Alive: The Ghost of Cambria - Book One

Chapter Ten

When Tony arrived at work that morning, he heard Kristen Cole on the phone in her bedroom. It was an unexpected sound, as she was not someone who fancied being out of bed at eight o'clock in the morning. His immediate thought was that something might be wrong, but he didn't have time to ponder the idea before he accidentally kicked a bucket of dry Plaster of Paris. His clumsy step ensured that the container was emptied in a terrible mess all over the protective plastic laid down in the living room floor.

"Great," he mumbled to himself and placed his coffee cup down upon the saw table, exactly where Tony would've sworn he'd left the bucket yesterday.

He promptly returned to his work truck and retrieved a small hand brush and pan. If he were lucky, he'd be able to collect enough of it to avoid needing to purchase a second container of the product, meant to redo several pieces of moulding that had become cracked in the main rooms.

Upon re-entering the house, Tony found Kristen down by the door staring at the security keypad beside it.

"Good morning," he said promptly. "Be careful just there, I had a clumsy accident. Kicked it right over as I arrived, like an idiot. I'm gonna try and get most of it back in the pail."

Kristen didn't respond to him, but stopped and stood to the side to let him pass.

"You're up early," Tony said as he crouched to carefully sweep the powder up. "You have an appointment?"

"I had a bad night," she said dryly.

"Oh? I'm sorry," he replied, nudging the powder gently so as not to collect the contaminated layer that touched the dirty floor.

"As I was going to sleep, your bucket there fell off the table and scared the shit out of me," said Kristen, life returning to her voice. "I thought someone was breaking in. When I finally drummed up the courage to come down here and realized what it was, I tried setting the alarm just to be safe but couldn't get it to work. So, I just got off the phone with the company, and it turns out that the bill hadn't been paid."

"Darn it, I'm so sorry about the plaster. I can't imagine how it fell from the center of the table." Even if I had left it on edge, he thought to himself, it was inexplicable that it could just fall.

Kristen didn't respond.

"That was fast of them to shut off your system, no?" Tony asked. The woman's father had been gone for two weeks.

"Dad cut it off almost a year ago, they told me," she answered. "I suspect he didn't figure he needed it anymore after mom died. She was probably the person that made him install it in the first place."

"Oh, I see," said Tony. "So, it's back on now?"

"I will be within the hour. I'll have to go through to reset the code. They sent me the PDF with the instructions," Kristen said, gesturing to the cell phone in her hand. "I'll be sure to write the code down for you."

"Cool," he answered, standing up from his chore as the last of the contaminated plaster had been swept up and dumped in the trash. "I would've brought you a coffee if I'd thought you were up."

"No need, I made a pot of it in my room a couple hours ago," she said.

"How'd you manage that?" Tony cocked his head with a slight frown.

"The grocery store in Morro Bay opened at five," said Kristen. "After I never made it back to sleep, I decided to be the first person through the door when it opened. Found me a sweet little brewer and a bag of Italian roast. Of course, now I'm high as a kite but feel like I'm walking in a fog because drugs can't replace actual sleep."

She blinked her eyes and flexed the muscles in her face as if hoping it would clear her vision.

"I'm surprised you didn't buy a pill to put you to sleep," said Tony, now even more annoyed that the plaster bucket had fallen.

"I had pills for that in my purse. Well, NyQuil anyhow. Didn't work," she all but moaned.

"That's even more surprising," said Tony with raised eyebrows. "Anytime I take that stuff, I'm gone in minutes."

"Me too, except last night," she clarified. "I was doing fine. I had worked through my anxiety after getting scared. I had turned off the projector in my head that was screening serial killer movies. I put on soft music to lull me into a trance. But five minutes in, my imagination took over, and I had to turn the lights on. I tried reading, then watched Netflix on my phone - nothing would do the trick. So, around four, I accepted defeat and took a shower. Then I got in the car and drove to buy an overpriced piece of junk so I could wake up for real."

"The sun's up now, and I'll beat anyone who comes in here to a pulp. Why don't you try to go down again in a couple hours?" he asked.

"What's the point? I'll never get to sleep with all the noise you and whoever is coming today will make," she said dully.

"I've got a few pairs of earplugs in the truck that I keep for the saw. Fresh ones, of course. I wouldn't do that to you," Tony offered with a lopsided grin. "I doubt you'll hear anything."

"Don't bother," she shook her head, "I'll make it. If I can hold out until eight tonight, I'll sleep so good that I won't wake up until late morning."

Tony shrugged his shoulders in defeat. He thought Kristen's eyes looked so glossy, she might fall asleep where she stood. But who knew her body better than she did?

The phone in her hand release a tone, and Kristen raised it to read the text message that lit up the screen. Shortly after typing a response in the phone, it rang once, and she answered it with a smile.

"Good morning," Cole greeted her caller. "No, I'm up early this morning. How's everything coming along?"

Kristen turned and retreated back up the stairs to take the call privately. Tony couldn't make out the conversation once she'd gotten upstairs, but he could tell from the way her voice raised and giggled that it was likely a man she liked calling her.

Well, she's out of my league anyhow, he thought, at once pissed at himself that he'd felt a pang of jealousy over it. Of course, it didn't matter that he wouldn't have stood a shot with her, or that getting it on with your boss was never a smart decision. But it still sucked when you wanted something and couldn't have it.

It wouldn't have been much more than a fleeting thought if Cole hadn't lost her shit with him on that first day. Tony didn't have an explanation for it, but being disciplined was a bit of a turn-on for him. At least, it had been with prior girlfriends. Hell, even a teacher had once gotten a rise out of him over a science project he didn't take seriously enough. It wasn't as if Tony sought out an argument with a chick; who in hell wanted to deal with a fight you couldn't throw a punch to end? However, Tony sure as hell had something to show off if they went too far. He eventually discerned that his last girlfriend got off on the idea, and would start some shit every time she was in the mood, just to mess with him.

After Kristen had gone in on Tony about not asking the demo laborers to sweep up their mess, it had opened up the flood gates to half-a-dozen little problems she harbored with his performance. In fact, she only seemed to let up on him when she saw that he was blushing. Perhaps his flushed cheeks convinced Cole to stop because she recognized she was taking it all too far. But the reason Tony had reddened was that he was standing there with a semi growing in his jeans. And with all the real estate he had to maintain, Tony was embarrassed to feel the tightening bulge that must've placed itself clearly on display.

But that wouldn't happen - Tony would be sure of it. The young man wanted this job unlike any he'd ever had, and he wasn't about to jeopardize it over a piece of ass.

He heard Kristen make her way downstairs when she finished her call.

"Tony," she said, "about those earplugs..."