Page 10 of Before Forever

Soon my anxiousness over the encounter with the man had faded some, but flashes of it played on a loop through my head in slow motion. Those eyes, those lips…my god, thatbody. He looked like something Greek gods had sculpted just for me, as if they had plucked a man straight from my fantasies and carved him out in real life. I didn’t think guys like that could exist in a town like this, tucked away out of sight from most of the world like a piece of hidden eye candy.Such a shame.

I was kicking myself for being so obvious in the way I gawked at his arms and chest when he mentioned working in construction. It had been a while since I felt that kind of intense attraction towards someone, and even longer since I felt any sort of real spark with anyone. But with him…it was like fireworks.

I shook my head, murmuring to myself as I kicked tiny rocks along the path.That’s not why you’re here, Melody. Besides, he’s probably married with two kids, a white picket fence, and a golden retriever. Men like that aren’t single. They marry their high school sweethearts or college girlfriends…like Evan should have done with you.

A bigger ache settled into the pit of my stomach, one I had been evading from the moment I found out Evan was cheating on me with that model.

“Natasha.” I mocked her name out loud since no one was around to hear me.

In this modern-day society, good, attractive men got snatched up right out of the gate. Any guy who was available at this age was someone like Evan…who had their chance at true love and happiness but squandered it away for some shiny new thing…like a skinny little model with perfect boobs and not a single interesting thought in her head. Someone like Natasha.

Which meant that the reality of spinsterhood was starting to shape up in front of me, making it hard to breathe or swallow. Whenever I imagined a life alone with no husband or kids, I thought I might have a panic attack.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone to call Katie. She was the only medicine I had found to cure me when I was starting to spin out like that.

“How’s Hicksville?”

“I made it here okay,” I told her. “But that’s not why I’m calling you.”

“What’s up?” I could hear papers shuffling in the background, the sound of her sipping her coffee. She was at work, sitting behind her desk, and I missed my job more than I thought I would.

You didn’t have time to think about being doomed to becoming a spinster if you were busy with work.

“Old Maid,” I stated plainly. It was our code for when I was starting to slip into this panic. I said that, and she knew exactly what to do from there.

“That’s a sexist social construct that convinces women they’re not as valuable without a man,” she explained, repeating the words I’d heard her say so many times over the past couple of months that I knew them by heart. Still, it felt more grounding to hear her say them to me anyway.

“So what if you end up alone? It simply means you didn’t settle for some cheating, lying, scumbag. And you won’t be alone anyway. You have me, and you have your career.”

“And a decrepit old lake house to somehow miraculously fix up and flip,” I added.

“That bad, huh?”

“It’s definitely not in great shape, but I guess I knew that before coming here. It just felt a little overwhelming to see it in person,” I sighed, stopping at the unfinished path sprinkled with wood shavings leading to the front door.

“All you have to focus on right now is getting that place fixed up, get it on the market, then come home so you can move on with the rest of your life,” she reminded me.

“Right, okay,” I nodded, mustering every ounce of determination and confidence I could. “Thank you, Katie. I miss you.”

“Miss you too, hon. Now hurry up and finish what you started so you can come back to the city. We’ll meet up for cocktails, okay?”

“Can’t wait,” I smiled before ending the call and dropping the phone back into my bag.

As I walked back inside the musty old house, I regretted not sucking it up and getting another cup of coffee before running out of there like I did. I could have really used that coffee right about then.

“It’s okay, Melody. You got this. The faster you get all of this sorted out, the faster you can go home. Time to get to work,” I told myself, walking slowly from room to room as I assessed where to even start.

Before I could get to work on transforming the house into a place someone would actually want to buy, I had to make it a place I could actually live in while the work was being done.

One thing quickly became clear, though, as I continued examining the state of everything. This needed far more than just a few coats of paint and packing some things into storage. This called for work well beyond my skill set. I needed a professional.

I pulled out the card Charles had given me at the coffee shop and quickly dialed the number. A guy named Keith answered and set up an appointment for them to come out and provide an estimate.

After setting my phone down on the kitchen counter, I took another look around and sucked in a deep breath. “See? One thing at a time. Now that’s crossed off the list…just move on to the next thing. Keep it moving.”

I resisted the urge to start spiraling again. I mean, there I was in an old dusty home talking out loud to myself. It was like a glimpse into the future of my life in my spinsterdom. I decided it would only come true if I didn’t sell this house and get back home as quickly as possible. Everything would start to feel better then.

I started uncovering all of the furniture, which kicked up so much dust that it made me cough. I guzzled down a cold glass of water and kept going. Once all the big white sheets were removed, shaken out, folded, and stuffed into the attic, I started dusting everything. I had to open all of the windows and doors as the stale air quickly filled with clouds of all the dirt and grime.

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