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Yes!
Thank you! Okay, let me call around and I’ll let you both know. xoxo
After Googling Budget Rental, calling them, and finding out they were booked until next week, I got the number to Penske and dialed them up. That’s where I hit the mother lode. They had a truck big enough for a fully furnished, two-bedroom apartment available immediately.
Smiling from ear to ear, I reserved the truck and sent out the text to Tori and Syd.
Then I helped Monica with some packing.Stomach fluttering and breaths coming quick, I knocked on Sean’s door while the boys and Syd waited by the truck.
It was just past six, and the sun was beginning to set low behind the house. The sky glowed orange and dark mustard yellow.
We made it just in time to take care of this with some light out.
The door swung open and Sean stood there, suspicion pinching his brow. To be expected: I hadn’t alerted him of my amazing stroke of luck.
“Hey.” I smiled at him and took his hand, tugging it gently. “Come here.”
“What?” he asked, stepping out onto the porch.
I pointed at the truck and yelled, “Do it!”
Jamie, Tori’s boyfriend, flipped the lock on the door and pushed it up, revealing the truckload of home goods.
">“Surprise!” I yelled, looking back at Sean. “My neighbor is moving to Hawaii and isn’t taking her furniture with her, so it’s yours! All of it.”
Sean cut his eyes to me. “What?”
“Now you have furniture. My neighbor had a little girl, so there’s a pretty sweet pink dresser in there with ladybug designs along the edges. Plus, two twin beds. A couch. A kitchen table—”
“What the fuck are you doing?” he grated, jerking out of my hold. “You got me furniture? Are you fuckin’ with me?”
His sharp tone stepped me back.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Sean stared at me, his chest shuddering, his eyes wider than I’d ever seen. He looked terrified.
">Then he turned his attention to the truck, and hollered, “Take it back!”
I gaped at him. “What? Why?” I questioned. I heard murmuring at my back, then the sound of the heavy door sliding. “Wait! Just wait a second!” I yelled, pausing Jamie and Brian, who were both closing it up. I turned back to Sean. “Why can’t you take it?”
“What the fuck, Shayla?” he half growled, half whispered.
I shook my head, confused.
“You think I can’t do this myself? Is that it?” His voice quaked.
“What? No!”
“Then why? I didn’t ask you for shit! I don’t ask you for nothin’. I don’t deserve…” He cursed and took a step closer to the edge, bellowing, “Take that fuckin’ shit back now!”
“No!” I hollered, pointing at Jamie, who was yanking the door back down. “Don’t you move! Keep it open!”
Brian started shaking his head, saying something I couldn’t make out at this distance. Syd looked so nervous, I was surprised she wasn’t crawling behind that furniture and hiding. Jamie just looked amused, which was typically how he looked, but he took his hand off the door as instructed.
Good.
Then, knowing they weren’t closing it up, I planted a firm hand on Sean’s chest and pushed him back. “You don’t get to decide whether or not someone does something nice for you, do you understand?” I snapped.
He blinked down at me, still looking terrified. Plus, he was panting now. I could feel his heart pounding against my palm.
“You do not ever get to decide whether someone treats you with kindness, Sean. Not ever,” I told him, holding his stare and speaking with boldness, but also keeping my voice gentled. “You paid six fifty-seven for my tacos. I paid six fifty-seven for your furniture. You did for me. I’m doing for you. But get this, even if you hadn’t done for me, I’d still be doing for you because you’re my friend, because you deserve kindness, because you’re a good person who should be having good put back on them, and because I wanted to do it. Don’t look at this as a favor. Look at it as a gift. And take it.”
Sean rushed out a breath. Then he swallowed thickly.
“Okay?” I whispered.
Hesitating, he waited for me to wrap my other hand around his wrist before he closed his mouth, inhaled shakily, and jerked his chin.
I smiled and gave his wrist a squeeze in comfort.
“Okay, we’re good!” I hollered over my shoulder.
The door slid open, and the boys got to work unloading and hauling stuff in while Syd and I directed them where to put it. Women just knew furniture placement better than men. It was a fact.
Sean stood back at first, just watching everything get carried inside, looking uncomfortable, like he didn’t feel like he belonged in his own house anymore, then, as if finally accepting what was happening, the second he saw that ladybug dresser, he jumped in and grabbed an end.
