Page 103 of Follow Your Bliss

Four Months Later

Jason

“Rose, honey, where’s your tea?” Mom stood near Rose in our barely functioning kitchen area on the altar, opening and closing doors of the sideboard I’d built.

Collecting dirty dishes at the dinner table, I strained to listen to their conversation over Alex and his new girlfriend laughing with Becca and Brad over who got Mom the best birthday gift.

“Ooh, let me bring out my special Betty collection.” Rose pulled a decorative tin box from an antique cupboard she scored at a flea market and presented it to Mom with a smile. “That’s where I keep your Earl Grey.”

Mom patted Rose on the back with a smile. “You always remember. Thank you, dear.”

I grabbed the last dirty plate off the table and added it to my stack, grinning from ear to ear. Watching Rose with my mom spurred the warmest contentment in my chest. They laughed together about something as Rose set the tea kettle on the hot plate and pulled teacups from the sideboard. She set them alongside Mom’s birthday cake, which was a king cake from Haydel’s Bakery since her birthday was on the first day of the Mardi Gras season, Little Christmas. Rose winked at me as my dad and I passed with dirty dishes and leftovers from dinner on our way to the community room kitchen.

“They sure are getting along well these days, huh?” Dad said. He elbowed me and gave me his best “I told you so” smile and eyebrow raise.

“Turns out you were right yet again. But I’m glad it took months and not years.” I pulled open the dishwasher and started filling it up.

Dad covered the leftover lasagna with foil. “I may have reminded her about our uphill battle with her parents. To grease the wheel, so to speak.”

“And you know I appreciate it.”

“In fact, your mother was telling me the other day about how much she loves the weighted blanket Rose gave her for Christmas, and how thoughtful it was. She’s been using that thing pretty much every day since she got it.”

“Aw, that’s great. I’ll have to tell Rose.”

The familiar ring of my phone got louder down the hallway, and Mom appeared in the kitchen, handing my phone to me. “Jason, honey, your phone’s ringing.”

“Thanks, Mom.” I tapped the green button and wedged the phone between my ear and shoulder. “Hello?”

“Hi, this is Faduma Abdi from Big Dick Tools. Am I speaking with Jason Soniat?”

Surprise kicked into my system as I put the dish in my hand down and quickly rinsed off my hands in the sink. “Hi Faduma. Yes, this is Jason. How are you?” I shrugged at my dad and held my phone carefully to my ear, striding toward the door to the courtyard.

“I’m very well. Thank you for asking. Do you have a moment to speak? I hope it won’t be a bother for you to hear from us after so long.”

The door closed behind me, and I walked out toward the fountain, shivering and crossing my free arm across my chest. Winter had finally come to Metairie, and even the rose bushes that’d been blooming at Christmas were starting to look bedraggled. “No, yeah. I can talk, and it’s not a bother at all. What can I do for you?”

“Well, Jason, as you know, we were so disappointed when you turned us down back in September. I say this only to give you context for my call tonight. Of course I’ve talked about you with our CEO and founder, Dick Goodwin, and we were both impressed with your integrity, and how you turned down the promise of big rewards so you could live honestly.

“I didn’t want to look for a new spokesmodel, but I tried. Unfortunately, I kept running into the same problem: none of them had that special ‘Jason’ quality.”

She laughed, and I laughed too. “That’s very kind of you to say.” A swift, icy wind careened through the courtyard and straight through the thin sweater I was wearing, and I ducked behind a brick arch to try and escape it.

“Well, it’s true,” she said. “We kept sending each other your new posts, talking about the one who got away. Since we last spoke, I’ve so enjoyed your new content with Rose, the partnership you two have—it’s really sweet to see. So, over the past month, I’ve been retooling our original concepts with the StudFinders project, and I’d like to extend a similar offer as last time, but with, we feel, some much-needed changes.”

“Really?” I said in my best attempt at not sounding overeager.

At that moment, Rose came out of the side door in her coat with a big blanket. She spotted me and closed the distance.

“Yes. So, once again, we’d like you to consider being our spokesperson for StudFinders, but this time with no contractual obligations on your personal life.”

My mouth dropped open as Rose reached me. With raised eyebrows and a smile, she draped the blanket around my shoulders. I pulled her close to me, and she giggled. Wrapping her close to my chest with my free hand, I pressed a kiss to her temple and murmured, “thank you.”

As Faduma continued talking, Rose’s arms wrapped around my middle, and she laid her head against my chest with a contented sigh.

“The StudFinders service was designed to promote the best handypersons in every market. We never intended to exclude handypersons who are married or in relationships, and we started to think our advertising—if it was based on the single hottie prototype—might give the wrong impression. Let’s be honest—there’s a good chance that the majority of handypersons who will show up at the customer’s door will have significant others. So, what do you think? Does this sound like something you might be interested in?”

“Yeah! Definitely. I mean, I’d like to read through the contract.”

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