Page 10 of Save the Drama for your Mama
He stared at me. “What do you mean?”
Chad gestured to the guy to his right, who was the complete opposite of Dale. In fact, he looked like he came straight from the beach in his Hawaiian board shorts, flip flops, long blond hair, and arms layered with more paint than the graffiti wall at Venice Beach. “And this is Chip Van Damme, the supervisor in charge of the schedule and the crew.”
Chip and Dale? Seriously?
Lunging in my direction with some complex handshake that almost snapped off my pinkie, Chip said, “Super stoked to be on this gig, dude. We’re gonna dive deep into restoring this epic Spanish casa. We’re gonna honor its roots, preserve that old-school pizazz, and bring it back to life with a righteous touch of modern-day comfort, amigo.”
“Thank you,” I said, finally being able to pull my hand free, opening and closing it a few times to see if it still worked.
“We’re missing one more person,” Chad said. “She should be here any minute.”
“Can I talk with you for a moment in private?” I asked, tilting my head toward the garage.
“Of course. Be right back, guys.”
We entered the garage, then I closed the door after Romeo trotted in. “I came here to finish my book and take a break. I’m alreadywaypast the deadline and I can’t have any distractions. Can you move the restoration back to the original date?”
Chad shook his head. “No can do, big guy. The original date is no longer available, and I cut a deal with Chip to make this happen pronto. Carpe diem, and all that.”
“What kind of deal?” I asked.
“Well, I had to make it worth his while because he wanted to go surfing in Sri Lanka after his other project fell through. Luckily, he agreed to stay. But if we back out now, we’ll lose the deposit.”
I shrugged. “Okay, I’ll eat the deposit then. Don’t worry about it. We’ll reschedule again. There’s no hurry.”
“You’re going to eat seventy-five thousand dollars?” Chad asked.
“Are you serious?!” I yelled before I could stop myself. “Seventy-five thousand? The original deposit was ten thousand.”
“Hey—I had to make it worth his time to skip Sri Lanka,” he said. “It’s more like a bonus than a deposit. It’s business one-oh-one, bro.”
I needed to finish my book, but it wasn’t worth flushing $75K down the toilet. No way.
“I don’t understand,” I said. "Why did you give him that money without discussing it with me first?” I said. “What comes out of the trust needs to be a decision from both of us. We agreed on that.”
“Relax,” Chad said, waving off my concerns. “You also said I needed to take part in our family affairs more, and to take some things off your plate because you had too much going on. That’s what I did. I thought you’d be happy I was taking care of things, too.”
I sighed. “I appreciate the effort, I do, but I have a book to finish. The timing is not the best.”
“You can do it! Use the noise-canceling headphones I got you for Christmas,” Chad said, reaching over, grabbing my shoulders, and massaging them. “You’re always so uptight. You’re going to age prematurely, then no woman will ever want you.”
“Please . . .” I rolled my eyes.
“Shouldn’t let all that sexy manliness go to waste!” Chad teased, then tried to pinch my chest. “Super Cooper needs some lovin’.”
“A woman is the last thing on my mind right now.” I stepped out of his reach. “And my being single is the best thing that ever happened to you.”
Chad grinned. “Roger that.”
“Anyway, I need to get to my writing,” I said.
“We’ll get out of your hair soon. Promise.”
He seemed to mean it.
At least his wry smile had disappeared.
I didn’t know how in the world I was going to finish my book while there were workers in the house making noise, but it looked like I didn’t have a choice.
