Waiting in his car outside of the nursing home, Jordan glanced to his left. Only a block away stood the towering building he’d had his interview at. The place was incredibly stuffy, and he wasn’t going to be much more than a glorified secretary for Snapdragon Energy. The company wasn’t much, just a smaller corporation that provided power to a section of Sweet Rose, but it was better than nothing. Being proactive gave him something to do other than wallow away in his emotions, and it didn’t hurt that he’d finally have another job.
“Hey, baby,” Sherleen said as she put her walker in the back of his car. She closed the back door and climbed into the passenger’s seat, reaching over to give his hand a squeeze. “You look good. How you been?”
He forced a smile and shrugged. “I’ve been.”
“It’ll be okay, Jordan.”
He desperately wanted to believe it, even to the point that he was willing to ignore the fact that people couldn’t just walk out of lives without leaving an impact. If possible, he would’ve deluded himself to help ease the pain. But that wasn’t the kind of person he was. He was realistic, and realistically, this would take time. How long, he wasn’t certain, but he knew for a fact that these things never ended as painlessly as people hoped.
“Let’s go,” he said, changing the subject and pulling away from the curb. Sherleen’s somber brown eyes examined him, but thankfully, she said nothing.
Saturdays seemed to be the busiest at McDaniel’s, which was fine by Jordan. The more time he spent out of the house and around other people, the better. He followed Sherleen up and down the aisles shopping for groceries, only slipping away to pick up a few things he needed for himself. He stepped up to the deli to find Tony behind the counter like usual.
“There the kid is,” he said with a toothy smile. “I was starting to wonder where you were at.”
“Last week got busy,” Jordan lied, trying his damnedest to keep his voice chipper. “Can I get the usual?”
“Honey-baked and cheddar, coming up.”
Jordan pushed his cart over to the lobster tank nearby, leaning forward to watch as the creatures all scuttled over one another. He found them to be quite creepy-looking, but in the kind of way he could never stop staring at. But like all things lately, watching the crustaceans immediately made him think of what Rex had ordered at the restaurant.
Internally groaning, he thanked Tony for his order and headed off to find his grandmother. Much to his disappointment, she stood in the book section, flipping through a paperback that had just arrived. He approached apprehensively, holding back the urge to roll his eyes at all the happy couples embracing on the covers.
“This one looks interesting,” Sherleen said, holding up a book with a Black couple. “I don’t know when they started putting us on the front of these, but I like it.”
“Wasn’t too long ago, unfortunately.”
“Well, I say you read this for your next meeting. He’s a cop, and she’s the sole witness to a murder that took place in the wealthy part of town. And apparently, he’s got all kinds of Southern charm.”
“Honestly, I don’t know if I’m even doing the club anymore.”
The smile on Sherleen’s face fell, and she put a hand on her hip. “What are you talking about?”
“Nobody cares anymore, Grandma. People keep leaving, and I really just don’t give a damn about these books anymore.”
The way she narrowed her eyes at him made Jordan shift on his feet and look away, far too uncomfortable to deal with her menacing glare. “Jordan, stop playing with me. This is all you talk about. You’re not going to give it all up just because some boy said he didn’t want to be part of it anymore.”
“It’s not just that,” he said with exasperation. Yes, it was a sizeable chunk, but that wasn’t the only reason. “I can’t keep wasting my time reading these things. First of all, it gets expensive having to buy five paperbacks every week.”
“You don’t have to buy that many, you want to.”
“Anyway,” he said, moving past her interjection. “I’ve been looking for jobs, too. I have a second interview with Snapdragon tomorrow, and I really think I could have that secured. I don’t have time to be wasting on stupid stories that all end the same. I’d rather spend my time doing something productive.”
Sherleen’s lips pulled into a flat line, and she put the book back on the shelf. “Hm.”
God. Jordan knew that “hm.” When she had nothing nice to say, Sherleen would often respond with a simple “hm” and get back to business. He wanted to insist that this was a good thing, but he doubted she would listen. Her mind was already made up.
Whether she liked it or not, Jordan knew he had to hang it up for now. It was time to be an adult and drop the hopeless romantic act, at least until he was once more employed and able to afford spending so much on books that pitched a fantasy to him that he was certain wouldn’t come true.
“If there’s anything else you need to know about the place, please don’t hesitate to call me, Jalisa,” Rex said, grabbing his pen and underlining a few important details he’d need to remember.
He’d been on the phone with Jalisa for the past half hour going over everything involving a potential buyer. The house was nearly finished, save for a few boxes up in the attic that he planned on tackling after the call. Soon, this house would be gone, and with it, all of the memories.
It was bittersweet in a way, really. Rex had never been the kind of person that found places or objects sentimental. In his mind, those things could be taken away or lost. He placed importance on experiences rather than tokens. He couldn’t lose an experience once he went through it, and he would always be able to come back to it in his mind.
That’s why it was surprising how down he felt about the idea of someone else living in Nana Bailey’s home. She’d owned it for forty years before she passed away. His father had been raised in the house, and when things between him and Alan got bad, he was also raised here. It felt like giving up a piece of their history.
Alan didn’t want the house, though. Rex didn’t need it. Not when he had plans to leave and travel the country again. Amy was just starting her life in a new apartment for the first time, and his mother had only recently finished payments on her own home. Nobody needed Nana Bailey’s home the same way they all had years ago.
That was the part that struck him the hardest. She was really gone, and they were moving on without her. It felt wrong in a way. She’d done her part in raising not one but two generations, and somehow, selling the home felt like giving up all her hard work. As tempting as it was to head down that road, Rex cleared his throat and finished up his conversation with his real estate agent.
“Sounds great. I’ll contact you tomorrow with some more information about the buyer, how does that work for you?” she asked.
“Perfect. And if you can’t reach me, you have my email as well.”
After the call, Rex leaned back in his seat and looked around the kitchen. The room was as empty as every other room in the house, minus the air mattress he slept on upstairs. After the nightmare of last Saturday, he’d gone into a state of hyperfocus, burying himself in work to get his mind off of Jordan. The sooner he got the hell out of dodge, the easier this would all be.