Three Jobs and One Call
914 Words
It was a bright and beautiful morning.
The early sunlight stretched across the quiet streets as the city slowly began to wake up.
Luca was already awake.
He had been up for a while, getting ready for the long day ahead of him. Like every other day, he had places to be and work waiting for him.
His first job was at a building site.
From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Luca worked there carrying materials, helping with construction tasks, and doing whatever the site manager assigned to him. It was exhausting work, the kind that left your muscles aching before the day was even halfway done.
But Luca never complained.
As soon as that shift ended, he would rush over to his afternoon job at a convenience store, where he worked until 6 p.m. And after that, he headed straight to the Sunshine Bar for his final shift of the day.
Three jobs.
And yet, even with all that work, it still wasn’t enough to give him the life he truly desired—or to properly support his love for art.
Still, he kept pushing.
Luca was at the building site, wiping sweat from his forehead after carrying a stack of bricks, when his phone suddenly rang.
He glanced at the screen.
It was his mother.
He hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Hello, my love, how are you?” she said in a calm tone.
“I am doing alright, ma,” Luca replied. “What about yourself?”
“Oh, I am good as always. It’s been quite a while since we spoke.”
Luca let out a quiet breath.
“I call you, but you always seem to be too busy with my stepfather or his children to talk to me,” he replied, his voice carrying a hint of hurt and frustration.
There was a brief silence on the line.
“I didn’t call to pass blames around,” his mother said gently. “I just wanted to let you know your stepfather wants to see you.”
Luca frowned slightly.
“So I was hoping if you could come for dinner on Sunday,” she continued anxiously. “It would be nice to have the whole family together.”
Luca leaned against a pile of wooden boards, confused.
“Why are you sounding that way, ma?” he asked. “What’s the dinner about? Why does he want to see me?”
His mother didn’t answer the questions.
Instead, she asked again.
“Can you please just show up to the dinner?”
Luca narrowed his eyes slightly.
“You’re not telling me the whole truth,” he said slowly. “So no… I might not show up to the dinner.”
Then suddenly, something clicked in his mind.
His expression hardened.
“No… oh no. Don’t tell me it’s what I’m thinking.”
His voice grew sharper.
“Don’t tell me the reason he wants to see me—and the reason my own mother is inviting me out for dinner—is for that land my father left me before he died.”
Luca’s voice rose with anger.
“It’s not what you think, my love,” his mother quickly replied. “I have always wanted to invite you over, but you know how your step-siblings are when you’re around. It’s just not an environment for you and them.”
Luca shook his head, disbelief filling his face.
“Mom… do you even hear yourself?”
He tightened his grip on the phone.
“Whatever he wants with me—or the land my father gave me—tell him he’ll never get it.”
His frustration was clear now.
“I can’t believe he’s trying to use you to get to me on that, and you’re actually considering it.”
“Well… he said you’ll be well compensated once he sells it,” his mother interrupted.
Before Luca could respond, the loud voice of the site manager echoed across the construction area.
“Get to work, boy! Or your pay gets docked!”
Luca sighed.
“Mom, I’ll never sell it,” he said firmly. “It’s the only goddamn thing I have to my name.”
His voice softened slightly, but his decision remained clear.
“So no, I won’t.”
He paused briefly.
“Goodbye. I’ve got to work now.”
“Well… would you still be making it to dinner—”
But Luca had already hung up.
He slipped the phone back into his pocket and returned to work.
Yet even as he lifted bricks and moved through the heat of the morning, his mind was no longer at the site.
It was back there.
Back with the mention of that land.
The only thing his father had left him.
The only thing in his life that truly felt like it belonged to him.
And now they wanted it too.
Luca swallowed hard and kept working.
Because when life gave him no room to breathe—
He worked.
And when life became too painful to think about—
He worked harder.
But somewhere deep inside him, something was already shifting.
Something restless.
Something heavy.
And he had no idea that while he was standing under the harsh morning sun, trying to survive another ordinary day—
A woman from a world completely different from his own was waking up beside a hospital bed…
And unknowingly moving closer to him again.
- Writer
