7. Calista
C alista~
It was a glorious Saturday morning, and the plan was to do nothing all day long.
Harvey was no longer mad at me, and I had kicked ass yesterday to get the house cleaned and laundry done.
I was officially off life’s clock, and the world was lucky that I’d been considerate enough to shower this morning.
I also had a break from Abrielle’s wedding planning because I was fairly certain that they were going to end up eloping.
When I’d spoken with her yesterday, she had informed me that Mitchell was past waiting to marry her, and since they were already living together like they were husband and wife, what was the whole point of a wedding anyway?
I mean, was it about marrying the love of your life, or was it about the wedding?
Most of the time, it was about the ostentatious display of lace, and that’s why fifty percent of all marriages ended up in divorce.
At any rate, if I was being completely honest with myself, I was also going to take time out of my lazy Saturday to wonder and fantasize about one Myer Justus.
After he’d left my house the other day, I’d done what any respectable girl would do, and I had called my sister to internet stalk the man.
Because I worked for the state in the capacity that I did, I didn’t have any social media accounts, and even if I’d had, my parents and sister would probably be my only friends.
Anyway, I had called my sister with Myer’s name, and she’d done all the dirty work for me, and from what she’d been able to find on his one social media account, it looked like the man was single.
She hadn’t been able to find one single picture of him with a woman that hadn’t been his mother, getting my hopes up for no reason.
I mean, he could still be gay, or maybe he just valued his privacy the way that I did.
Either way, I didn’t want to make any quick assumptions about the man’s private life.
I was also lucky in that I hadn’t found any other fruit baskets on my doorstep, and I was considering that a win.
Now, while I didn’t necessarily begrudge Louise for her beliefs, I did resent her for not allowing me to have mine.
If someone told you that they didn’t like NASCAR, then you accepted that and moved on to find another sport that you might have in common.
What you didn’t do was buy them a NASCAR cap as a gift.
The unexpected knock at my door had me immediately wondering if I had conjured her up by just thinking of her, and if I did, then I was going to have to re-think if she really was able to speak to God. I mean, logically, I didn’t believe it for a second, but crazy shit happened all the time.
When a second knock sounded, I looked at Harvey, asking, “What do you think? Should we open it?”
He spared me only a quick glance before lowering his head, closing his eyes, done with me for the time being, and I really did envy him sometimes. He wasn’t having rotten fruit delivered to his house, and since he was also neutered, he wasn’t caring how long it’d been since he’d last had sex.
Accepting that I was on my own, the doorbell ringing finally had me getting up off the couch to go see who was disturbing my peaceful Saturday morning. However, when I looked through the peephole, the last person that I’d expected to see was standing on the other side, looking anxious.
Opening the door, I barely had time to step aside as Myer muscled his way inside, and when Harvey remained on the floor, not caring about saving me at all, I just shut the door, figuring that Myer must not be all that bad if Harvey liked him.
“What can I do for you, neighbor?” I asked, glad that I had showered after all.
“I met Louise,” he blurted, and I immediately winced.
“Well, normally, I’d say that it’s too early to drink, but I think we can make an exception in this case,” I told him sincerely.
“No, you don’t understand,” he said. “And I’m going to need more from you than just a beer.”
That immediately had me wary. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”
“So, I have a car and a truck, and my truck was due for an oil change,” he began rambling.
“Well, if I can do something myself, I’d rather do it than spend the money, and so I thought that I’d get an early start this morning.
You know, before the sun came out.” I watched him run his hands through his hair, and when those bicep muscles flexed, it took everything that I had in me to concentrate on the conversation.
“Anyways, when I was done, I slid out from underneath the truck, and there she was.”
“Louise?”
Myer nodded. “Yeah, and from the description that you’d given me, I knew who she was before she had even introduced herself.”
“Okay, so...so, what happened that has you over here, rambling and carrying on?”
His green eyes shot me a look, and while he didn’t appreciate me calling him out on his theatrics, I just smiled. “She caught me off guard,” he finally said, making me pause a bit.
“How can that be when I warned you about her?” I asked. “Have you learned nothing from the fruit basket?”
Ignoring that, he said, “She just started talking and...and scrambling my mind with her diabolical vocabulary, and...and...”
“Spit it out, Myer,” I ordered. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“I agreed to go to one of her meetings,” he blurted. “The one scheduled for tonight.”
I could feel my eyes nearly pop out of my head. “Are you insane? Why would you do that?”
“She made me feel like I would personally insult God if I didn’t attend,” he defended lamely. “Plus, I figured that if I went, then she’d leave me alone after that. I can...I can go, then tell her that it’s not for me, but that I wish her well. End of story.”
“So, what?” I asked. “You need me to set your house on fire to get you out of it?”
Myer’s green eyes blinked at me as his head jerked back a bit. “What? No. Are you crazy?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who agreed to attend one of Louise’s prayer meetings,” I fired back.
Ignoring that, he said, “I need you to go with me.”
I automatically laughed at that, but when he didn’t join in, I realized that he was serious. “Are you for real right now? You...you want me to go with you?”
“Are you really going to let me go there alone? Unarmed?” he countered.
“Go eat some gas station sushi or something to get out of it,” I advised him. “I am not going to one of Louise’s anything for any reason.”
“Seriously? You’d rather I poison myself than help me out?” he squawked. “After everything that we’ve been through together?”
“And instead of taking responsibility for not heeding my warnings, you want to take me down that dark, disturbed, insane rabbit hole with you?” I shot back.
“I’ll babysit Harvey,” he offered. “Whenever you need.”
My back straightened at that, my arms crossing over my chest. “What else?”
“That’s not enough?”
“Not on your life,” I replied seriously. “If I’m going to have to suffer whatever it is that happens at Louise’s prayer meetings, then I need more than babysitting Harvey.”
“Okay, then what else is it that you want from me?”
The question had been an innocent one.
A favor for a favor.
Prid quo pro.
However, my mind immediately slid into the gutter, thinking of all the things that I’d love from this six-foot-two, dark-haired, green-eyed god. Truth be told, I wanted him to rock my world all night long, putting an end to my dry spell, and also saving me money on batteries.
Doing everything that I could to keep from fanning myself, I asked, “Can you cook?”
“Of course,” he drawled out. “I’m a grown man.”
“Something besides macaroni and cheese?”
He shot me a look, saying, “Spit out your demands, woman.”
If only I could.
“Babysit Harvey, cook me dinner once a month for six months, and pull the weeds from my yard for life,” I said, the list sad but useful.
“Deal,” he immediately agreed, and it was hard not to assume that he was single. I mean, surely, if he had a girlfriend, dinner wouldn’t be happening, right?
“What time is the meeting?”
“Five,” he answered, looking less stressed out. “It’s for an hour, but we can stay for dinner if we want to. Dinner is from six to seven.”
“And get roofied?” I snorted. “Yeah, no thanks.”
His lips twitched at that, but all he said was, “I’ll be back at five, and then we can walk over together.”
“Awe,” I cooed. “Our first date. How romantic.”
His lips twitched again, but he didn’t say anything as he headed towards the front door, and then back home, officially ruining my entire Saturday.