Love Invested

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Stacey closed the front door of her apartment softly. She crept into the living room. The TV was on, showing the weather report. Apparently, Stacey wasn’t going to be able to escape from bad weather news today. The rain was rolling in. She was glad that she had beaten it in time.

“That you, Stacey?” came a voice from one of the other rooms.

Stacey headed down the cramped hallway and stopped in front of one of the doors. She pushed it open a little and peered inside. Her grandmother, Tina, was sitting up in her bed with a magazine in her lap. Her lamp was on next to her, giving her just enough light to read by. Her eyes looked a little glassy, and her fingers were curled around one of the magazine pages. Her mind had been slowly deteriorating for a couple of years now. Stacey wondered how long Tina had been staring at the same page.

“Hey, I figured you’d be asleep.”

“Couldn’t sleep. Joints ache. It’s going to rain, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Stacey came into the room and sat down at the edge of the bed. The room smelled like mothballs mixed with perfume. There was no point in telling her that she had left the TV on. Tina would have probably forgotten she was even out in the living room at one point.

“How was your day, doll?”

“It was okay. How are you feeling? Were you okay here by yourself?” Stacey asked.

Tina smiled and replied, “Just fine, dear. Although I wouldn’t mind some warm milk.”

“Let me get you some,” Stacey said as she got up.

She was almost at the door when Tina spoke, “Oh, someone came to the door today.”

“You answered?” she asked with a sigh. “You know you should be resting, not answering doors.”

“Well, he wouldn’t go away.”

“What did he say?”

Tina’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember. Stacey watched with a stab of pain in her chest. It was so hard watching her grandmother like this. It was even harder leaving her alone during the day while she worked. She could barely afford doctors and medicine, so there was no way she could pay for a nurse or an assisted-living facility.

“I don’t know, dear. What were we talking about?”

“You wanted warm milk.”

“Ah, yes. That would be lovely,” Tina replied and smiled at her.

Stacey returned the smile and went back to the living room. She turned off the TV and continued to the front door. There was a small table beside it where she had tossed her keys and hadn’t noticed the envelope. It had her name typed on it.

Stacey didn’t even have to open it to know what it was going to be. She picked it up and debated just throwing it out without reading it. But that could come back and bite her in the a*s.

As she warmed up the milk, she opened up the letter and scanned it quickly. It was the same old s**t. They were trying to vacate everyone from the building so they could knock it down. They probably wanted to build some high rise or something in its place.

This time, they were offering money. But it wasn’t enough. Sure, they could take the money and could go. But between Stacey’s debts, taking care of her grandmother, and then trying to find a place that was cheap enough for them to live, this money ultimately didn’t help. There was no other place in the city that Stacey could afford that wasn’t in a seedy neighborhood or by some noisy factory.

A headache she had been fending off all day came back with a vengeance. The panic that she tried to fight off at the same time also threatened to return. Where would they go? She didn’t want to live in the slums. She didn’t want to put her grandmother in danger. On top of that, if the restaurant did close, she would be out of a job.

“When it rains, it pours,” Stacey mumbled and shoved the letter back into the envelope.

She took the warm milk to Tina who was still on the same page of the magazine. She put it next to her on the night table and adjusted her pillows.

“Need anything else?”

“Oh, someone came to the door for you today,” Tina repeated.

“Did they?”

“Yes. They were from that business group. The construction group.”

Stacey pretended as if this was new information for her. “What did they want?”

“Just about the area. About improving it,” Tina said, settling in with her milk.

Stacey doubted they would have told her grandmother anything. It was common knowledge, even among the people working in the company that hovered around there, that her grandmother was forgetful and not well. At least they had the decency not to harasses her.

“Well, thanks for letting me know.”

Tina smiled and looked back down at her magazine. Stacey studied her for a few seconds and then slipped out of the room quietly. Sometimes, Tina forgot that anyone was there and would be startled by Stacey speaking. Best to leave her alone.

Back in the kitchen, she made herself a sandwich and sat down at the tiny dining room table. Then she remembered it might rain. Leaving the sandwich, she pulled buckets out of the closet and put them down where the roof sometimes leaked when it rained. With that finished, she was finally able to eat.

The rain started when she was halfway through her meal. It was a mean summer storm that rolled through hard. The lights flickered at one point, and Stacey wondered idly if they were going to lose power. She finished her sandwich, washed the plate, and sat down in the living room.

She could hear Tina snoring. Warm milk always helped her sleep, and once that woman was dozing, there wasn’t much that could wake her. Stacey listened to the rain pounding against the roof. There was a soft dripping noise from the kitchen which meant the roof was leaking a little.

Not for the first time, Stacey tried to talk her way through the scenario of accepting the money and vacating the apartment complex. Surely, there had to be some place to move that was decent and affordable.

If the restaurant closed down, maybe she could work part-time at another restaurant at night and find a better job during the day. She had very little experience outside of waiting tables. But it wouldn’t hurt to try to find an office job. Someplace that would give her work from nine to five so she could get extra hours during the evenings.

Right before Stacey fell asleep on the couch, she remembered she forgot to call her sister back. But she was too tired. Her sister would have to wait until the morning.