Page 17 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

I didn’t have the fuckin’ money to buy a damn vacuum.

“I got you.” Silas clapped me on the back. “My parents just bought me one, and I have my old one.”

“Why did your parents buy you one?” I asked suspiciously.

“Because apparently mine’s not ‘good enough’ for a slob like me.” Silas chuckled. “Be right back.”

He was right back, actually.

And as I stared at the vacuum that looked like it was suspiciously newer looking that it should be for used, I didn’t say anything.

I had to clean this mess up before Mary got home and broke down.

She, like me, was feeling the strain of too many bills and not enough money.

If I wasn’t careful, she’d try to start working again, and we couldn’t have that.

It was my duty to make sure that she could live her life how she wanted to live it.

“I think it’s time for a second job,” I mused as I humbly used the ‘used’ vacuum that Silas gave me.

“What about picking up more hours at the shop?” Stetson asked. “I know that you only work there as a favor to us, but I don’t think we’re ever going to not need the help. We could make it a full-time thing. You can get benefits then.”

Something like hope surged inside my chest.

“Yeah?” I asked, hopefully not sounding as desperate as I felt.

“Sure.” Stetson shook his head. “I actually thought about asking you a lot. But you never wanted to go that dedicated before.”

He was right.

Before Mary, I was a free spirit.

I would help out where needed, but I never wanted to tie myself down anywhere permanently.

But again, that was before Mary.

Now, I wanted to tie myself down in any way possible just to make her life better.

“Then it’s settled,” he said as he slapped me on the back. White baby powder went flying. “We’ll get you on the schedule full time. I’ll get my ol’ lady to work on your paperwork. You start at eight in the morning Monday.”

I groaned.

That was one thing that I was going to struggle with.

Getting up to work by eight in the morning.

I was a late to rise, late to bed, kind of person.

Just the thought of being tied down that way…

“Dix?”

I looked up to find Mary in the doorway, looking at the vacuum.

The way her eyes lit up…

“You bought a vacuum?” she breathed.

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