Impress Me Not: The Handyman

Chapter 14

"Rico, you totally fucked me up!" Niko yelled over the phone. He was still driving. And the lunch rush was flooding the streets, making time go slower before they got to the restaurant.

Did he mention that he was starving?

"Hey man!" Rico's voice boomed over the phone. He always talked loudly. "I didn't know the guy was dead! How could I have known that this was going to happen?"

"I made a total ass out of myself!" he frowned. "I'm surprised I was even able to convince him to go with me still!"

"Wait," Rico stopped him. "You actually convinced him?"

"Yeah," Niko rolled his eyes. "Miraculously, he agreed on it."

"Dude! Solomon never agrees on stuff like that unless it's a group thing!"

"Really?"

"Yeah man!" Rico said. "You might be better at this than I thought. I gotta figure out how you did it!"

"I still have no idea how he agreed to it, considering I just mentioned his dead boyfriend!"

"Can you really blame that on me?" his friend argued. "I mean, look dude, I haven't seen the guy in forever! How was I supposed to know that his boyfriend was dead? He was the same age as Solomon!"

Niko groaned. This was a mess. He had barely been able to convince Solomon to take the job because of him. He had barely been able to dig himself out of that hole, only to fall into another one.

"Whatever, man," he said. He just finally pulled into the parking lot for the restaurant. "I gotta go."

"Alright, I'll keep you updated on the project, by the way. With how well Solomon did, this is going to be easy."

"Good," Niko was glad that something was going his way at least. "I'll talk to you later."

He hung up the phone right when he saw a sleek silver car pull up next to him. It wasn't a sports car, but it was nice. Niko got out and went around his car just in time to see Solomon getting out.

Niko wasn't going to let one mistake ruin his day. He still had a chance to impress him with the restaurant. The Lavender Hideaway was one of the best restaurants in downtown. It prided itself in its great food and calm atmosphere. They coined their name by the lavender that loved to grow quickly around their building. Apparently, the land used to be a whole field of them before someone started building on it.

"I'm glad you were following behind me so closely," Niko said. "This place can get pretty hard to find with all the greenery around it."

"I guess the name makes sense, at least," Solomon smiled. He looked so nice when he smiled. "Let's go, I'm starving."

He was not expecting what happened next.

"Hey, Pete!" he waved over to the owner. He waved back and immediately came over to them. "Nice to see you again. This is Solomon, he's-"

"We've met before," Solomon said. "Nice to see you Pete."

"Good to see you too, Solomon!" Pete shook his hand anyway. He was always the type of person to greet someone like that every time he saw them. "How's Maya doing?"

"She's doing good," Solomon said. "If she keeps up the grades that she has, she's going to wind up the top of her class."

"That's great!" Pete said. "I know she has it in her."

Niko just stood there shocked. How did they know each other? Who was this Maya that they were talking about? How did he know about this tiny restaurant in the tiniest corners of the downtown area?