Page 79 of Mr. Infuriating

The caller ID readMitchell Cabinets,and my heart skipped a beat.

I wasn’t sure I even wanted to talk to him, but a part of me was glad that at least he hadn’t ghosted me completely—even if he was probably just calling to schedule a time to bring the last of the cabinets.

I had to have a little bit of masochist in me, because I decided to answer.

“Hello?”

A deep voice I recognized but wasn’t expecting said, “Is thisGretchen?”

“It is.”

“Hey, it’s Rick from Mitchell Cabinets and Woodworking. How are you today?”

That son of a bitch couldn’t even call me himself?!

I responded with a clipped, “I’m fine, thank you.”

“That’s great. Well, the reason I’m calling is to see if I can bring the rest of your cabinets by on my way home from work tonight. Say, five-thirty?”

“You’re going to bring them? By yourself?”

“Yeah, I’ll have the company truck, so they’ll be easy to offload with a dolly.”

“Oh, I see.”

Why hadn’t Gabe done that to begin with? He probably could have delivered them all in one load.

Then he wouldn’t have had an excuse to come back.

And now he didn’t want to come back, so he left it to Rick, a dolly, and the company truck.

I wavered between being hurt and pissed—something I hadn’t experienced since my divorce proceedings, and I didn’t like it one bit.

“Yeah, that’s fine, Rick. I should be home by then.”

Before I hung up, I wanted to add,And tell your boss to fuck off,but I was at school and didn’t want to risk being overheard.

But I hoped my snippy tone conveyed the sentiment.

****

Gabe

I felt a twinge in my gut on Tuesday morning when I flipped on the light in the shop and noticed the empty space where her cabinets used to be.

I was a chicken shit, plain and simple.

Or an asshole.

Maybe both.

I’d had Rick call her to schedule a drop off time yesterday, and I didn’t even have the decency to be the one to deliver them.

The Mitchell Men Therapy Session had yielded mixed results, at best.

We’d had a good sob session about Bodhi, where my brothers all talked about their memories of my little man. It had been painful, yet cathartic

I still didn’t understand God’s plan or whatever bullshit people spew when a tragedy strikes, but I did accept it was out of my control, and it wasn’t my fault.

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