Carpet Diem Read online

  Right there next to the front door was a stack of flyers with the price and the details. I grabbed one and clutched it to my chest. So first, I’d talk to Max about my disappointment with the way the mansion cleaning had gone, but then I was going to shout in jubilation about the store being available. After that, I’d get down to brass tacks about how to make it happen.

  I might not be able to offer Letty a mansion to clean, but I could have her and her friends work in the tea shop as well as step back from cleaning altogether and just let them take all the cleaning jobs I would no longer be able to handle due to the fact that I’d be running the store.

  Then, when my jubilation time was over, I’d go back to the mansion to get my stuff and I’d call that a missed opportunity. Sometimes those opportunities ended up being for the best. And if Preston had had no qualms about messing up a room so I wouldn’t get the job, I shivered to think what he might have done if I’d beaten my contender. Burned the mansion to the ground?

  I’d experienced one vindictive fire already, and it had not been pretty. Knowing that the person who had set it was crazy had not helped things, especially when I had been caught in a fight for my life.

  Was Preston that vindictive and used to getting his way? I didn’t know, and at this point I didn’t have to find out. Score for me.

  Second score for me was when Max opened the door to my apartment on the third floor, above my parents’ funeral home, and the smell of garlic and Italian spices wafted out from behind him. Having him here for a month was going to be divine for my mental health and well-being.

  Not so much for my hips, but I didn’t care.

  Chapter Four

  After plopping into a chair at my small kitchen table in the apartment, I stroked Peanut’s head while she sat patiently waiting to see if I’d drop anything on the floor for her. I probably wouldn’t, since I tried hard not to give her table food, but sometimes her big brown eyes just did me in.

  Max set in front of me a plate of noodles and various veggies covered in olive oil and garlic and liberally sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. What an amazing lunch after a horrible morning. A basket of delicious-looking bread with melted cheese followed and a glass of soda. This man was a keeper.

  Now all I had to do was decide if I wanted to rant about Preston first or bring up the exciting news about the store next to Gina’s.

  Max smiled at me, and I went for asking him how his day was before I had a spirited back-and-forth on the best and worst day of my life.

  “Good,” he answered, putting cheesy bread on my plate and smiling at me again. Those dimples, that twinkle in his eyes, the way he looked at me as if I was precious instead of someone to be tolerated. . . I was fully in love, and I had not a single regret about anything that had led me to this very moment with this very man.

  “Just good?” I took two more pieces of cheesy bread just in case. I knew for a fact that he was not above cleaning out the food he loved before I had a chance to have a second helping. The underhandedness and trickery that ensued especially when snickerdoodle cookies were around could be astounding.

  He smiled at my bread plate with its three cheesy breads and then went on. “Yes, good. I won’t be more than fifteen minutes away from the job, and the hours are at my discretion, as long as I hit about forty a week. So we can do all kinds of things.” He shrugged as he put his own plate on the table and took a seat. “Or nothing, if we just want to hang out. It won’t feel like we have to cram everything into the limited time we have. It’s going to be good.”

  “Not great,” I said with a half smile.

  “I guess that remains to be seen. You might get sick of me being around all the time. Maybe things have worked out so well up to this point because we aren’t in each other’s pockets day in and day out. You always know I’m going home, maybe right before I would get annoying.” He dipped his cheesy bread into his buttery noodles, then smiled at me as he chewed.

  Was he kidding? Maybe he was, and maybe he wasn’t. I couldn’t imagine that we’d get sick of each other. I really hoped he was kidding. I’d prove that things worked well between us. I had a month to do so.

  When it was my turn to describe my day, I started with the cleaning job debacle to get the yuck out of the way. He made the right noises and told me exactly what I’d already been telling myself. Something better was on the horizon. Things would turn out as they should. Karma was going to come for Preston, and I did not need to be there to see it. I just needed to protect what was already mine and let the rest go.

  “Thanks for listening,” I told Max. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Talking about mundane things.”

