How To Get The Girl

Chapter Five

☼ J A C K S O N ☼

I hauled the last bag of asphalt off the truck bed and onto the ground with a resounding thud, instantly feeling the strain lessen from my back. With a deep breath, I ran the back of my hand across the sweat on my forehead, and rounded the truck to grab my water bottle in the front seat. While I was chugging the remnants of the bottle, I heard someone call my name, and ditched the empty bottle in the passengers seat before turning around.

Tony took off his dirt stained hard hat and looked at me. "The trucks are all unloaded, Gaines. We should be ready to put down the asphalt tomorrow." 

I nod in approval. "Perfect, we're right on schedule." I stretch back a little, trying to regain movement in my back, and then look at Tony again. "Does your back hurt, man? I swear to Christ, just lifting these goddamned bags for the past half hour broke my spine in half."

Tony, a big guy with a slight Southern drawl and a wife beater soaked in sweat from the heavy lifting today, just laughs at me. "You're the only architect who gets his hands dirty with the rest'a us. Maybe you should stick to overseein' instead of liftin'."

I take my own hard hat off and toss it in the passenger seat of my truck, running a hand through my sweaty hair as I squint to look at Tony. "You calling me a wuss?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Tony tells me with a hearty laugh. "Go get a shower, would ya? Stinkin' up the place." 

I shake my head and laugh with him. "I'll see you tomorrow, Tony."

He waves goodbye and heads to his truck, stopping to say bye to some of his coworkers. When I sat down in the drivers seat of my car, I immediately shoved the key in the ignition and blasted the AC to cool me down after a long day of manual labor. I hit the radio to turn it on and Life in the Fast Lane by the Eagles starts blaring through the speakers, and I grin a little.

We were working on a building on the outskirts of the city today, so it took me a half hour to get near my place on the East side of Center City. By the time I finally made it through the painful rush hour traffic, only a few blocks away from my apartment, my phone began ringing somewhere in the car. I blindly felt around for it before I found it wedged in between the cushions of the passengers seat, and turned the speaker down.

"Hello?" I answered gruffly, excruciatingly aware of how poorly I needed a shower. 

"Hey man, can you do me a favor?" Brayden asks, and I can hear a lot of laughter in the background wherever he was. 

It took me a minute to remember that he left for his business trip two days ago, and was sitting pretty somewhere in Florida as he schmoozed his clients. It had been two weeks since we had last hung out, which was consequently the night I got in a fist fight with Tommy at the bar. I was extremely busy trying to bang out the last few details of the building I was working on, and he was busy with work, too.

"What is it?" I ask as I roll through a yellow light, checking in my rearview to make sure there were no cops around.

"Sophie hasn't been answering my texts or calls," Brayden explains in a low voice. "I haven't talked to her since this morning, and she sounded pretty upset. Can you go over to her place and make sure she's okay?" 

I catch my appearance in my rearview mirror: sweat had matted my hair back, there was dirt smudged on my cheeks and I knew my clothes looked the same, and the exhaustion from my day was written clearly across my face. Despite all of this, I passed my apartment instead of parking, and started driving towards Sophie's place.

"Yeah, I'll head over," I answer with a sigh. "I'll text you when I know what's up, okay?" 

He lets out a breath, sounding instantly relieved. "Thank you so much, man. Drinks on me when I get back, alright?"