Saving Brielle

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Allen

“Why are you still here?” I ask as I pause and lean against my best friend and business partner’s open doorway.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Grant replies with a grin. “What time is it, exactly?”

“Almost seven-thirty.”

“Explains why I’m hungry,” he quips. “I’m about to head out. What about you?”

“Another half-hour, tops,” I reply.

“Careful,” he says as he logs off his computer. “I’m beginning to think you ought to just move in here and save a rent payment.”

“Partly your fault, you know,” I shoot back with a grin. “This place has everything but a shower.”

“Hey, I like happy employees. Happy employees are loyal employees – and productive,” he reminds me.

“True. And we spend so much time here that it is just as well we have all the bells and whistles,” I agree. “Or most of them, anyway. See you tomorrow.”

I wander back down the hall to my office, Grant’s chuckle still lingering in my ears.

But I was not kidding, I acknowledge. We have made it a point to make this place an extremely attractive work environment, and it has paid off. We have one hell of a team here. Every single one of them is loyal and enthusiastic about the company’s success.

In fact, we have such a good team in place that I think it is time to tell Grant I am leaving.

I just hope he understands.

A half-hour later I am heading to the parking garage to return to the apartment I hate. For a while, I had no strong feelings one way or another; it had just been a place to crash for a few hours when I wasn’t at work.

But with new neighbors to my left that yell and scream at each other constantly, and a family to my right with a brand-new and colicky baby, sleep has been next to impossible lately.

Really need to just buckle down and buy a house somewhere, I admit as I start my truck. But since I am not sure I’m even going to stay in Austin, there’s no point in looking yet.

The drive home is uneventful, which is lucky, because Fight-Night Couple, as I have dubbed them, are already in full swing, which means unsolicited drama for anyone within earshot to endure. I can hear them the moment I pull into my designated parking space in front of my second-story apartment.

“Gonna be a long night,” I mumble to myself as I walk up the stairs to my front door.

I let myself in, throw my keys on the kitchen counter, and grab a paper plate to dump my drive-through burger and fries out onto before moving to the sofa and picking up the remote control.

One round through the channels convinces me that throwing myself into a TV show with my headphones on is not a viable option. I sigh and move to my computer table instead. I slide my earbuds into place, then smile as the opening notes from Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare album kick in to drown out Fight-Night Couple.

“That’s more like it,” I say, grinning, as I take a bite of my bacon cheeseburger, then open my email account and begin to type.

I work and hum along to the music for an hour, and when I stand and remove my earbuds, I am pleasantly surprised to realize that the noisy couple next door opted to call it a draw early.

“Things are looking up,” I observe wryly as I throw my paper plate away then head to the bedroom. A quick shower precedes my pulling on pajama bottoms and crawling into my king-sized bed.

I have just about drifted off to sleep when the Johnson’s newborn begins to wail, and I can’t stop myself from laughing softly at the irony even as I grab the spare pillow and put it over my head to help muffle the noise.

No matter what else happens, I have got to find another place to live.