Alexander (4 page)

“
Wondered if you’d like a bowl of soup? I need someone to tell me if it’s okay for the Friday night gang.” He set down a huge bowl and spoon in front of her. “I call it ‘Bob’s Dumps.’ Made the dumplings myself.”

She picked up the spoon after stashing away her book. The soup smelled wonderful and looked good too. She cut a dumpling in half with a great deal of effort and put it into her mouth. She should have known that it would be tough. What she didn’t know is that it’d be crunchy.

She couldn’t stop the grimace that she knew he’d seen. She chewed harder and decided that she’d break a tooth before she spit it out. When she finally managed to swallow, she looked up at him. She wasn’t sure how to tell him.

“
That bad, huh?” He took the spoon out of her hand and took both the bowl and it to the sink. “Can’t seem to make them fluffy like the book says.”

“
I can do it for you.” The words were out of her mouth before she thought. “I’m sorry, Bob. That wasn’t very nice. I’m sure they’ll love them.”

He turned and looked at her with a complete look of horror on his face. “They’ll cut my nuts off and serve them to me if I serve them this swill. Lucky thing I only cooked this one. This way I can salvage the…the soup part was okay, right?” he asked suddenly.

“
Yes. That was…Mr. Bob, if you want me to, I can…I can make dumplings for you.”

He walked over to the stove and began fishing out the rest of the dumpling he’d made. Without turning from the pot, he spoke to her. “If you can do it, please do. They wanted dumplings so I gotta have them. Come on, sweetie, help an old man out.”

She stood up and moved to his work counter. In less than twenty minutes, she had a batch of her dumplings whipped up, and while he divided up the soup into four pots, she measured out enough batter for five more batches.

“
You can only cook a few at a time or they won’t be right,” she told him as she dropped them by tablespoons full into the bubbly liquid. “If you do it this way, you can drop more into the broth while you serve up the other pots.”

For another half an hour, she simmered dumplings and made three more batches of them up for him. By the time she was ready to start tending bar, Bob had enough fluffy dumplings to feed an army, or thirty men watching football on the big screen.

By midnight, she was ready for her first break. She’d been on her feet for over twenty-six hours and she ached. As soon as she sat down and pulled out her packed dinner of two apples and a bottle of water, Bob sat down across from her and set a plate in front of her. She looked up at him.

“
I can’t afford this, Mr. Bob, you know that. I have my dinner.”

He grinned at her. “Eat. I owe you. Saved my ass tonight, kiddo. And if you do it again next week, I’ll feed you again.” He laid a fifty dollar bill next to her hand. “That’s for working off the clock.”

“
I can’t take this. It was…All I did was mix some flour and milk together using your stuff. You already had the hard part finished.” He pushed it back at her when she tried to give it back.

“
Saved me twice that much in drinks. If they didn’t have a good meal, they was gonna leave. Take it and the food with my gratitude. You deserve it.”

Heather nodded and looked down at the money. She had just made Jack’s field trip money.

~Chapter 4~

Alex was showing the movers what to pack of his office when Brick walked in. He had a bottle of champagne and two glasses. When he popped the cork, the expensive liquid spilled more on the carpet than the glasses, but neither man seem to notice.

“
So this is it.” Brick toasted him with a raised glass. “I don’t suppose I could change your mind and convince you to say, could I?”

Alex sat on the leather couch that was staying. “Nope. I already found me a house, my apartment is leased, and I cashed the check. You’re on your own.”

They had agreed to not change the name for a few months yet. At least until the last of their jobs together had been complete. All the incoming jobs and the contract with Black Security Services, the contract that had brought an end to A&B Computers, was going to be under the new name. The new name was Consolidated Hardware. Brick and his wife were sole proprietors of the new company.

“
So you’re really moving to Columbus,” Brick said as he poured them both another glass. “Your family must be thrilled.”

