Impress Me Not: The Handyman

Chapter 7

Solomon opened the door to his condo and dropped his keys in the little bowl that he had by the door. It had been a long day. The last unit had needed to get completely replaced, but the client was keen on trying to simply get more parts for it instead. It took him forever to get it into her head that it would cost less to get a new unit than it would to buy all the parts that this one needed.

People always thought that he was trying to just get them to spend more. It was so annoying.

"Maya!" he yelled throughout his home. It was a pretty big condo that he had gotten them. They both had hobbies that required a lot of space, so he had picked one out that had a huge front room. "You better be here!"

"Solomon!" she yelled as she ran through the hallway. She always put a smile on his face whenever she did that. There was a time when neither of them smiled too much. He wrapped his arms around her right as she got to him and spun her around.

"Sorry about being late," he said.

"Ew," she squirmed in his hold. "You stink!"

"I haven't gotten a shower in yet, you brat," he laughed. Her hair was similar to his, but it was shorter and looked more like a dark brown rather than the pitch black void that his hair was.

"Since you got off so late, can we order out?" She looked up at him with nothing but hope in her eyes.

"I'm sure I can cook something up really fast," he finally let her go. He could do that before he got in the shower.

"But we never get fast food!" her brown eyes got big as she pouted.

"Are you saying you don't like my cooking?" he teased. They had this conversation almost every single day, he swore.

"I'm not saying that!" she followed him into the kitchen. "I'm just saying that we should just order something since it's late and you haven't even taken a shower."

"That stuff is bad for you," he started pulling out the ingredients that he needed. "And I could have dinner ready way before the delivery man would even get here."

"You're no fun," Maya sat at the kitchen table and pouted some more. She always looked so adorable when she pouted.

"Pizza is only for every once in a while," he told her. "It's bad if you eat it all the time."

"Now you're sounding like my dance class," she sighed and rested her head on the table.

"Are they still calling you fat?" he slitted his eyes as he looked at her.

"They always do." She muttered in the cave system that she had made for her face with her arms.

"Maya, you do realize that you are at the healthiest weight for your height, right?" Solomon couldn't believe how some of these parents raised their kids. Dancers had such an issue with weight because of a mixture of the people in charge of those groups as well as the parents.

Maya was far from fat. She had an athletic build, and a great talent for dancing. And her doctor had said that she was healthy, including her weight. For a sixteen-year-old, she was the perfect model of health.

"I know, Solomon," she groaned. "Please don't take me to the doctor again."

He had done that to keep her from going down the dark path that those other girls were going down. He had talked to the teacher so many times about her classmates harassing her about being fat along with the time where they tried to corner her, but there was only so much he could do for her. It was either that or he pull her out of that class, and she didn't want that.

It just annoyed him, because he worked his ass off to pay for her to go to a school like that.

"I'm not going to, Maya," his tone got lower as he said it. "I just want to make sure you don't wind up trying to do what those girls are doing. It's bad enough that their parents are okay with it."

"I'm not going to force myself to throw up," she shook her head and hugged her stomach. "That would hurt so much."

"It could also mess up your teeth," he took down two plates from the cupboards. "And your throat. And your stomach could get so damaged that it could start bleeding."

"I know!" she groaned again. "We've been over this a thousand times, Solomon! I've told you before that I wouldn't do it!"

"I'm just looking out for my little sister," Solomon smiled as he set down the plate of food. "See? I told you it would be ready before the delivery guy could even think about coming."

"You still stink," she stuck out her tongue at him. He couldn't help but laugh.

They talked about little things after that. Most of it was the drama of her high school and all her friends. He almost wished he could go back in time to those days. As much as there was drama, it was a lot more interesting than the every day life that was adulthood. Whenever Maya asked him about his day, there was never too many eventful things that he could talk to her about.

He wasn't going to tell her about Bennet, as much as that would be interesting. She had already been upset that he didn't get accepted to do that modeling offer. He didn't tell her how many times they had called him, or the true reason why he had been refusing them. Instead, he talked about some of the other things that had gone on, like this bird that had flown into a window in one of the houses he was working on.

"Okay," he stood up, "You better have all the dishes washed by the time I get out of the shower. Then I'll help you practice some of your dances."

"You always take forever in the shower anyway," she rolled her eyes. "I'll have, like, an eternity to do them."

"Start now, brat!" he yelled over his shoulder as he walked into his room. He could hear her giggling as he shut the door. His room was the master bedroom, with the bathroom connected to it. He absolutely loved having steamy showers at the end of the day. It washed all the worries and stresses away.

He sat down on his bed before getting ready for the shower, though. His eyes were always drawn to his nightstand, where two rings and a single photo had been placed perfectly in the center. Solomon didn't ever put anything else on the nightstand on that side of the bed. That was the side that he never decorated.

"Hey Babe," he took down his hair from its tangled bun. "You aren't going to believe how crazy a day I had." He started unbuttoning his jumpsuit. "I'm sure you'd probably be piping mad if you were here now, but I took that gig. The guy actually apologized. It was absolutely shocking, Somner." He shook his head as he talked, making sure his voice was really low. "You should have seen it. He changed from a complete asshole at the interview, to absolute softy in the elevator today."

He looked over at the picture again, wiping the tears that were starting to form in his eyes. He couldn't keep doing this. It had already been three years since that day.

"It's been so long since I modeled. I don't think I've done one since the last festival we went to. The look on your face the whole time we were there was priceless. But I'm not sure if I'm any good at it anymore. The extra money will be nice. I'm still saving for Maya to go to college, just like we planned. I think I'm going to get her some new ballet shoes with it too. They break so easily, even though she rarely uses them."

His shoes were the next thing that he had taken off. His feet probably stank so much from those hot boots. He was going to have to get in the shower for the sake of his feet alone. His hair was probably going to take forever to comb through as well.

"Well, I need to get off all this sweat from work," he sighed. "I'll talk to you tonight."

He forced himself to not look back as he walked into the bathroom. If he looked back, he knew that he would only cry more.

It had been three long years, and he still wasn't over him.