Page 8 of Until Bax

I set my glass of tea down and pick Herb up while my mom grabs Tums.

“Both of my favorite girls are here,” Dad says in greeting, walking into the kitchen. Even at his age, he still gets up every day and goes to the mechanic shop he owns, so his hat and shirt are covered with grease stains and dirt from a hard day’s work—the same as always.

“Hey, Dad.” I smile as he walks past me to give my mom a kiss before he comes to me and kisses the side of my head.

“This is a nice surprise.” His heavy arm circles my shoulders, and he squeezes me into his side.

“I said the same thing.” Mom beams as she looks between my dad and me.

“You staying for dinner?” Dad asks, giving me a squeeze.

“Do you think I’d ever pass up Mom’s chicken potpie?” I ask, and he laughs.

“Guess not.” He kisses the side of my head, then looks at Mom. “I’m gonna go wash up.”

“Alright, honey.” She tells him, then looks at me. “Well, since you’re here, do you feel like helping me sort some of the donations while we wait for dinner to finish?”

“Sure.” I follow her into the living room, where we spend an hour going through all the clothes, food, and random donations people have brought over, then Dad and I load everything into her car so she can drop it all off tomorrow.

As we finish dinner, the delivery drivers call to tell me they are about thirty minutes away, so I tell my parents goodbye and hurry across town. As I’m pulling into Kourtney’s driveway, I glance next door to check and see if Bax is home, but he’s not. Then again, I haven’t even seen him or his truck parked in his driveway since I moved in. After I park, I grab all my stuff off my passenger seat and take it inside. As I’m changing out of my work clothes, the doorbell rings so I quickly put on my cropped long-sleeved shirt and rush to the living room.

“Hi.” I swing the door in, and a young guy with a backward baseball cap smiles.

“Olivia Gannon?”

“That’s me.”

“Awesome, we’re here to drop off your stuff. Can you tell me where we’re placing everything?”

“Just right here in the living room.” I motion to the side of me. “I’ll sort it all out this weekend.”

“Awesome, that makes it easier for us.” He smiles and then looks down at the paper in his hand before meeting my gaze. “Alright, in order to start unloading, we're going to need two thousand dollars.” I start to shake my head as he continues. “If you don’t have cash, I have Cash-app or Venmo. You can use either of those.”

“Sorry.” I shake my head. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I already paid in full.”

“Yes, I understand how that’s confusing, but you still need to pay us for the delivery.”

“No, I paid for everything up front, and I was told my balance on delivery would be zero dollars.”

“You were told wrong.”

“I think I need to call the moving company. There has obviously been a misunderstanding.” I sigh, and he shrugs.

“Do whatever you need to, but you’re not getting your stuff unless you pay me.”

“You can’t take my stuff.”

“It’s in my truck, so you’re wrong,” he says, turning and heading down the steps.

“Hey,” I follow him, closing the door behind me. “I just need to call the delivery company,” I tell his back as he continues down the sidewalk. “Sir, just give me a second.” He doesn't even turn to look at me as he opens the door to the semi that is backed up to the driveway and gets inside. Oh my God, I run to get in front of him to block him from leaving when the engine rumbles to life, and he starts to pull forward.

“Move,” he yells out the window.

“Give me my stuff,” I yell back, pressing my hands on the front grill of the semi.

“Bitch, get out of the fucking way before I run you over.”

“No,” I scream, hoping like heck that he doesn’t say screw it and follow through with his threat.

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