“
They are. The house I bought is just far enough away to keep them from just dropping by, yet close enough they can drive over for a visit.” Alex thought of the work he was having done on it. “Wills is overseeing most of the construction for me. Jared has agreed to do the kitchen.”

Alex had just discovered he liked to cook. He had found an old cookbook at a used bookstore and had been playing with it. He still wasn’t up to Jared’s ability, but he was having a blast at it.

“
Yeah, you said it was a big house. What the hell are you going to do with a six bedroom house?” Brick shook his head. “Lilith and I can barely fill our three-room apartment. I can’t imagine one with twice that many.”

He’d gotten a great deal. The housing market was great for the buyers right now. “The house needed some work. The previous owners knew they were going to lose the house to foreclosure so they trashed the place. The whole house was in bad shape, but the foundation was perfect. The bank simply wanted it off their books and I was happy to help them.”

Brick snorted. “And it helps having a sister and brother-in-law that can help you with all the work too.”

Alex shrugged. Yeah it did, but that wasn’t all. He was actually looking forward to owning his own home. The last time he’d seen it over three weeks ago, the entire upper level, five of the bedrooms, had been gutted. There were walls in the general sense of the word, but little else. Jared had told him that it would be easier to redo than to repair.

“
Wills told me last night that the carpets were being laid this week and the kitchen was being tiled today. The only rooms that are finished are the master suite and the living room.”

They talked for a bit more. Alex promised that he’d keep in touch and Brick promised that as soon as he made it big, he was going to rub Alex’s nose in it. He wished him all the luck in the world.

Alex was putting his bag in the car when he thought about Black Security. The hotel he’d been staying at for the past week after getting out of the apartment was being monitored by the company. The hotel’s system had gone down twice since he’d been there. He hoped Brick could fix their problems, but wasn’t so sure.

It wasn’t that he doubted Brick’s abilities to do the job; he was the best security expert he knew. It was Mikhail Black that concerned him.

There was something…shady about him, Alex decided was the best word for it. When they’d met the man and two of his guards at A&B six months ago, Alex had felt the need for a shower and a dip in some sanitizer. He’d felt dirty and somewhat contaminated after the talk. He had thought that Brick had felt the same way. But later that week, he’d changed his mind.

Mik, as he wanted everyone to call him, had said that his business was growing faster than he’d anticipated. He simply had neither the space nor the manpower to watch the extra businesses. They wanted A&B to set up the entire hardware system that would be able to record twenty-four/seven and have enough split screen monitors so they could see more at one time.

“
Be the eyes we know our customers have come to expect,” Mik had said. Alex thought that split screens were a waste of time and that having a busy screen meant that no one person was getting the attention they might need.

Alex had glanced at Brick when he laughed. But he covered it well when Mik had stiffened. “Isn’t it better to have more people looking at four areas than sixteen as you’re suggesting? I would think that having someone to keep an eye on what we treasure most would be better.”

Mik disagreed. “Our men and women are trained professionals. They know what to look for and how to find even the smallest discrepancies.”

Alex had seen the look that Mik had. A blast of anger burned in his eyes for a small moment, but long enough for Alex to decide he wanted nothing to do with him. Brick thought it would be the perfect way to make them a household name, and Alex wasn’t so sure.

He’d done a complete background check on the man and had come up with nothing until eighteen months ago. Not even a birth certificate. When he’d tried to tell Brick, that’s when they’d had their first major fight.

“
You can’t be serious. You think because you can’t find a birth certificate that there’s something wrong with the company? Hell, Alex, when I got married it took me four months to find mine. Turns out my mom hadn’t filed it correctly. There can be any number of reasons why he’s off the grid. I’m telling you this is the way to go.”

Alex had disagreed then and still did. And when Brick had suggested that he buy him out, Alex agreed. He wanted to do things on his own for a while and this was the perfect opportunity. Besides, he wanted to part as friends, not as combatants.

