Chapter 88

Chapter 88

We had dashed around the upstairs to get all my private and personal things packed before the movers got there. A few things Elle promised she was going to have questions about later. I just shrugged. They all had good stories to go with them, so I didn’t care.

A knock on the door indicated we were out of time. Accepting our fate, we went downstairs. On the porch five people in white coveralls were waiting for us.

“Miss McIntosh?” A short Hispanic man with a ponytail asked. I nodded. He handed me a clipboard with a work order. It stated that they were to pack my belongings and drive them to Giggle Water Creek. He just needed me to sign it. I did so. He handed me a copy of it. Then lead his crew inside where he started barking orders.

I followed the one into the garage. He had stopped and was blinking in surprise at all the boxes. He turned and saw me beside him. He cleared his throat. “Well, I guess there’s not much to pack here.”

He went back into the house. I snickered. Hard. Elle glared. I decided it was time to toss her a bone. I pointed at the ones that took up the far half of the garage. “Those are all work related and will need to go back to my company.”

“Seriously?” She clenched her hands in irritation. “I thought we were going to have to move all these!”

“Hey, not us! Them” I nodded towards the house. “We get to be the ladies of the manor and watch the in-shape men lift heavy objects.”

I grinned wickedly. “Did you notice the tall bald one?”

She stone faced me. “You’ve seen my husband. Do you think I’m scooping out others?”

I just wiggled my eyebrows. She finally caved and giggled. Admitted she had in fact noticed the man in question.

Back in the apartment we saw one of the movers packing up the kitchen. He was carefully putting my dishes in a box designed for flatware. How fancy. In my last move I’d just wrapped my dishes in shirts and put them in boxes. Shrugging I went upstairs where two of them were buzzing around. One in the bathroom and one in my bedroom. Seeing us, the one in the bathroom asked if the washer and dryer were coming. I shook my head. They came with the place.

We went back downstairs when we heard voices coming in the front door. The two other movers had come back in and were discussing the easiest way to move the living room furniture.

While they were all darting around. I went into the garage to look at all the boxes that were mine. Elle came with me.

“Are we going to go through all of those?” She didn’t sound too enthused.

“That was the plan.” I held up my finger to my mouth. “But then I remembered something important.”

“Does it involve a barn?” Elle teased. Yeah, there was a reason she was my best friend.

“Yep. And all those empty stalls.” I cackled. Maybe I was a witch. Oh well, that’s a problem for another day. We went upstairs to get the luggage and boxes with my personal things.

Outside, we arranged everything into Betty. Elle’s phone rang. Maxxxx appeared on the screen. I snickered. Then went to the porch to give her some privacy. I lit up a smoke and dialed my boss. It was time to bring him into the loop. Plus, he was going to need to arrange for the transport and storage of the boxes I was in possession of. They had gotten stored in my garage when the office had moved. Then promptly forgotten about.

My boss didn’t take my resignation well. Begging and pleading were involved. A pay raise was dangled as well. That one got me. I agreed to stay on for a few more months, working completely remote. Not that I went into the office often now. But I didn’t want to do the three-hour drive more than I had to. Also, that I might not be able to work during the usual business hours. Thankfully my job allowed for a lot of freedom since I didn’t really interact with others. He agreed to have someone come pick up the boxes today so I could close out the apartment.

In the end he thanked me for not leaving him and I thanked him for the money he was about to give me. We had a good laugh. Then said goodbye. Elle came over as soon as I hung up.

“Do we need to clean this place?” Elle asked hesitantly. I don’t know why she was scared. I wasn’t a neat freak, but I wasn’t dirty.

“Nah. The work order included cleaning the apartment to community standards.” Her eyes lit up.

“Aw. That was nice of Vince to pay for!” She smiled like a schmuck.

“That would have been very sweet of him.” I cut my eyes to her. Then pulled the copy of the work order out of my pocket. “However, he charged it to the estate. I’m paying for all of this.”

She doubled over laughing. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“He’s so going to feel my wrath when we get back.” She patted me on the back. Not to calm me, she knew better. More to let me know she was there for me.

“The raise is going to come in handy.” She snickered. I flipped her off. Then we headed inside to see what we needed to do before we could head back home.

A short while later, I’d handed the key off to the team lead. They had promised to clean everything and lock up before dropping the key at the office. When the courier from the office showed up, they knew which boxes to hand off.

After that we swung by the office to turn in notice and pay the early termination fees for my apartment. Shaking my head at how much this move was costing, I climbed back into Betty. While I was dealing with paperwork, Elle had taken Betty’s top back down. Elle and I slipped on our sunglasses and hit the highway.

Vincent Donovan Haywood was about to find out what it meant to cross us.