“Nah, just an estimate. See what they want to do,” he answered. He turned the radio on, the new Imagine Dragons song blaring through. Every radio station had it on permanent replay.
“Cool.”
The drive took about thirty minutes from where we were. The island was off the tip of Long Island, with no roads to it. Using the ferry made it a bitch to get there, but we could be reimbursed by the company for all that. We drove up to the house and…shit.
“We haven’t seen a place like this in years.” Levi leaned forward and stared with wide eyes.
I stared too; it was real messed up. Maybe it was a flip? I had no clue. There were no cars out front when I pulled into the driveway. The outside of the house was a sad, chipped, white color, with plank siding and a rickety porch. The roof would need to go. Everything needed to go, in my opinion.
“Let’s check it out.”
I parked and we left the truck. Levi knocked on the door but there was no answer.
“They didn’t put their number on the form for me to call,” Levi said. I shrugged and looked through the windows.
The couch looked like it had been laid on, but everything else was covered up or falling apart.
“Someone wa
s here. We can wait. I don’t have any plans for the rest of the day.” I stepped over the railing and sat down on the steps.
The land was pretty decent, though it needed a lot of landscaping. But it would be a nice place to fix up, just really expensive. Probably our most expensive one yet.
“I’m going to walk around.” Levi stepped down the stairs.
“That’s trespassing. We haven’t taken the job yet.” I stood up and faced him. He laughed his careless laugh and set off anyway.
I had to follow him and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. Sometimes I felt like the older sibling trying to keep tabs on their brother. But we walked around and saw that the water tank would need to be replaced, unless Levi could fix it. He was good with lost causes. The foundation seemed fairly solid though. The backyard had a gorgeous view, but the back of the house was pretty worn out. It had vines going up the sides, and bricks coming loose.
“This is a complete disaster.” Levi said. He walked back around the front and I followed.
“Yeah, but that’s kind of the work we’re supposed to do.” I pointed out.
“True. I still don’t want to use a team though. Then we have to be on our best behavior and shit. Plus, more people just makes it take longer.” He shook his head.
We both sat on the porch steps. “Let’s just wait for the owner. They might not even want to give us the job.”
5
Levi
I loved finishing jobs. It made me feel super accomplished, like I was actually doing something worth shit. Maybe it was morbid, but it was kind of true. Everything was kind of broken until I decided to fix it, which was why I made a living out of fixing things.
Like this house. It was kind of a dump, but it had some charm to it. I believed we could do something worthwhile. Tate and I waited outside for a little bit; the weather was nice so it wasn’t like we were missing anything.
He and I had been partners for a long time. But we were always friends first, roommates too. That was why we worked so well together, and why we keep working together. Sure, we teamed up with other guys on the job but we were close with the boss, and he stopped separating us a long ass time ago. He had other shit he should be managing. But it had been years, and we always turned down management positions because it only gets offered to one of us at a time. We didn’t want to be each other’s boss. Sometimes we might talk about opening our own company, but that was only when we were swigging back beers and talking shit.
I didn’t ever want to be anyone’s boss. Running a business…not my style. If I couldn’t fix something that was broken, I would generally try to stay away from it.
“After this we should take a break,” I said to Tate. He shot me a funny look. Tate has those pretty boy looks that women go crazy for; blond hair and blue eyes. But when they want tall, dark, and handsome, they run to me. Sometimes they want both, and we make it happen for them.
I didn’t even know why some guys avoid threesomes with another dude, instead wanting only one man in the trio. I found sharing the impossible task of satisfying a single woman much better than having to please two. Besides, it was way hot watching a girl with another guy.
“Tired so soon?” He joked with me.
“We’re getting old, man,” I laugh. “I don’t know, nothing serious. But maybe just a few days. Boss will probably have us back on the job in no time.”
“Can’t argue with that. Maybe just go out for drinks,” he suggested. Tate could be a downer sometimes. He was always the responsible one but sometimes it was just a real bore.