As he was driving, he remembered the girl who’d hung up on him when he passed the House. He’d gone to the shop only to find Lisa there and she said that the cook, Miss Heather Laird, had already left for the day. Alex had wondered if he might have been a tad overbearing when he’d called, but he’d had a horrible headache. No excuse, but he really thought he should apologize.

Swinging into a parking space, he thought he might just pick up a few things for his family before going to his house and see if the girl was there. He was smiling when he walked inside.

~~~

Heather looked down at the paper in her hand again. She couldn’t believe it. The letter had come registered mail today and she’d just now gotten the chance to open it. Looking at her grandda, she smiled again.

“
Well, what are you going to do now with all your free time?” He took the letter when she handed it to him. “I knew you had it in you. Damn, girl, I’ve never been prouder of anything in my life. Wait until Jack sees this.”

She had done so well in her classes that the online schooling she’d been taking had told her she wouldn’t have to take the final. With her midterm grade and the grades of her lessons, she’d made an A in the class, giving her a 4.0 grade point average for the entire year and an overall 3.95 for her overall score. She’d done it. She was a high school graduate.

“
I don’t know. It seems so unreal. An A. I got an A in high school.” She did a little silly dancing around the room, but couldn’t seem to help it. “I couldn’t have done it without you and Jack.”

“'
Course you couldn’t.” Grandda winked at her. “You did good, girl. I love you. Now put it back in the envelope so it doesn’t get dirty and we’ll get us a frame to put it in next payday.”

She knew she shouldn’t, but she really wanted to. Heather got up and decided to make something special for dinner. “Let’s have pizza. I got everything we need. And Jack loves it.”

The celebration lasted until she had to leave for work at the restaurant. She had let Jack stay up past his bedtime and when she left, he kissed her on the cheek when she’d gone to his room to tell him goodbye.

“
I knew you could do it. I’m so proud of you, Mom. Now you have to go to college and become a great chef so you can be on that show where they kick you off if you don’t make the right time.” She’d smiled at him. “You’ll be hosting it before the end of the first week.”

“
I’m sure I will.” She kissed him on the forehead again. “I’m so glad you’re my son. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He was yawning when he rolled over. “You’d be married to some rich guy and miserable because you’d have no one to talk to.”

She was early for her shift, but it didn’t matter. They were busy for a Monday night and the manager, Todd Walden, told her to clock in early. She was glad for the money and she dove right in to help out. She was waiting on a table of six customers when one of the other waitresses told her about the job as a cook.

“
Seems this guy needs a housekeeper and cook to come and stay at his house. I don’t know all the details, but I guess he just had this fancy house built and he don’t have a wife to help keep it up.” Patty, the youngest one of the group, looked excited as she gave them the news.

Bailey laughed. “Men who have fancy houses only have one thing in mind when they hire a live-in house keeper. They want themselves a live-in pussy. Mark my words, you don’t want to take a job with a single man unless he getting married or he’s so rich it don’t matter that his dick is so tiny you don’t feel a thing when he fucks you.”

Heather could feel her face heat up. Bailey had been around the block a few times, she’d said. Heather had never figured out what that meant really, but she was as old as the building and had been a waitress since the first boat had come from across the Atlantic. Her words, not Heather’s. There wasn’t much she wouldn’t discuss whether a person wanted to hear it or not.

Not that Heather was even thinking about the job. First she’d have to tell the person about Jack and she doubted very much anyone, including someone hard up, would give her a second look. She took her tray of food to the table.

Men flirted with her. Bailey had told her she was beautiful once, but Heather knew better. She was working about sixty hours a week and when she wasn’t working, she was going to work or coming home. Her hair was a nondescript color of brown, her eyes a plain old blue, and her skin was so white from lack of sun she looked sort of washed out most of the time, she thought. And now, since she’d lost so much weight, she looked like a bean pole and a good stiff wind would blow her over. But the one thing she did have was boobs.