Not So Easy (The NOT Series Book 4)

Chapter 18

Through a seriesof text messages with Calvin, I agreed to wait until after lunch to visit the house on Friday. After our date, I managed to clear my afternoon, which meant rescheduling two engagement sittings and one new client consult. Thankfully, all parties had been accommodating.

Not that I’d mentioned this yet. If the house was as far behind as I feared, they might plan to work over and that would take priority.

When I pulled up in front of the house, which now had amazing curb appeal, pride welled in my chest. What had been dingy, green, and neglected months ago was now shiny, white, and beautiful. Hopefully, the interior would eventually be the same.

“Hey, you,” said JoJo as I approached the porch. She was sitting in a bag chair eating a sandwich by herself. “You’re early. Cal said you’d be here sometime this afternoon.”

He’d grossly overestimated how far my patience would stretch.

“I told him after lunch.”

The young woman laughed. “It’s barely twelve fifteen. After lunch is like an hour from now.”

What was an hour one way or the other?

“I ate at eleven thirty.” Trying to see through the big front window, I asked, “Where’s your boss?”

“He’ll be back.” She grabbed a folded up bag chair that was leaning against the house and shook it open. “Have a seat.”

I’d rather go inside, but Calvin would probably be annoyed if I went in without him. “I can do that. How are things with you?” I asked as I settled into the orange chair.

“I’m good. Ballin’. Datin’ around. You know how it is.”

I’d never been good at sports and couldn’t remember the last time I dated around, but she didn’t need to know that. “Right. Sure.”

JoJo twisted my way. “Hey, I heard one of your friends is getting married over at Hickamore House. Is that true?”

“It is. Megan is in love with the place. In fact, I had my bridesmaid dress fitting last night. I can’t believe the wedding is only two months away.”

“That’s so cool.” She took a bite of what smelled like pastrami on rye, then set the sandwich on a napkin in her lap. Once the food was mostly down, she said, “Jas says yinz are using a tent and everything.”

The name sounded familiar. “Jas?”

“Jasmine Riley. She lives here in the hood and recently started doing some admin work over at Hickamore.”

The woman I met leaving his house that day. “The one who cleans Calvin’s house?”

JoJo shrugged. “I don’t know that she really cleans the place. It’s more an excuse for him to give her money now and then.”

An excuse for who? “So Calvin gives her money for nothing?”

“I don’t know what their arrangement is. All I know is she’s now working in the Hickamore office a couple of days a week. They got a bunch of new business and needed extra help.”

That business came from Becca’s company. After we’d taken the tour for Megan, Amanda moved Hickamore House to the top of her list, and even included it on her website as one of the best new event locations in town.

Calvin already told me there was nothing personal between him and Jasmine, and I believed him. But that was from his side. I had no idea how Jasmine saw the situation.

“Don’t worry,” JoJo said without prompting. “I don’t think she’s any competition for you.”

“I didn’t…”

She held her hands up. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two either. I’m just sayin’. The way Calvin’s been moving lately, it’s pretty clear that he’s into you. So if you’re interested, you don’t need to worry about Jasmine. She’s tried to shoot her shot, but Cal puts her off every time. The coast is clear in my opinion.”

I ignored the second part and focused on the first. “The ways he’s been moving?”

JoJo pointed to the house. “Like taking on this job. Our schedule was already packed for the summer when he agreed to do this one. At first, I didn’t get why we needed one more, but then I heard who owned the place and it made sense.”

Calvin never mentioned other jobs. I assumed he did one at a time and had pushed to do the project because he needed the work.

“How many other jobs are you guys doing right now?”

“There are two others and a third that starts middle of next month, as far as I know. He’s stretching things pretty thin. No offense, but he should have left this to someone else, because I’m going back to school in a few weeks and he’ll be even more short-staffed. Good thing we’re way ahead of schedule on this one.”

“Ahead of?—”

“Speak of the devil,” she said, collecting the last of her sandwich and curling out of the chair. “Your client’s been waiting for you.”

Calvin tucked his keys into the pocket of his overalls as he climbed the porch steps. “I thought you were coming after lunch.”

“She eats lunch early,” JoJo answered for me. Turning back, she smiled. “It was nice talking to you.”

“You, too,” I said, but kept my eyes on Calvin. “We need to talk, as well.”

As his cousin disappeared into the house, he said, “You ready to go in?”

Part of me wanted to stay right where I was and tear him a new one. Was this how he’d decided to worm his way back into my life? Or worse, maybe he saw me as the fixer-upper. Poor clueless Donna Bradford with the clunker car and a house that no one wanted to renovate. Must have seemed like the perfect opportunity to play the hero and come to my rescue.