  “Tallie, things with you are always anything but mundane.”

  “I hope that’s a good thing, because the next topic is something I’m very curious about.”

  “Let me brace myself.” He chuckled. “Should I go get snickerdoodles to help us through? Did you stumble across another dead body?”

  I launched a balled-up napkin at him. “No, this is really good news, and there are no dead people involved.” None at all, not even at the funeral home, if I could plan this right. The tea shop would be my whole job, taking the place of part-time cleaning work and part-time work at the funeral home.

  “What is this great news?”

  “The space next to Gina is for sale. I want to run the numbers to see what it might take for me to buy the building and open my own tea shop.”

  Ever ready, I pulled a spreadsheet from my back pocket. I carried the thing with me often just to remind myself that my current reality of cleaning and funeral-home work did not have to be my permanent reality.

  “What’s this?” Max reached across the table for the paper, then raised an eyebrow at my many lines on the spreadsheet. I’d tried to think of everything that I might need. I’d done a ton of research into distributors and suppliers, but I had no idea how to put things together to make it work.

  I sat on my hands so as not to take the spreadsheet back from him. “My projections. I’ve been waiting for this space to open, listening to rumors, and patiently hoping the owners would finally put it up for sale. Now that it’s on the market, I’m almost happy I didn’t get the mansion job. This way I can work toward this tea shop instead.”

  “Pen?” He stared at the spreadsheet, with his hand out. I could almost see his brain spinning in his head. Was that a good thing or a bad thing for me?

  Seconds later, the only sound in the apartment was the scratching of Max’s pen across my beloved paper. Two minutes later, I groaned into the silence.

  “Really?” I stared at the astronomical amount he’d written on the paper. I would not be able to do this. Ever.

  “Really. Now, you could get loans and have payments to get this all done, but you might want to make absolutely sure you’re committed to this before you spend that amount. And you’ll be eating cheap, cheap food for a lot of years, while it gets off the ground.”

  I sighed.

  He gave me a smile and patted my hand. “It can be done, though. We can make a budget and make sure it happens. It’s just going to take some hard work and some creative thinking when it comes to money and your creature comforts.”

  Yeah, like my Murphy bed, which pulled out from the wall, and my life on top of a funeral home, in an apartment that really seemed a ton smaller with each passing day. Or the old Lexus I drove. Or the minimal amount of clothing I had in my closet. I wasn’t sure where I’d cut any creature comforts, because I wasn’t sure there were any corners left to cut.

  “Oh.” I took the paper back reluctantly and was sad that I’d given Max a red pen. It looked like all my dreams were dead or dying. Or bleeding at least.

  “Come on, Tallie. I didn’t mean to make you sad. If you really want this, it’s doable. You just have to decide if it’s worth it to you. What will you get out of a tea shop? Do you want it badly enough to make the sacrifices that Gina makes? She works all the time, and owning your own business means
little to no traveling, unless you have a staff you can trust, or unless you’re willing to close down for the days you are gone.”

  Apparently, I needed some new lines on my spreadsheet. I’d call them “pros” and “What the heck was I thinking!”

  Max touched the back of my hand again. “I don’t want to ruin your dream.”

  “Meh.” I shrugged.

  My phone dinged. It was Letty texting me to ask about the mansion. I paused to read her text, but I wasn’t ready to answer. I hadn’t told her we’d lost the job yet. I’d get around to it.

  “See? I’m already irritating you.” He sat back in his chair with a sigh.

  Straightening my shoulders, I folded the paper and placed it next to my plate. “Actually, no, you’re not. I just didn’t think it all the way through. I still need to do that, and we’ll see from there. Thanks for the reality check. I really do appreciate it.”

  “I feel like I should make it up to you.”

  I laughed. “No, not at all. A tea shop is not actually my lifelong dream, now that I see the reality of what it would take. At this point, anything that is not working at the funeral home has the potential to be a dream, so just ignore my spontaneous bouts of jubilation when it comes to new ideas.”

