2. Chapter Two
Chapter two
B rennan
I sighed and rested my head on the steering wheel of my car. That was another interview for a job that I could do in my sleep but wouldn’t get. I knew that at some point, I was going to have to give up on the idea of using my degree and take whatever I could get, but I wasn’t ready to do that yet.
So far, I’d applied for everything that made sense for someone with a business degree and no work experience, unless you counted a job as a cashier at a local pet store and a short-lived stint as a barista.
As excited as I was to be finished with school, I had to admit getting a degree in something generic like business hadn’t been my smartest move.
I headed back to the house I was sharing with my old college roommate, Keegan. When we were in college, the plan hadn’t been for both of us to move to Austin. I was supposed to stay in San Marcos with my boyfriend. Too bad my boyfriend didn’t tell me his plan was to move to Atlanta without me.
Everyone else had been sending out resumes and networking to help them start their careers, and I’d been foolishly dreaming about redecorating the living room and planning what flowers I could plant at what I thought was going to be our house. I was such a fool.
Lucky for me, when my plan fell apart, Keegan immediately offered me a place to stay and time to get on my feet. He’d always known he was coming back to Austin. He was fortunate enough to have both a house and a job waiting for him, and I was fortunate to have him as a friend.
I stopped at the local coffee shop near the house to get a cup before going home and spending the evening contemplating the failure thus far of my existence.
Noticing the help wanted sign on the door, as much as I hated to, I asked the girl behind the counter for an application.
I couldn’t keep living off of my meager savings and Keegan’s goodwill, no matter what he said.
Back at the house, I set my coffee and the application on the table then grabbed my laptop and an ink pen. I opened my email to check it one last time before I gave in and filled out the application.
For just a second, I thought maybe I’d been saved from a future making half-caff, sugar-free, cinnamon, soy skinny lattes, and I hurriedly opened the email from Baker and Sullivan, a company I’d interviewed with two days ago.
But instead of salvation, all I found was another letter thanking me for interviewing and letting me know they’d gone with a candidate with more experience.
Well, fuck. I grabbed the paper application, and seriously, who the hell even uses paper applications anymore, and started filling it out.
I was about a quarter of the way through when I took a drink of the coffee only to find that it wasn’t hot anymore.
I carried the cup into the kitchen and got a mug out of the cabinet.
I stared at it for a moment, wondering if it was microwave safe.
Most of the dishes had been in the house when Keegan inherited the property from his aunt, so who knew how old it was.
I shrugged and decided to take my chances.
As I walked by the sink to get to the microwave, I heard a strange sound.
I paused and listened for a second. It sounded kind of like maybe someone was spraying the side of the house with a water hose.
Weird. Maybe Mrs. Perkins next door was having her house power washed or something.
I popped my cup in the microwave and hit the thirty-second button.
It shouldn’t take long. The coffee wasn’t really cold; it just wasn’t hot the way I liked it.
When the microwave beeped, I took out the cup and tested it.
Much better. I noticed the sound of the water wasn’t as loud on this side of the room, so maybe not Mrs. Perkins then.
As I headed back to the dining room where my laptop sat, I could just barely hear the water, but it was bothering me.
I got up and stuck my head out the back door to see if I could tell where the sound was coming from.
Keegan was out of town for a few days, and I’d been taking care of the plants he had on his patio out back.
I hadn’t watered them today, and I hoped I hadn’t left the hose on, although surely if I had, I’d have heard it before now.
I checked the hose, and it was off. I couldn’t hear anything out here at all.
I went back into the kitchen, and sure enough, there the sound was again.
The closer I got to the kitchen sink, the louder it got.
I looked around and noticed a puddle of water seeping out from the bottom of the cabinet under the sink.
Well shit. I pulled open the door and looked underneath to find a stream of water spraying against the side of the cabinet.
Fuck my life. I needed to shut off the water, but I hadn’t been here but a month.
I had no idea where the water cut-off was.
I ran back into the dining room and grabbed my phone, calling Keegan.
“What’s up,” he said by way of greeting.
“Hey, we have a busted pipe under the sink in the kitchen. I need to shut off the water. Do you know where the main is?”
“The what?” he asked.
“The main water shut-off to the house. Do you know where it is?”
“Out by the road somewhere, I think. Or maybe in the laundry room. I don’t know.”
I looked at the pipe under the sink and sighed. “Um, tools, do you have any tools?”
“I think my aunt had some out in the garage. Fuck man, I don’t have the money for a plumber right now. I maxed out my card for this trip.”
“Well, you know I don’t. I’ll figure it out. But I need to stop the water from spraying. Hold on,” I said, rushing to my laptop. I typed in how to fix a broken pipe . “Okay, I looked it up. The internet says I can use duct tape to fix it to buy enough time to get a plumber. Do you have any?”
“Yeah, in the drawer next to the stove,” he said.
I put him on speaker and set the phone on the kitchen counter.
“Let me see.” I dug around in the drawers and finally found the tape in the bottom one.
I got down on my hands and knees and quickly wrapped the tape around the pipe where it was leaking, and to my surprise, it held.
“I didn’t expect that to work, but it did,” I said loud enough for Keegan to hear. “The water has stopped.”
“Thank goodness, but now what do we do?”
“Well, the water was spraying out of some kind of connection, not the pipe, so I bet it’s just a matter of changing out that connection, and we’ll be good.”
“Do you need me to come home?” he asked.
“No, you enjoy yourself. You’ve been planning this trip for ages. I got this.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”