Chapter 36 Over-budget
“Well, that’s absolute shit, isn’t it?” I heard Myles say. He sounded angry, and the tone of his voice made goosebumps rise throughout my body.
“Look, I dunno how this happened, man, but at least it’s a good thing we caught the issue before it became fatal,” came Paul’s response.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Myles all but hissed. “You messed up, Paul. Admit it instead of trying to get out of it by fucking with me.”
Yikes.
“I’m not the only one who was working on piecing together this damn bookshelf, okay, Myles?” Now even Paul sounded angry. “This is just as much your fault as it is mine.”
“Guys, come on; calm down,” Greg said. “It’s not like it’s an unfixable problem. We can easily work on it today and leave the pending stuff for tomorrow.”
“Exactly,” added Taron. “Me and Greg can pitch in with ideas, even if we aren’t that great with wood-work.”
I’d only just stepped out of my room to go say good morning to Myles and the crew, when I’d stopped in my tracks after hearing them argue.
It was almost 10a.m., and I knew Av? would be heading out to open shop soon.
“But it still doesn’t change the fact that we screwed shit up, Taron!” Myles yelled. My God, he was enraged.
“I’ve never let anything like this happen before, and you know that,” he continued, now sounding defeated.
“It’s almost February, and we’re still working on putting together the same fucking bookshelf that we started the year with.
We’re already getting close to crossing the budget Mr. Ribeiro set for us, and the last thing I need is to discuss financials with him.
In case you guys aren’t aware, him and I don’t exactly have a camaraderie going on here. ”
“But the budget only went up because we made the mistake of ordering a bookshelf from a company whose installation was garbage,” Taron provided. “It’s not our fault they refused to give us a refund when their policy clearly suggested otherwise.”
“This isn’t right, Taron,” Myles said, and my chest tightened because his voice seemed so small and tired. “I should have been able to fix this; it shouldn’t have taken me this long to work on a single thing.”
I finally decided to stop eavesdropping and walked into the storeroom.
The guys immediately turned to look at me, and Myles’s entire demeanor shifted when I reached him.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he said with a grin, then gave me a quick kiss.
I scanned his face. You don’t have to pretend with me, I signed.
He gave me a rueful smile. “You heard us, didn’t you?”
I nodded, and then placed a hand over his chest before running it up and down in order to let him know I was here to listen.
Myles sighed. “Remember the broad bookshelf I told you about? The one that’s supposed to be placed opposite the door?”
I nodded again.
“Yeah, so that’s not exactly coming along.
We’re almost done with tiling the walls and finalizing the ceiling, but because the shelves aren’t ready, we can’t exactly do the floors, because we work in this room itself, and the new flooring could take serious damage due to the wood-work we still have to do.
And…” He scratched the top of his head with a look of distress on his face.
“The reason why we still haven’t finished the bookshelves is because we keep piecing the bigger one incorrectly, for some reason.
” He took my hand in his and led me further into the room.
He then waved an arm at the incomplete shelf that was standing against the front wall.
It was as tall as Myles, made of bare wood and thick nails.
“See this?” he pointed at the shelf’s foot.
“It’s always crooked, no matter what I do.
This is the second time I’ve trusted a new company to send in a shelf, and because we’re already low on budget, I don’t wanna ask your grandfather for extra money for another shelf.
” He looked at me. “I dunno what to do, Rina.”
Is it bad that it’s crooked? I asked him. I mean, it’s still standing.
“If I leave it as it is, there’s a strong chance it’ll fall off, especially if you put your books in it,” Myles told me. “And, there’s no point in keeping it crooked and continuing to build it when it can’t do the one thing it’s supposed to: hold books. It’s a liability, at best.”
“It almost fell on Myles the other day,” Taron said as he came to stand next to his brother. “Good thing Paul caught it before it hit him in the head.”
My heart started doing that boom-boom-boom thing it does when I’m scared, because Christ, I was terrified after having heard that.
I stared up at Myles. What the fuck? I signed.
He gave Taron a glare before looking down at me. “I’m fine,” he assured. “It was nothing, babe.”
Nothing? I signed, then shoved him. Why did you not tell me?
“Rina.” He grabbed my wrists and pressed my hands to his chest. “It was nothing, I promise. I was simply sitting too close to it while working, and it just happened to fall while I was there. I’m fine, I swear to you.”
I realized I was breathing too hard, so I swallowed and began working on my self-control, because all it was telling me to do was to strangle Myles.
Stop working on this shelf, I signed to him, and then jerked my head toward the two dismantled shelves on the floor behind him. Work on those. And if they are just like this one, then I can simply get premade shelves from the store.
I had to spell the word ‘premade’ slowly so that Myles could understand.
He shook his head. “We’re low on budg–”
I shoved him again. No, I told him. It’s my room, and I get to decide what I want in it. I’ll not have you getting injured for a few shelves.
“Rina–”
I put a hand up to stop him. No, I signed.
“Uh-oh,” Taron quipped at Myles. “Looks like you’re in trouble, baby brother.”
Myles glanced his way with ice in his gaze.
Taron chuckled and stepped back, then motioned for Paul and Greg to follow him outside the room.
Once alone, I shoved Myles a third time. It was, after all, the next best thing to strangling him.
He sighed audibly. “I’m sorry, okay? I should’ve told you, and I didn’t. I apologize.”
It isn’t that, I told him.
“Then what is it?”
I stared at him briefly, then at the shelf, and then back at him.
Scared, I managed to sign, and swallowed.
Myles’s expression softened. “I know.” He stepped closer to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “But I’m tougher than this, Rina; I’ve worked with far dangerous shit. Trust me, I’m okay.”
Be careful, I signed.
He smiled. “I will.”
I will discuss the budget with Av?, I then told him. For premade shelves.
“No, Rina,” he said, and then frowned. “If I wanted to add store-made shelves in this room, I’d have done so days ago and saved us all the time and hassle.
I’ve been making things by hand from the very beginning because I want this room, and everything that it’s built with, to be special to you.
I want you to sit in here weeks from now, and know that every inch of this space was made for you, and only you. ”
Oh, Myles…
As if he hadn’t already stolen my heart by being himself, now he had to go and steal my breath away, too.
I rose a little and gave him a long kiss. Everything you do for me means the world to me, I signed. I appreciate what you said, Myles, but you come first for me. Not this room, not the shelves, not the budget, but… I tapped his chest twice to say, You.
His eyes gleamed a little against the mellow sunlight as he searched my face. “How did I end up having such luck?” he asked, more to himself than me, I realized.
I fixed the collar of his sweater as I smiled at him. I will speak with Av?, and we will think of something together, I signed, then flung my arms around his neck before cupping the back of his head.
“What if he says no?”
I simply shook my head.
Myles sighed and gave me a nod, then brought his face to the crook of my neck before exhaling against it. His shoulders slumped, and his hold on my waist tightened.
I hugged him close to me, and as I began massaging his scalp, I felt him relax further and further in my arms.
“You’re amazing, Rina,” he mumbled against my skin.
I closed my eyes, nuzzled my nose against his cheek as I breathed in the smell of his aftershave, and placed a kiss on his jaw in response to his words.