  After leaning forward, he placed his elbows on the table. “I like your jubilation. Are things not going well with cleaning right now?”

  I shrugged. “Other than this thing with Preston, it’s actually a very good job and business.”

  “But you don’t want to stick with it?”

  Good question. “I honestly don’t know. I guess I just never saw myself doing this for the rest of my life. It’s a good job, honest work. When I was younger, I never really thought about what I wanted to be, only what I didn’t want to be, namely, part of the funeral home. Cleaning doesn’t make it possible for me to quit at the funeral home, so I thought I’d go big.”

  “There’s time to figure it out. You’re in a good spot at this time, right? Or there’s always the possibility of working for someone else. Letting them pay all the taxes. Plus, you’d also get paid personal time off and benefits.”

  “True.” But he laughed at the way my face scrunched up. And all this was something I’d have to think about. After the issues and troubles Gina had experienced over the years with a coffeehouse, what did I want with a tea shop? Why a teashop? Definitely things to think about. And I had time to do that. Beyond that, I couldn’t commit myself to a tea shop if I was going to be moving to DC at some point in the near future. If things kept moving in the way they were going with Max, that was a definite possibility.

  Max’s voice brought me back from my own mind. “Then take the time and see where you’re at. We can work with the numbers until you’ve fallen asleep. I don’t mind working through them with you. It could be interesting to see what it takes to start up a business.”

  I’d done it before with the cleaning business, though for the most part, I had just put myself out there with the previous friends I’d had in that upper-crust circle and begged to clean their houses. I had added new tools of the trade as I realized they were needed, but the most expensive thing I had bought was the vacuum cleaner. A tea shop would entail refrigerators and tables and chairs and silverware and plates and cups and food.... And I couldn’t think about it anymore.

  “Speaking of which, I need to go get my vacuum cleaner,” I said. “We have time to think about all this. I really appreciate your expertise.”

  He came across the table to kiss me. “Don’t give up just yet. There might be a way to make this happen for you. We just haven’t come up with the right scenario yet.”

  “I appreciate it, Max. I’m not sure what I want to do, to be honest. I guess I never really thought too much about anything other than my need for money.”

  He hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “Go get your vacuum cleaner, and we’ll go from there. Don’t worry about the rest of it now. We can return to this topic when we run out of other things to talk about.”

  I couldn’t do anything but laugh. I doubted we’d run out of things to talk about. And I definitely wouldn’t run out of things to think about.

  The tea shop would take far more than I was willing to give right now, but it was still in the back of my mind. How much more would take some number crunching, which I didn’t have time to do at the moment.

  I had to get back to the mansion and get my gear now that everyone had probably left. Audra was getting the job, but it wouldn’t start until tomorrow, judging from the information given to me before I got booted out.

  * * *

  The sun was setting on this dreary March day, and I was ready to clear my stuff out of this place and never see it again except in passing. As I pulled up in front of the large powder-blue building, my heart clenched. This would have been such a great opportunity for me and my crew to really show the community that we could do bigger buildings and take on more than private jobs. Recently, developers had started building housing developments on the outskirts of town. Cleaning the model homes that people walked through would be an excellent add-on to our business. I needed an add-on if I wanted that tea shop, or even if I just wanted to cut down my hours at the funeral home. Plus, I wanted to help Letty and her friends. Heck, I needed the add-on to do more than just make ends meet.

  Despite what Mrs. Petrovski thought, I was not above anything. And I was far more caring and willing to do whatever it took to help my crew and my situation. I might have been high and mighty long ago—well, more like high and stupid—but those days were over. I’d changed.

  After parking in the driveway, I looked up at the mansion. It was a monstrosity, with thousands of square feet and endless potential. The rumor around town was that Mrs. Petrovski was trying to sell it even though it had been in her family for three generations. Maybe someone would buy it and turn it into another bed-and-breakfast. We already had two, but the area could probably handle another. And it was far enough out of the way; there were miles between the other two and this one. It could be magnificent, with its gardens and the lovely gazebo out back. Or at least it would be once it was cleaned out and spiffed up.

