A Simple Life: Chapter 90 (Patreon)

My first stop is the shoe store to see how my roomie’s first day on the job was going.  I’d directed him to this job and encouraged him on getting it so I wanted to follow through and check in on him.

A bell rings as I enter the store.  Springing up from one of the seats from the row of them that went down the center of the room is Brayden.  Unlike when I saw him on his way to work he now wore a gray blazer and an ugly brown tie that was poorly tied.  “Welcome…”  He begins until he sees who it is.  “Oh!  Hey man.”

“Hi.”  I say.

Mr. Nguyen steps through a curtain from the backroom but Brayden gives him a wave.  “Just a friend of mine Mr. Nguyen.”

The owner straightens his glasses and gives me a look.  “Avery Beckett.”

“That r-right Sir.”  I say, a bit surprised he remembered me even though I saw him and his wife on a weekly basis at the grocery store.  “H-How’s Jeannie doing?”

“Good.  Good.”  He says, then looks at Brayden.  “Five minutes.”  With that he heads back through the curtain.

Brayden nudges me.  “Come on.”  We head outside to stand in front of the store.  “Where’d you get the truck?”  He nods to the SUV.  “Nice.”

“It’s W-Winona’s dad’s.  I j-just had to run her mom into t-town.”

“Damn, met the folks already?”  He says.  “Things are gettin serious.”

“Yeah.”  I smile.

“Welp.  That’s it for you.  Ball and chain settings.”

“Pfff.  It’s n-not like that.”  I giggle.  “C-Come here.”  I turn him toward me and start to undo the knot of his tie.

He’s a bit surprised at my boldness but he doesn’t stop me.  “Yeah.  I didn’t realize they wanted a jacket and tie.  I had to run to the second hand shop to grab these.”

As I tie a proper Windsor knot we talk.  “H-How’s it going?”

“Dude.”  He says, his voice low so it didn’t carry.  “This place is awesome.”

“It is?”

“Yeah man.”  He says.  “Not too many customers.  No riff-raff, all like professionals and stuff.”

“At th-those prices I’m not surp-prised.”

“Quality costs.”  He says so smoothly I could tell it was practiced.  “It’s so chill.  There’s only so much inventory and cleaning up I can do.  They let me sit on my phone when there’s nothing else to do.  Plus I found out that if I sell enough I get a bonus at the end of each month on top of my base pay.  It’s great!”

“Cool.”

“Best of all…”  He looks over at the neighboring pet store.  “…the girl at the pet counter is hot as fuck.  And I think she’s single!”

“Local?”

“Nah.”  He says.  “Which is fine by me.  These island babes are getting boring anyway.”

I grin at his bravado.  To listen to him you’d swear he had a different date every weekend.  As his roomie I knew that this was not the case.  In reality he was probably happy about it because the woman wouldn’t know about his reputation as a lazy, complaining stoner.

I smooth out his tie and back away.  “Th-There ya go.”

“Thanks man.”  He looks down at it approvingly.

“I’m g-glad you like the job.”  I say.  “I kn-knew you c-could do it B-Brayden.”

“Yeah.  You did.”  He says as he looks up into my face.  “Hey…uh, I just wanted to say…I appreciate how you, ya know.”

“I do?”

He laughs.  “I’m just sayin that I’m glad I listened to you and not Jack.  You’re cool Avery.”

That was the nicest thing he’d ever said to me!  “Oh, um, it was n-nothin.”

“Nah.  It was something.”  He says and pats my arm.  “I better get going.  Thanks for checkin in on me.”

“You’re welcome.”  I say.  “Oh!  Um, I w-won’t be h-home tonight.  J-Just so you know.”

“Won’t be home?”  His eyes light up.  “Eyyyyy!”  He peppers my shoulder with a series of light jabs.

Though I try to play it cool I end up giggling.

“Finally!  Got the place to myself for a night.”  He says.  “Hey, what’s that Briar friend of yours up to?”

“Pbbst!”  I laugh.  “Forget it.  N-No chance.  Sh-She’s interested in s-someone else.”

“Ah.”

“And d-don’t even ask about K-Kayla.”

“How you got all these fine honeys and I don’t I will never understand.”

“Th-They’re not my h-h-honeys!  Th-They’re my friends.”

“Right.”  He winks then glances again toward the pet store as he tugs on the lapels of his blazer.  “Well I’m in the market for a pussy and I know just the shop that has it.  Meowww.”

“You d-dog.”  I groan.  “P-Please d-don’t talk to her l-like that.”

“Course not!”  He says with a swat to my chest as he heads back into his work.  “I’m a gentleman.”

With a roll of my eyes I wave him goodbye then head over to the very shop he referenced.  I am surprised to discover the woman in question is a tatted up goth girl complete with studded black choker and blank ‘IDGAF’ expression.  She barely even acknowledges me the entire time I’m there, speaking to me only when I am actually making my purchase of a laser pointer and feathered wand for Brutus.  As she bags my purchase I notice amongst the grim and Gothic imagery of her tattooed forearms the unmistakable shape of a cannabis leaf.

“Th-Thank you.”  I say to her as I take my bag.  “H-Have a g-good day.”

After a very slight raise of her left eyebrow and a too long pause she replies flatly.  “Come again.”

Back in the car I text Kayla to find that she was too busy to talk right now.  She suggests later that night but I say that we’ll catch up later sometime.  Tonight I wanted to keep for Winona.  Next I call my brother Joshua.

“Avie.”  He says, the hum of road noise behind him.  “What do you want?”  Always to the point with Joshua.

“H-Hi Josh.”  I say.  “I w-was wondering if w-we c-could grab a coffee or something one of th-these days.”

There’s a long pause.  “You serious?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Why?”

“Um…”

“This is out of the blue.”  He says.  “What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing is wr…”

“You need money or something?”

“N-No.”

“Aw fuck.  Is it Mom?  What’s she done?”

“What?”

“Grandpa then?”

“N-No.  I j-just wanted to c-catch up.”  I say.  “A-And to t-talk to you about something…”

“I knew there was a catch.”

“Um, I d-d-didn’t m-mean t-t-to…”

“Stop stuttering.”  He says.  “Yeah, let’s grab a coffee.  Not today or tomorrow though.  Text me later in the week and we’ll hook something up.”

“Th-Thank you.”

“Yep.”

And with that the call is ended.  Joshua wasn’t a long goodbye kind of guy.  With all of that out of the way I think about dealing with Jack as well while I was in town.  But after a moment’s thought I decide against it.  First of all he would be at work right now.  Secondly, I was just too damn tired to be able to deal with him right now.  I couldn’t even manage him with a full night’s sleep behind me, with no sleep I would stand no chance.  That just left one more stop.

I drive to my apartment and swoop in to grab some clothes, an overnight bag and my camera bag.  I still had most of an afternoon to kill so I figured I could grab some shots and start figuring out some stuff for their web page and advertising.  I find that as I am moving around the suite all I can see is her.  Her on my bed looking so sexy.  Her at the table laughing and joking with our group.  Her in the washroom holding me after discovering my bruise.  Her on the balcony professing her love for me through mist spattered glasses.  She was everywhere and the memories of her brought this place that was once just a place to lay my head to life.

I pause and look back over the quiet space.  It made me feel good knowing that her echo would remain here to comfort me on those dark and lonely nights when we couldn’t be together.  But right now…right now I had the real thing to get to.

Chapter 91