I stood up to go after her but Tate stopped me. “We shouldn’t follow her. Not yet at least,” he said.
“Well what the hell was that?” I asked. I sat back down with a defeated sigh.
“I don’t know man. I have no clue.”
“There must be something going on. And she won’t tell us. I thought she knew how we felt,” I said.
“I don’t know. It isn’t that easy. Maybe not for her. She has to feel like she can really trust us.”
“I wish she felt like that already. Fuck, this is tripping me out.” I crossed my arms and sighed.
“Tell me about it. Just give her time.”
“I don’t think we should. I mean, she should know she can talk to us. And also not keep things from us. If we’re going to make this work, she has to be honest. We should too.”
We didn’t have anything to tell her, but if we ever did, we would.
“Yeah. You’re right. Let’s go after her.”
20
Adley
I saw the caller ID and my heart dropped. Everyone knows it wasn’t really serious until they call. The attorney had been emailing me to schedule a meeting, but I never responded. I thought it wasn’t something too serious. Just another form or something for my grandmother. I hadn’t accepted it fully yet so that was why I avoided walking into a conversation about her.
But it wasn’t that at all.
I answered the call and knew I couldn’t listen to any more in front of them. I couldn’t dump my problems on Tate and Levi. It wouldn’t be fair and it wouldn’t be right. So I kept it to myself and left before I really freaked out. I called him back and continued the conversation in the safety of my hotel room.
“Hello, sorry I was in a place with bad service.”
“That’s all right. I just wanted a chance to explain this so you would understand.”
“What—what is there to understand? What’s wrong?” My voice shook.
I couldn’t imagine anything being more wrong than my grandmother being gone, and me being alone with no job. I thought I wasn’t really alone, but this wasn’t Tate and Levi’s problem for me to just include them.
“Well, Adley, it’s about your grandmother’s estate.”
My breath hitched. I felt my body go cold and my face grow hot at the same time. I sat on the floor at the edge of the bed and tried to steady my breath, and keep my voice even.
“Is there a problem? The house is being repaired and it passed inspection. Did I miss something?”
There was so much that went into keeping a household running and getting it back on its feet. I thought maybe I missed an inspection or hadn’t done something I was supposed to.
“Well, no. It isn’t something like that. Listen Adley, a lot of fees have gone into this whole process. And there was a long list of things to take care of after the fact. That number I gave you was a good amount at the time, but after everything…I’m afraid it’s run out.”
“Run out?” I nearly shouted. How the hell did a hundred thousand dollars run out that fast?
“Yes. Um, nearly. After calculating what is left to get the house in good shape, it will be gone. And not all of the costs for the construction will be covered.”
“I don’t understand! Sorry, I don’t understand.” I lowered my voice. “They told me they cut costs everywhere they could. I thought everything was okay, and I haven’t spent any of the money on anything else.” My hotel fee was it, and that was minimal.
“I know. It isn’t your fault. I’m afraid it is just bad luck.”
I scoffed. It wasn’t just bad luck. It was the story of my fucking life. I couldn’t believe the hand I was being dealt, yet again. How was I supposed to get through this?
“What…what do I do?” I asked calmly.