Page 48 of Mail Order Splash

“My girl left. I thought she was staying a little longer but she decided there’s no point in waiting.”

“Sorry to hear that. It has to be hard after two years.”

“It stinks, but she wasn’t wrong. No point in waiting if we were ending anyway. Things felt weird.” He sighed. “Let’s get you moved.”

“What about you?”

“If we can get my stuff today then I’ll move in as well. The lease has a week left on it, but I need time to clean it up and do any painting. I could use that deposit.”

“Same for me. My deposit will get me through the necessary utilities for a few months.”

“I already told you I’ll be paying some of them. Are you going to work more days while we don’t have any rescues?”

“I told them I would. They always need overnight doctors in the clinic.” I put my shoes on. “What are you going to do?”

“Not sure. If there are any hours at the clinic for a lab tech, though, I’m your man.”

“I figured as much. They’ve been notified we are a team.”

“That’s my buddy. I can paint and clean during the day.”

“What do you think is going to happen?”

“It’s scary getting people with money involved. Do you trust them?”

“I don’t know them. Doc says they’re good people, but the seaquarium sits on prime real estate.” I watched people walking along the water as we drove by. “The area is beautiful. I can’t blame the city for hating my building.”

“All those people out there pushing their strollers, sipping their fancy coffees, and walking their perfectly groomed dogs live in these obnoxious high-rises.” He gestured all around us. “If you give up and give in there will only be more of them, and less breeze, I might add.”

“We know this, but do they?”

Josh’s friends were waiting at my place when we arrived. They were a fun group and helped whenever asked. I would owe them dinner, and possibly dessert, after this because I knew right off that they would not accept money from me. Josh went with them several times to unload while I stayed back finalizing each room.

I hope i’m doing the right thing moving in. Granddad would not be happy with me, but I had to hope he’d understand.

We had one load left. I made the decision to order pizza’s to be delivered to the seaquarium. We would have a campout with that smokeless firepit Dalton left behind. I wondered if when he left he’d planned to come back at any point since he left everything, including the wetsuit he’d brought with him. It was seven o’clock on a work night. I needed to make dessert something good. They had returned and loaded the last of the furniture. I planned to surprise them with the food.

“Josh, go with them to unload. I need to use the car to make a quick stop then I’ll meet you there.”

“Sure thing.”

It wasn’t anyone’s birthday that I knew of, but who didn’t like an ice cream cake with a side of chocolate chip cookies from the bakery? Two stops later I managed to pull in as the pizza delivery was pulling in.

“Couldn’t have planned that better if I tried.” I waved Josh over to help me. “Dinner for everyone. Meet you inside.”

“Kleine, thanks for the pizza,” the guys said at the same time. “Come on, we saved you a spot.”

“I see you lit up the fire already. Look what I have for after the pizza.” I held out the ice cream cake and cookies. “That is, if you want it.”

“Try and keep us from it.” Jimmy, Josh’s best male friend, said. “Is the water clean for a swim?”

“Sure, it’s salt water, though. If you wanna rinse off, use the showers over there.”

“I was gonna take a swim, but another time.”

We ate and laughed at stories they told about Josh, stories I’d never heard and some I had heard but enjoyed all the same. Around ten o’clock they left, leaving me and Josh to set up the beds. We could have slept on the cots but the thought of my own bed was too enticing. With the teamwork we’d always shared, my bed was done pretty quickly so we could have moved on to the other bed, but Josh declined and crawled under the blankets of one of the cots.

“That’s it? You’re gonna go to bed dirty?”

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