Page 23 of Isolated
“I can do it.”
Surprise mixed with an immense sense of relief. “You can?”
Walter puffed up his chest with pride. “I did my own about two years ago. I think it was right before you moved in.”
More tension eased out of my body. “Oh, Walter, you’d be doing me a huge favor, and I’d owe you big time. When could you do it?”
“I already told you I don’t have anything else to do right now. We’ll just need to run out to pick up a new water heater, and I can take care of the rest. If you want to save time, it might help to decide on which one you want and confirm they’ve got it at the store first. This way, we won’t need to be running all over town looking for one that’s going to be an easy replacement for this one. Unless, of course, you wanted to switch to an on-demand system.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “I want whatever is going to be easiest and will get me up and running quickly again.”
“Fair enough.”
Walter and I went back upstairs, where I pulled out my work laptop so we could look at my options. Fortunately, I was able to put in my location and find our local store, and that allowed us to see what units were in stock. Just as we found one that would work, my phone rang.
“Oh, can you excuse me for one second? That’s my sister.”
“Sure. I’m not going anywhere.”
I got up from the table, leaving Walter to read over the details of the water heater as I answered the call. “Hello?”
“Hey, Iris.”
“What’s going on, Eleni?”
She sighed. “I told Flora I’d call you to let you know that we aren’t going to be able to make it out to visit this weekend. Something came up, and we need to reschedule.”
Just like we’d discussed when I went home to celebrate my birthday, my sisters were supposed to be coming out to spend time with me this weekend. I’d been looking forward to it. In fact, with everything going on, I thought I needed time with them more than anything else.
“Oh, no. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I just scored a large account at work, and I need to spend some extra time this weekend working through some stuff. I know that you, better than anyone else, can understand that.”
Disappointed, I paced in my kitchen. “Of course, I do. Congratulations on the account.”
“Thanks.”
“So, do you want to reschedule for the following week?”
Eleni didn’t immediately respond, which only served to increase my disappointment. “I would love to, Iris, but I didn’t actually talk to Flora about it. I’m not sure if she’s available. Maybe we can touch base sometime next week and figure things out.”
“Yeah, sure. That’ll work.”
“I’ll call you then.”
I moved out of the kitchen, looked at Walter, andnoticed his eyes were narrowed on my computer screen like he was concerned.
Right.
I needed to deal with this water heater anyway.
“Sure, Eleni. I’ll talk to you next week.”
My sister and I said goodbye and disconnected our call. I returned to the table where Walter was sitting, and he quickly turned his attention to me. “Everything okay?”
“Just my sister needing to cancel her visit with my other sister out here this weekend. Anyway, I’m ready to get out of here when you are.”
The two of us wasted not an ounce of time. I should have already been making dinner—Walter likely hadn’t had anything to eat yet, either—and we were heading out to get a water heater.
