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“Don’t worry. I have you. You’ll be fine.”
Lou squeaked in reply.
Scrabbling out of the truck, he rushed to the bottom of the stairs and waited for me. When I got there, he took my hand and held onto it for dear life. With a deep breath and a nod, he led me onto the veranda and through the large double doors.
The place looked like the entrance to a grand ballroom. There was a spiral wooden staircase directly in front of us, a dining room that sat twenty to the left, a passageway with green marble floors to the right, and two stories of circular balconies visible through the hole in the ceiling above.
As I stared, a woman appeared on the landing on the floor above. I recognized her from the pastry shop. This was Lou’s mother and she was dressed like we were at a fancy horserace.
“Mother,” Lou said nervously gripping my hand.
“Louis, one of the handymen has parked their truck out front. Can you kindly inform them to park on the street and that the service entrance is in the back.”
“Mother!”
I felt a knot in my stomach hearing her words.
“That’s not the handyman’s truck. That would be mine,” I said with a wave.
She couldn’t look further down her nose at me if she tried.
“And who are you?”
I turned to Lou who stared back. After another deep breath, he clamped my hand and turned to his mother.
“Mother, this is Titus. He’s my fiancé. Don’t you remember? He asked me to marry him with the choir. You were there.”
“Ah yes,” she said unimpressed.
“Someone parked their service truck out front again,” a younger voice said stealing our attention.
This one was attached to someone who couldn’t look more like a James Bond villain in training if he tried.
“It’s not the handyman’s truck,” Lou said snapping at him but trying to remain calm.
The guy approached with his eyes set on me.
“And who’s this?”
“Chris, this is…”
He cut Lou off when he was immediately in front of us.
“Don’t know. Don’t care,” he said patting Lou on the cheek.
“Woah, watch where you put your hands there,” I said immediately not liking him.
He turned toward me again. This time like a weirdly clipped poodle.
“Did you bring a bodyguard to your grandmother’s will reading?” he asked amused.
“No. I brought my fiancé,” he said struggling for courage.
He looked me up and down taking in all of me.
“You never fail to disappoint, do you, brother? At least you’re consistent,” he said before walking off.
“Wait, you can’t just talk to him like that,” I said ready to take this guy out.
