Page 10 of Sleigh Bells and Snowstorms
“The furnace sounds like something out of a horror movie every time it turns on.”
“We’ll make it work. Even if we have to chop wood all winter and use the wood stove.”
She ran her hands up and down her face. “How are you so calm? We’re probably going to freeze.”
I rolled my eyes. “We won’t freeze.”
“I know, but this sucks.”
“What about the apartment?” I asked. Our house included a separate apartment above the detached garage we often listed as an Airbnb. When it was full, it brought in some extra income. “I’ve been thinking we might want to go back to renting it to long-term tenants instead of trying to capture the visitor market.”
“I thought we made more money on the short-term rentals.”
“We do, but it’s also more work. And we haven’t had a booking for what, a month? And nothing over the holidays?” Mybrow furrowed, and my lips turned down in a confused frown. “Wait a minute. We always have bookings over the holidays. The listing is active, right?”
“I think so?” She didn’t sound very confident.
I got out my phone and navigated to the Airbnb dashboard.
Inactive.
“Well, that explains it.”
“What happened? Is it not listed?”
“Nope. One of us must have deactivated the listing.”
Biting her lip, she winced. “That could have been me. I probably messed it up the last time I made a change. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, accidents happen. I’ll turn it back on. Hopefully, we’ll get someone in there, at least for a weekend.”
“Fingers crossed.” She grabbed her purse off the counter. “I have to get back to work. Are you still good to pick up Annabel?”
“Yep, I’ve got her.”
“Thanks. And thanks for being the rational one. If I didn’t have you, I’d be sobbing on the floor.”
“Hey, you did a great job. Totally handled it.”
“More like Mr. Gardner took pity on me and handled it.”
“Still. We’re in this together. We’ve got this.”
She smiled and stepped in for a hug. I squeezed her tight. We were always in it together. Had been since we were kids.
“Okay, I gotta go,” she said. “If you’re on strike, the last thing we need is for me to get fired.”
“Let’s not pile more problems on this heap. Even my positivity has limits.”
A few minutes after she left, the water restoration guys came upstairs. Explaining what they’d done to mitigate the damage, they told me the fans and dehumidifiers would need to run for at least a week to fully dry things out and make sure we didn’t wind up with mold. The good news was, it could have been worse. Andthey promised to work with our homeowner’s insurance to cover at least some of the cost.
The bad news was, I still needed a plumber before I could even flush a toilet. And I was all too aware of the fact that we’d opted for a very high deductible on said homeowner’s insurance to save money on the premiums.
“It’s fine,” I said aloud. “This is fine. There’s always a way.”
With about half an hour before I needed to leave to pick up Annabel from school, I called Jason the plumber. He could come by that afternoon, and that bit of good news lifted my spirits a little.
Fortunately, I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror before I left the house again, and my reflection reminded me to swipe beneath my eyes with a makeup wipe. I still looked tired, but that was basically who I was as a person. And it wasn’t like I cared about impressing the people in the school pickup line at Tilikum Elementary.