But there was JoJo’s last statement. They were so far ahead on the project. She’d mentioned before that Calvin had been pushing people to work overtime. His workers must have hated me. No wonder all the times I’d stopped by since Memorial Day, almost no one even looked at me let alone spoke.

No one except JoJo, and now I almost wished she’d offered the silent treatment as well.

Working hard to keep my expression neutral, I said, “I’m ready.”

Brow furrowed, he asked, “Are you good? If I’d known you were coming early I’d have been here.”

Of course, he would have. “I’m fine.” Calvin hesitated, watching me closely, so I offered an empty smile. “Let’s go in.”

Like a man encountering a bear in the wild, he kept an eye on me while opening the screen door wide, then waiting for me to go in first. His movements were slow, as if he didn’t want to spook me.

Too late for that.

Between being certain the project was months behind and being told they were way ahead, I had no idea what to expect when I stepped into the house. Definitely not what I saw. The place looked ready for me to move in immediately.

Though a two foot wide path of brown paper cut through the foyer into the living room, the floors I could see were immaculate. The exact shade of oak I wanted in the extra wide planks. The original wood work on the stairwell and railing had been re-stained and polished to a high shine.

If it weren’t for the opening to the half bath that didn’t exist before, I could have been stepping back in time. Moving into the living room, I couldn’t believe how big it was. With the wall to the kitchen mostly gone, the open floor plan easily made the space appear double the size it truly was.

And speaking of the kitchen…

Matte finish, black stainless steel appliances contrasted perfectly with the white cabinets. The vent hood looked to be a custom piece that I’d never seen before let alone picked out. Hovering over the stove, it extended at least six inches on each side, with an oak finish that matched the floors.

The splash of wood grain in the middle of all the clean white surfaces shouldn’t have worked, yet it did. Then my eyes drew down to the island and my heart stopped. The bottom was the same dark green as I’d chosen for the bathroom upstairs, and supported a thick white slab of veinless quartz. I’d only seen the small sample piece and never could have guessed how enormous and gorgeous it would be once installed.

The quartz jutted out on the left, where barstools would fit perfectly, and cascaded over the edge on the right to carry all the way to the floor. This was something out of a magazine. Throughout the process, I’d chosen countless elements from catalogues and sample books, but I couldn’t have imagined this was how those choices would come together.

Remembering the timeline we’d drawn up back in May, this wasn’t even supposed to be started until around the time I moved in.

Swinging around, I could only come up with one word. “How?”

What I once thought of as humility now read as smugness. “Things went well and we got more done than originally expected.”

Things went well my ass. “Things going well doesn’t explain being nearly a month ahead of schedule.” I could only assume he’d altered the work schedule, putting the kitchen before other rooms that should have come first.

Like the studio.

Not that bringing clients into a construction zone was my best idea, but being able to take them up the new back stairs and bypass the work in progress would be my only viable option once I could no longer use my apartment.

“What got sacrificed to make this happen?”

He looked almost offended. “Nothing’s been sacrificed.”

“You must have changed the plan around. I needed the studio done first.”

“The studio is done.” Calvin pointed to the fireplace. “What do you think of the built-ins? They aren’t permanent. I just framed that up there so you can see what it would look like.”

Four foot high shelving units filled the space on each side of the fireplace beneath the two glass block windows original to the house. The wood was obviously unfinished, but other than that no one would know they weren’t a permanent feature.

“They’re fine,” I said, still confused. “What do you mean the studio is finished?”

“We wrapped it up yesterday. I was going to save it for last, but if you want to see it now, we can head up.”

“Wrapped it up?” Rubbing my hands over my face, I mumbled, “What is happening right now?”

“That’s why I needed you to wait a week. So the artist could finish the job.”

My hands dropped to my sides. “The artist?”

“You’ll see.”

Calvin spun me around and gently pushed to navigate me through the kitchen to the door in the back left corner, exactly where I’d envisioned it. On the other side was a small entryway with a another door on the right that led outside. Across from me were five hooks, I assumed for clients to hang their coats.

“Go on up.”

The stairs were finished, the railing was in, and there was a sign on the door at the top that read Donna Bradford Photography. How…

I couldn’t make my feet move. None of this was supposed to be done for weeks yet. I didn’t even hear power tools being used. How could this be?

“I don’t understand. You told me the house wouldn’t be done until fall.”

“Isn’t getting done early a good thing?”

Was it? Rationally, I knew the answer was yes, but then why did everything feel so wrong?

