Impress Me Not: The Handyman

Chapter 89

That was the most awkward event of his life. And Niko had thought that he had been through quite a lot of awkward events. He had built up quite a tolerance to them over the years. He was always prone to the death glares and the tense conversations. It was all because he had to clean up the mess that his parents had made before him.

Because, like always, their lives always had to involve him when it came to the bad things, and never the good. When things went wrong, they looked to him to fix the problem, and then they'd yell at him if he couldn't.

He realized at the ripe age of thirty that he didn't care about their whining and screaming anymore, nor did he care about their threats.

But they still followed him, even when they didn't talk to him. Their past was his. And it was not something that he enjoyed.

Thankfully Ira stuck to helping Maya out last night. He would throw him a glare every now and then, but he mainly listened to Maya as she told him what had gone on in school the past year. Niko just made sure that all the chores got done. That way Solomon and Maya could just go straight to bed after all of this. They decided to enroll Maya into an online school. It was one that all colleges took as a credit at least, and Ira told her that it would only be temporary. Niko was glad. At least the poor girl wouldn't have to go through the stress of making new friends and being in new classes on top of all of this legal drama.

He was a good lawyer. Niko never doubted the man. He was honorable because he never took bribes and he always fought a case to win. That was another reason why he was so feared in the legal world. Anyone who went up against him was lucky if they got even a cent of the money they were demanding.

The next thing that Ira was planning on doing was getting Maya's case on the news. He told her that she didn't have to show her face, or even tell her name, but Maya said that she would do it. All of them would know who it was anyway. Niko was proud of how brave she was being that night.

A lawsuit could last years. But, knowing Ira Goldstein, it could easily be resolved quickly. The greater you make the case seem to be to the people, the more likely the school is to crack under the pressure and either cave into the case, or offer money to stop the charade. Niko wasn't sure just how far Solomon was willing to go with this.

He decided to go to work that day. Solomon and Maya were going to spend the day together to get their minds off things. That and Solomon needed to enroll her in the online school as soon as possible. He was telling Niko that he was planning on getting a tutor to come and help her with her homework if she needed it. Niko said that he would help pay for some of it, but Solomon insisted that he could handle it. And the man never wanted to accept help. Even when Niko was just trying to help.

Thankfully, Solomon understood when Niko told him about meeting Ira for the first time. He was actually pretty surprised that Solomon wasn't suspicious of him at all, or simply trying to take Ira's side on things.

"Him and his son were too alike," Solomon explained. "They both thought a lot about money, and they both had anger issues. The only difference was that Somner never let money overrule his family, and Ira never got as angry from random strangers."

"You seem to know that family all too well," Niko smiled.

"He treated me more like a son than my parents ever did," Solomon told him. "Sure, he has his faults, but so does everyone. The point was that he loved both me and Somner as much as he could."

"I'm glad you got to talk to him again, then."

After hearing that, Niko figured that he could deal with the glares from the man for the rest of his life. He could handle all the awkward conversations with him. As long as he could see Solomon with that smile on his face, the one that he always had when he talked about the one's he loved, he could handle anything.