavior, but she still didn’t trust him.
Five hours passed in a blur of infected cuts, high fevers, vague abdominal pain, a preterm labor and miscellaneous other patients. She finally got a short respite, enough to down a cup of the horrible coffee available on the floor. The brew in the cafeteria was as good as the coffee in any coffee shop, but somehow, the stuff made in the nurses station was abysmal. Still, they all drank it as fuel. There usually wasn’t time to go to the cafeteria for the good stuff, and definitely not on a day like today. Finally, they worked through the bulk of the cases and the nursing supervisor, Tiana Brooks, sent Lori and another nurse, Chloe, home.
Lori did not know Chloe well. She was young and relatively new, and Lori had only worked with her a few times. “That was crazy,” Lori said. “Did they call you in, or were you already scheduled?”
“I was already scheduled,” the girl said quietly. Lori was surprised to see that she looked like she was fighting tears.
“Are you OK? I know, it can get overwhelming in there sometimes, but you’ll get used to it.”
Kiss & Tell (Small-Town Secrets-Fairview Series Book 2) Page 7