“Come on,” he said with a nudge. “You need to see the rest.”

Like a robot, I climbed the stairs as ordered, head spinning.

“If you want to hang some shots on the walls here, we can put them up for you.”

I’d already picked out the pictures I planned to hang in the stairwell, but I hadn’t mentioned doing so, nor did I expect Calvin and his team to be part of furnishing and decorating my house.

“I’ll handle it,” I said, confusion and overwhelm morphing into a simmering anger.

I should have known all of this was happening. I should have been a part of it. The sign on the door was fine, but it wasn’t in a font I would have picked. I’d decide whether to keep or change it once I moved in. And Calvin would not be involved.

Jaw tight, I opened the door at the top of the stairs and made the left to step over to the French Doors. The hall was larger than I’d pictured, which helped to make the space feel set off from the bedrooms down the hall.

Though at this rate, who knew what was happening down the hall, seeing as Calvin had practically gone rogue while I was too busy to stay on top of things. This was exactly what I didn’t want. The house was mine. No decisions should have been made by anyone but me.

As soon as I reached for the handle on the right side door, Calvin put his hands over my eyes. “You ready?”

At my limit, I growled, “Get your hands off of me.”

He obeyed immediately. “Are you mad?”

Ignoring the question, I walked into the studio. The space was huge with incredible natural light pouring in through the window I’d been dreaming about for weeks. Then I saw it. The entire right side wall was one huge mural.

In complete shock, I said, “Is that me?”

A teenage version of my face, only a hundred times larger, stared back at me. Dark curls filled what space the face didn’t, and in the bottom right hand corner were the words Black Girl Magic.

“Yeah,” Calvin said with far less enthusiasm than when we started this bizarre tour. “It’s based on a picture I found in the box in the attic.” He pulled a small remote from a holder on the wall next to the light switch. “There’s a screen to cover it when you’re doing a shoot.”

A motor whirred as a screen the full width of the wall slowly lowered, covering the unexpected artwork. How much of my budget did that take up?

Riding a razor’s edge of fury, I asked, “What’s left to be done?”

He put the remote back where he found it. “The bathroom and closet off your bedroom, light fixtures, some caulking and finishing touches, and the landscaping.” Looping his thumbs around the straps of his overalls, Calvin nodded toward the wall behind me. “I can have the mural painted over.”

And spend more of my money to fix a decision he made? I didn’t think so.

“Leave it. Will all of those things you just listed be done before I move in on the twenty-sixth?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Did you make any changes to what I asked for in my bathroom and closet?”

Teeth clenched, he said, “No.”

Was that anger in his eyes? So the saint had a temper after all. Good for him, but I was beyond caring how he felt.

“I want a full accounting of the project so far. Is there anything else I need to see?”

Crossing his arms, he watched me with narrowed eyes for several seconds. “I thought you’d be happy.”

He thought wrong. “Why did you take this job, Calvin? JoJo says you didn’t need the work. She says you didn’t even have time in the schedule to add another project.”

“JoJo needs to mind her own business.”

“Answer my question,” I snapped. “Why did you push so hard for this job?”

A muscle twitched along his jaw. “I didn’t push. I offered. You needed a contractor, and that’s what I do. No one said you had to hire me.”

That was bull and he knew it. “I didn’t have a choice after all the others either turned me down or overbid. Was that your doing?”

Calvin straightened. “You think I called every contractor and told them not to take this job? Wow.” He shook his head. “You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”

And we were right back where we started. “So it’s a coincidence that you were my only option?”

“Was I, Donna? Did you talk to every single contractor, builder, and handyman in this city before hiring me? I gave you a bid just like the others, You had the choice whether or not to accept it.”

Anger burned in my gut. “I had a choice, Calvin? Did I have a choice on this wall?” I asked, gesturing toward the space behind me. “Or that sign on the door, or on your crew seeing me as a spoiled bitch because you pushed them to work overtime to look like a hero? I’m not your charity case, and I never asked for special treatment. I don’t need saving so keep the cape for someone else.”

Without another word, he pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, then put the cell back in his pocket. At that moment, my phone dinged.

“There’s your accounting record. Every penny and how it was spent. I paid for the mural.”

Throat tight, I stared him down. “Add it to the bill.”

Dripping with sarcasm, he said, “You’re the boss. If we’re done here, I have work to do.”

“We’re done.” We both knew I wasn’t talking about the house.

With a curt nod, Calvin left the room. I stayed where I was as waves of anger washed over me. Anger. Hurt. And eventually a heavy ache in my chest.

I should have known better than to believe that this time would be different.