  Right now there was more peeling paint than not, and weeds had overgrown the edges of the porch. My brother, Dylan, had already told me he’d love a chance to come in and do the yard work as part of his landscaping business. Gina knew tons of teenagers willing to paint for a fair price. I could have made something here, and now it was lost because of Preston and his venomous and underhanded ways.

  I wished there was something else I could have done to get the contract for us. We’d figure it out. I would do everything in my power to make sure we did. This house would have boosted our credentials, though.

  After closing the car door behind me, I pulled the key for the mansion from my pocket and walked slowly up the stairs. I’d leave the key in the mailbox when I was done and text Mrs. Petrovski to let her know where it was. That was as much as I was willing to do after the way she’d treated me.

  The whole place shone in my mind. If only I’d been given the chance to let loose my army of stellar ladies. We could have stripped the wallpaper and cleaned the walls and painted and buffed and made this place shine. The floors would have been clean enough to eat off, and the windows would have shone like they’d just been put in, even though they were over a hundred years old. Instead, Audra had been given the opportunity to clean the mansion, all because Preston hated me, not because she was better than me. Man, did that chap my hide.

  But there was nothing I could do about it. I’d placed a call to Mrs. Petrovski an hour ago, and she had refused to answer and had sent me to voice mail after only one ring.

  I unlocked the door, then entered the house and called out in case anyone was still here. No one answered, so I figured I was alone.

  Climbing the stairs to the second floor, I let my feet drag as I fought the urge to mess up the whole place, like Preston had messed up my room. That would be beneath
me, though, and Mrs. Petrovski had other properties. Not that she’d let me do anything, since she thought I was stuck-up.

  That too chapped my hide.

  Once I got to my room, I entered it and then just stood, looking around. I had done good work before that jerk had come in with his garbage and his viciousness. I had been right to call him a venomous snake last night.

  I picked up the bucket and the caddy I’d finally bought for myself. It was just like the one I always kidded Letty I was going to take from her. I took my squeegee and my sponges and my clawed paper ripper and put them in the caddy. I guess I had to be thankful that no one had taken my things or thrown them in the trash.

  I had spoken too soon, though, because I couldn’t for the life of me find my beloved vacuum cleaner. I looked in the closet and even put on some gloves to go through the mountain of trash on the floor. Nothing. I loved that vacuum cleaner, and I had paid a pretty penny for it.

  After resting my head against the window glass to take a deep breath before I screamed, I glanced down and saw my precious vacuum cleaner in the freaking Dumpster below. Had he opened the window and chucked the thing out? Oh my God.

  After hauling my load down the stairs, I threw it in the back of my car and then scaled the side of the Dumpster. I didn’t care if the vacuum was broken. I wanted it, and I wanted to bring my baby home with me. I was furious. Furious enough to want to hurl myself over the side of the Dumpster to get the vacuum, but not stupid enough to actually do it and hurt myself. With my luck, I’d get stuck in there, covered in aged plasterboard and wood shavings.

  I carefully shifted my leg over the side of the metal monstrosity. Straddling the metal lip, I judged the distance to the rolled-up carpet to the left of my vacuum cleaner. It wasn’t too far from me, and I could jump on the thing to launch myself back up to the lip of the six-foot-tall Dumpster once I had my vacuum under my arm.

  I jumped and landed on the carpet on the first try, thankfully, then scrambled across the entire length of the backing to grab the vacuum. I tucked the thing under my arm, then climbed back across the carpet toward the edge of the Dumpster. Keeping the cord in one hand, I pushed the vacuum up and over the lip, hoping I didn’t break it as it went down to the ground. I slowly lowered the vacuum over the side of the Dumpster and waited until it softly thudded against the packed dirt on the other side.