With a huff, I stopped in the doorway and crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, I’m not doing whatever this nonsense is you’re asking me to do.”
I was no stranger to cleaning up Dereck’s messes. They tended to be careless and bountiful.
But this one?
Not a chance.
“Told you I owe this guy a favor, and he called it in,” he said like that answered every single one of my questions. The most he’d given me was a grunt of the man’s name.
Dereck unzipped the suitcase, flung it open, then turned his back on me as he clomped over to my dresser.
He might have been trying to act casual, but I knew him better than anyone, which meant I knew he was lying.
“A favor?” I challenged, disbelief in my voice.
“Yup,” he grunted back as he snatched a giant pile of shirts from a drawer then turned and dumped them into the suitcase with total disregard for what I was supposed to pair them with.
As if that was my biggest problem with all of this.
“I have a job, Dereck. I can’t just leave.”
“You’re going to have to put in for vacation or sick time.”
Was he serious?
Worry threaded with the anger. “What, do you owe him money or something?”
Irritation billowed up. It was the typical culprit. Dereck getting himself in deep at every turn.
Drinking.
Betting.
Losing jobs left and right.
I shifted away from him, scratching at the furrows creasing my brow as I tried to gather myself.
To stop the anger and fear from bursting free.
It was my job to take care of Dereck.
It’d always been.
Unfortunately, that task was often more painful than I wanted it to be.
Annoying at times and excruciating at others.
But underneath it all, he was a good guy.
I inhaled a steadying breath, then exhaled as I began to speak. “Listen, we’ll figure it out. Whatever you owe him, I’ll get it handled.”
How, I wasn’t sure.
But we always managed.
Dereck shook his head, his shaggy brown hair hanging limply in his face, his jaw going taut as he shoved a few more things into the suitcase. “The only way to handle this one is to do what I say.”
It was right then that I noticed his tall, lean body appeared frailer than it normally did. The bags under his eyes darker and deeper.
