Page 76 of Set Me On Fire

Changed the tyre, dried her tears?—

Millie was crying? My grip on the phone grew tighter. What the hell did she need to tell me?

Had a nice moment before Astrid rang.

Charlie’s sister had it tough. Two little boys with special needs and a deadbeat ex that had skipped out on her. Charlie tried to step up for her whenever he could.

She rang me.I could barely believe I typed that out, but it appeared we were all sharing today.Wants to talk.

More dots, so many dots appeared, and I watched the screen avidly, waiting for Knox to say something similar.

Congrats,that’s what I got from Charlie.Maybe she’s looking for something long term.Another pause.This is what you’ve been waiting for.

It was, but I felt none of his confidence.

Tell us how it goes, that was Knox’s response.Night.

He shut down the conversation as quickly as it started, and it was only after I went to bed that I realised he hadn’t answered my question. I’d find out tomorrow, I thought, as I locked up the house, in more ways than one. I didn’t call Millie before I flaked out for the night, instead organising a table for two at Piccolino’s, making an online booking. One way or the other, I’d find out what was going on with Millie.

Chapter 37

Millie

“I’m sorry, love,” Brent said when I walked in the door. For a second, my heart sank.He knows, I thought furiously, even though I knew he couldn’t.He knows I’m pregnant too.“There’s been a change in uniform and we’ve been sent a hundred boxes all at the same time.” He jerked his head towards the hall, obviously wanting for me to follow him. “The boys are all in compulsory training today, otherwise I’d get them to sort this out.”

This was a lot. I stared at the boxes packed sky high against the wall beside an open store room.

“Whoa…” I turned around abruptly when a very muscular guy tore his shirt up and over his head, replacing it with one taken from an open box.

“Enough of that!” I thought Brent was snapping at me, but nope, it was the other guy. “You can get your new uniforms once they’ve all been counted off and the shelves have been stacked.”

This was more like what I was used to. Stockists dropping slabs of beer or boxes of food for the kitchens during the middle of our peak times was a common thing at the pub, until I put thefear of God into the drivers. They picked far more convenient times after that.

“So you want to check inventory, remove the existing uniforms, box them up, and then sort the new ones by size on the shelves?” I asked.

“That’s it.” Brent’s smile, it was the exact same one Dad wore when I showed some initiative. “I can’t ask Judy?—”

“It’s OK.” I grabbed the small pocket knife I kept on my keys and pulled open the blade. “I’ve got this. Inventory control was a big part of working at the pub.”

“The boys will come by in the breaks and help move the heavier stuff,” Brent promised. “Don’t go hurting yourself.”

But he didn’t know. I’d shifted slabs of beer with the best of them. In some ways, this was perfect. Keeping myself moving, it’d keep my mind off of what I needed to do tonight. With that decided, I went to pick up the nearest box. A stab of pain in my knee made clear I’d need to be careful. I’d worn pants to hide my injuries, but my butt was bruised black and blue and my knee was still weepy and raw. I shoved that aside along with everything else inside my head and went to work.

Sometimes I letmyself get a little too caught up in a job.

As I started moving old uniforms off the shelves, I saw the state of them. Dusty, a few dead silverfish in the corners, I knew I couldn’t go putting in new, clean uniforms on top of that. After a search in a few rooms, I found a cloth and a bucket, filling it with soapy water, and that’s when I found a rhythm. Remove the old uniforms, count them and box them up, then label each one before closing the box and pushing it out into the hallway. Clean that shelf and then while it was drying, I moved onto the next one. Over and over I worked, caught up in my own little bubble, untilhehad to pop it.

“Got one of them for me?”

My head jerked up and I blinked owlishly, the shirt I was in the process of folding up hanging in my hands. Dave stood, leaning against the doorframe, looking me up and down.

I’m sure some women would’ve found him attractive. He was tall, muscular, but so were all the other guys, and they didn’t wear a sleazy smile like it was some kind of accessory. They also didn’t mentally undress me the longer they stared my way.

“Size small?” I said, reaching into a box and grabbing a shirt blindly before throwing it his way.

For just a second, his smile faded as he was forced to grab it. His jaw flexed as he checked the size, his grin returning when he saw what size it actually was.

“Large, actually.”

---