Page 61 of Unlucky You

“Fuck…”I knocked over the box of screws and they scattered across the concrete floor. I had been off all day, fumbling through shit I could normally manage without thinking. Most of my issue was that I was still annoyed by the way class had gone this morning. If she decided not to sign off on my paperwork, then I would have to start all over, which meant giving up another hour a week for eight weeks.

“You might as well stop now.” I glanced over my shoulder at Walt. His salt and pepper hair and beard were another reminderof the time I lost. More gray than had been there before I did my bid.

“You shutting down early today?” I murmured and kneeled to collect the screws I knocked over.

“I wasn’t but it seems like that’s what we should do. You’ve been fucking up all day. Distracted. Pack up your shit and we’ll try this again tomorrow.”

My eyes narrowed and lifted to Walt before I extended to my full height. “I haven’t been distracted and there’s nothing wrong with the work I’ve done.”

He arched a brow and pointed to the floor but kept his eyes locked on me. “You use those to install?” His finger lifted and pointed to the wall behind me.

“Yeah, why?”

“Drywall’s half inch and framing is wood.”

I frowned, not processing what he was getting at until I opened my hand and glanced at the handful of screws in my palm, noticing they were two inches in length and fine threaded.

“Fuck…”

Walt grinned. “Yeah, fuck. See… distracted.”

Even though they were drywall screws, they weren’t what I needed for the job I was doing. Fine thread was for metal framing. I needed coarse threaded screws. The wider thread held the wood better and the size was off as well. They should have been an inch and a half in length. One and a half times longer than the half inch drywall I was using. Fuck!

The past three hours were a waste of my time and I would have to remove everything I’d done, which was almost the entire perimeter of the basement we were working on, and reinstall it properly.

“Why the fuck would you have those?”

“This isn’t the only job we’re working on, Grand. You got them off the van and didn’t check the size.” He stepped forwardand tapped his finger into my chest. “Distracted. Pack up. You’re done for the day. Tomorrow, I’ll help you get this down and re-installed.”

“I can do it.” I frowned through my annoyance, pissed that I hadn’t been focused.

“Yeah you can but I’m going to help you.” He glanced around.

I opened my mouth to argue and he cut his eyes my way. “Tomorrow, Grand. You’re done here. In fact, I’m gonna shut down too.”

I pushed out a frustrated breath and nodded. Instead of debating, I used my foot to sweep the screws closer together and picked them up, returning them to the plastic container. Once I made sure the lid was secured, I packed up the tools I’d worked with all day—utility knife, tape measure, and drill. I dumped everything into the toolbox, exited out the side entrance, and rounded the corner of the property until I reached the driveway where Walt was lifting wood from an A frame. He’d spent the afternoon sizing pieces for custom cabinets with a portable saw while I was installing drywall.

I dropped my toolbox in the back of his company van then fell in step, collecting the scrap pieces, which I carried to the removable dumpsters he kept on each job. We worked in silence until everything was cleaned up. When the last pieces were dumped, I planned on heading home but Walt motioned for me to join him.

The last thing I wanted was another person demanding explanations but I respected Walt and appreciated that he had given me an alternative by hiring me back so I could legally make decent money. Along with the cushion I made from the fights, I could breathe a little and wasn’t at risk of losing another five years or more. I sat next to him on the bed of the van and dropped my elbows into my thighs, waiting.

When he barked a laugh, I turned to find him grinning. “You look like you want to go a few rounds with me.”

I smirked and shrugged. “Depends on what you’re about to say.”

“I’m just checking in with you, son. You’ve had a rough go of things and I can’t say that I give a damn one way or another but if it means preventing you from wasting six hours of labor that I have to pay you for…”

“You don’t have to pay me for today.”

He frowned and waved me off. “I’m gonna pay you, but I still want to know what’s got you off your game today. Everything okay?”

I moved both hands over my head, then sat up, nodding. “It’s as good as it’s gonna be.”

“That’s not an answer.”

I stared across the street at two kids chasing each other in the yard, a little girl about twice the age of the boy running after her. It made me think about Raiden and whether or not I would give him siblings one day. The thought twisted my stomach. If I did, they wouldn’t be from his mother.

Then my thoughts shifted to Saniya. Things were good with us. She didn’t push and more or less went with the flow. She asked about Raiden but never requested to meet him which gave me peace but also bothered me. I wondered if her not placing the demand was due to not wanting anything to do with my son or if she was respecting boundaries. I never said he was off limits but I also hadn’t offered to connect her to that part of my life.

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