“I have one guy down here finishing the tile backsplash, the others are moving upstairs to start the bathrooms. Pick out the finishes on those too. I sent over the measurements to Tabatha already. I’m hoping we can get everything done to get them approved at the same time they come in on Wednesday, it might work to our benefit.”
After confirming the design of the backsplash with the different tiles, I leave. In my car I check my messages, hoping there isn’t anything I need to get done at work. My email box is bare.
It takes forever to pick out the tile for the master bathroom. Since he was so picky about the steam shower, the multiple jets in the shower that is half the size of the entire bathroom, and the jetted extra-long tub, I send Enzo pictures. He responds he doesn’t care. Annoyed, I send hi
m one of pink quartz. Two seconds later he sends back he wants the second one I sent him.
It’s almost eleven before I’m done. Tabatha promises she’ll have the cost of everything waiting for me in my email by the time I get to work.
Once I’m at work it only takes twenty minutes to put everything into a spreadsheet and send it to Enzo. I shoot him another email asking him which pool size he wants to go with.
His response doesn’t really surprise me: the biggest one. I sigh. Then respond I don’t think it’s the right one for the size of the backyard.
He comes back asking why there wasn’t any quote for an enclosure of the pool. Heated or not, without an enclosure it isn’t year-round.
I call Garret to ask him.
“We don’t do enclosures. I’m emailing you a link for a company we work with who does.”
It only takes ten minutes on the site to pick out two enclosures I like and send them to Enzo. In the email I remind him again, going with the midsize pool will allow for the room of the enclosure without making the backyard feel overcrowded.
His response is an email he cc’d me on to Garrett, going with the thirty-eight-foot square pool.
The rest of the day I complete two reports for Dante and spend time going over a listing with an agent who is getting depressed at no interest after six weeks.
I’m almost done for the day when my phone goes off with a text.
You were supposed to send pictures with your report. You didn’t. Per our discussion before, you get three times before you’re out. This is one.
Closing my eyes, I exhale until there is no air left in my body. Allowing my head to fall into my hand, I take a deep breath, then another until the desire to find Enzo and kick him repeatedly in the balls until my foot hurts has left me. It doesn’t matter he’s right, it doesn’t matter he warned me. What does matter is he’s an asshole of epic proportions, and I’m questioning my sanity for still wanting him. After this morning’s texting I thought we had found, I don’t know, some semblance of peace between us. It hurts to find out I was wrong.
15
Chloe
I roll over, completely exhausted after all of four hours of sleep, intent on destroying my ringing phone only goddamnit, it’s Enzo’s ringtone and it won’t stop him.
“What, for fucksake?”
“Get your ass over to the house now.” Then he hangs up on me. Fucker.
As much as I want to, I don’t bother trying to call him back and find out what’s wrong. Instead I’m out the door in less than twenty minutes.
My heart sinks as I read the letters on the side of the van in front of the house: mold removal. Ah....FUCK.
I’m not two feet into the house before Enzo bellows my name. For a heartbeat I consider just walking away. But that’s for pussies, and smart people, and I’m neither.
He’s coming up the stairs. “How the fuck could you have missed the black fucking mold downstairs?”
“Well, considering the construction crew didn’t even catch it until more than a week into tearing up floors and walls, pretty damn easily. Where is it?”
It’s obvious he doesn’t like my answer. “In the downstairs bathroom. It wasn’t properly sealed. It’s in the bathroom and the bedroom next door, as far as they can tell. A week, it will take a fucking week to pull it all down and dispose of it properly. Meanwhile I’m going to have to keep paying the crew so I don’t lose them to another project.”
Ray visibly relaxes behind Enzo. I roll my eyes. “There are issues with every project. A week isn’t that bad.”
“That’s what you think. I accepted a cash offer on my place exactly twenty minutes before I got the call from Ray. They wanted immediate occupancy, I need to be out tomorrow.”
Enzo is still walking and talking all the way up to within a few feet of me, aggression in every line of his body. I should be reassured by the large number of men around us—he wouldn’t do anything with them all watching, and they are all watching. “Thanks to your poor recommendation, I’ll be paying for a hotel and a crew that isn’t working.”