Page 5 of Cash

“Yeah.” Brick grinned. “That works for me.”

“We clean that shit up, and then you’ll cook,” Jules said firmly. “Good?”

“Sounds great.”

“Good.” Jules waved. “See ya’ later, Brick.”

“Bye, Jules!” Brick waved in reply, backing up and trying not to trip over his own feet as he headed up the stairs of the porch. He set the flamingo in one of the rocking chairs and then went inside.

Behind the safety of the closed front door, he pumped his fists into the air. “Fuck yes!”

He’d just scored hanging out and cooking dinner for his extremely hot neighbor—Jules, wow, what a sexy name—and it almost made up for having his yard trashed. The giant wad of cash was a big help too.

Brick pulled out the money so he could count it, and he was stunned to find it was fifteen hundred dollars.

His gut reaction was to give the money back. That was way too much, even for the damages done to his yard.

His next thought was wondering what the hell Jules did for a living.

He folded the money and took it to his office to stash in a desk drawer. He never carried cash, and it was a little weird to have so much at once. He reasoned he could go to the bank on his lunch break and deposit it, and then he…

He still had to go to the store to buy the ingredients for the yukgaejang he’d agreed to make for dinner.

There was no way he could do both, so he reasoned that he could keep the money in his desk for now. Buying the groceries was much more important.

After getting back to work, he had trouble staying focused. He couldn’t stop thinking about Jules, his strong hands, or his dazzling smile. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he was really looking forward to getting to know Jules better.

Of course, he was also very interested in getting to know certain parts of Jules’s anatomy better, and he scolded his brain for running off on a one-way ticket to Perv Town. It hadn’t been that long since he’d been with someone, but damn if Jules wasn’t checking off every box—including a few Brick didn’t even realize he had.

Like getting bossed around? Normally, that kind of macho shit would piss Brick off, but there was something about the way Jules did it that was so confident and sexy. It gave Brick the most ridiculous urge to nod his head and do pretty much whatever Jules told him.

It was easy to imagine Jules telling him what to do in lots of various scenarios, most of which didn’t involve clothing, and Brick shook his head rapidly as if he could physically remove the dirty thoughts. It didn’t really help, but he was able to get back to work even though he continued to be distracted by a certain smile and the memory of a firm strong hand.

Five o’clock could not get here soon enough.

Chapter Two

When Brick left for lunch, the moving truck was still there, but he didn’t see any sign of Jules or the movers. A few of the employees from the funeral home were outside smoking in the parking lot, so he gave them a friendly wave.

There were three in particular that were always out having a cigarette together. The oldest was E.W. “Ziggy” Ziege, a short man with a gray beard in his sixties who was perpetually in a black polo shirt and cargo pants. He ran the crematory and had apparently vowed to never wear a suit again.

Next was Noah Black, a man as tall as Brick but at least fifty pounds heavier. He wore thick glasses and a suit and tie every day, but he seemed to forget his jacket often. He was a funeral director, and it was his job to wait on families.

Then there was Trixie Gertern. She was a stocky young woman with long auburn curls who looked eternally pissed off. She was usually in scrubs, sometimes a dark pantsuit like she was wearing today, and she was one of the embalmers.

Barring a funeral service, they took a smoke break at the same time Brick went out for lunch like clockwork. He waved, they waved back, and sometimes they’d chat when Brick was working out in his yard. It wasn’t unusual to see Trixie and Noah working weird hours of the night, and he’d run into them after many an evening stumbling back from partying on Glenwood South.

As Brick pulled out of his driveway in his black Prius, he realized Ziggy was still waving at him and trying to get his attention. He stopped at the driveway that led into the side parking lot of the funeral home, waiting as the trio walked toward him. He rolled down his window. “Hey!”

“You okay, young man?” Ziggy asked with obvious concern. “We seen what those jackasses did to your yard.”

“They really fucked it up, huh?” Noah asked.

“Yeah, but hey, it’s totally fine,” Brick assured them. “It’s gonna get fixed up after I get off work.”

“I’ve always loved your yard,” Trixie gushed. She was actually very pretty when she smiled. “I hate that happened.”

“Yeah, me too.” Brick sighed. “But hey! Don’t worry. I’ll restore it to its full gay glory as soon as possible.”

---