Page 34 of When You Least Expect It
“You have a pet goldfish?”I asked, surprised.
Myer nodded.“I won her at a fair about six months ago, and I treat her like a queen.”
That got me smiling.“I bet her fishbowl is all bedazzled out, huh?”
“Well, while it’s not fancy, it’s ecologically efficient to keep her alive for as long as possible,” he replied.“I mean, I know that goldfish don’t have long lifespans, but Lilibeth doesn’t know that.”
Pretty sure that I was falling in love with Myer Justus.
“And the shipping yard job,” I said, switching topics.“Is it a job that you love?”
“It’s a job that I’m good at, which I’m not sure is the same thing,” he answered.“Ideally, I like physical work for the health benefits, but the older that I get, the harder it is to keep up.So, when this promotion came up, it seemed like an ideal compromise.”
“Are the benefits worth the hard labor?”I asked, genuinely wanting to know.“I mean, while decent hourly wages are important, so is health insurance and retirement benefits.”
“Well, since we’re unionized, it’s all good,” he answered with a shrug.“Our overall package is a good one, and I’m grateful for it every day.”
“Yeah, a lot of people forget about the other stuff when shopping around for jobs,” I remarked.“There’s always so much more to it.”
“What about you?”he asked.“I imagine that the state has to pay rather well.”
“It does,” I admitted.“The benefits are also great, but when you consider that it’s just me, I’ve been able to be smart with my money over the years.Nowadays, it’s almost unheard of to be able to afford a home on a one-person income.”
“Amen,” he agreed.“That’s one of the great things about belonging to a union.They negotiate for a realistic livable wage and not what politicians say that we can live off of.Granted, not everyone is pro-union, but I can say that I am and will probably always be.”
I grinned at that.“Well, when you consider that your pension is tied to it, you probably should be.”
Myer let out a sweet laugh.“True.However, I also have other retirement investments, so that I have more than just one nest egg.”
“We’re lucky that we have parents that had raised us to see beyond the right now,” I said.“I mean, could you imagine what a mess our lives might be right now?All of our destinies could have been completely rewritten.”
During dinner, Myer had spoken to me about his brother’s upcoming wedding, and that had opened the door to tell him all about Abrielle’s upcoming elopement, and that’s what had kicked off the family portion of our date.We’d spoken about our parents, siblings, childhoods, and pretty much everything under the family sun.It’d also been sweet to hear the love in his voice when he’d spoken about his parents and brother, and it’d been easy to see that Myer Justus was a family man all the way through.
“Luckily, I have no complaints,” he said.“My family is healthy, happy, and all doing well for themselves, and that’s all I want for them.While we might not be rich, we don’t need to be.We have more than most, and I know that.”
“But what of your spiritual journey?”I asked, fluttering my lashes at him.
Myer barked out a laugh before tossing a napkin at me.“Ha.Ha.”
Grinning at him, I said, “It was worth asking.”
“Yeah, when I told Zachary all about Louise and Jury Patton, he’d been more concerned with why I hadn’t asked you out yet than the cult,” he said, making me laugh.“When I told him that we’d been too busy trying to take down a sex cult, he’d said that the cult could wait and to just ask you out already.”
“Well, when I told Abrielle about our undercover work in the sex cult, she had advised me to buy a low-cut blouse and store-bought pie to seduce a date out of you,” I informed him.“However, my dignity wouldn’t allow me to fool you with a store-bought pie disguised as a homemade one.”
“While I admire your commitment to do the right thing with the pie, how low-cut are we talking about here?”he asked, his brows furrowed.“Because I can guarantee you that I wouldn’t have given two shits about a damn pie if you had come over wearing a low-cut top.”
I looked down at my chest by habit.“I can’t see that the cleavage would have been that impressive.”
Then, in a voice as serious as I’d ever heard it, Myer said, “How about you leave what I think about you to me?After all, my eyes don’t see the same thing that your eyes do, and it’s clear that I have way better vision than you do, baby.”
He called me baby.
“I wasn’t putting myself down,” I quickly assured him, lest he begin to think that I was the type of woman that fished for compliments.“I’m just very aware of what size bra I wear.”
“Well, when I tell you that I was still attracted to you this morning when you were rocking the homeless look, you’ll know that I think that you’re perfect, Calista Glenn,” he replied earnestly.“I really don’t give a shit what size your chest is.”His eyes narrowed a bit before adding, “And for the record, I don’t care about ten extra pounds, a zit on your forehead, stretchmarks, or anything else that keeps you up at night.”
“You know, you just gave me permission to gain ten more pounds,” I pointed out.“You might regret that.”
