Far Beyond Repai - A.K.Evans

To all my hopeless romantics: don’t be afraid to write your own happy ending.

“Ryker?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’ll be with Matt again today.”

“Okay.”

After receiving my orders for the day, I made my way out of the office to meet Matt. It was mid-June, school had let out at the beginning of the month, and I was at work for the second week this summer. Since I was a week away from turning sixteen and still couldn’t drive, I had to tag along with one of the other employees. I didn’t necessarily mind because I was still getting the experience and hours, while two of us could tackle the job faster than just one.

I worked for a company that provided both landscaping and pool cleaning services. Given that I was part of a two-person team, we were typically given the larger jobs. That meant we’d likely have to do several properties that would require both services.

This job was my full-time summer job. I worked full days Monday through Friday and half days every other Saturday. On Fridays and Saturdays, I also worked part-time at the movie theater. Sundays were my day off, and I usually spent the mornings at home with my parents.

I hopped in the passenger seat, buckled up, and Matt took off.

“We’ve got one lawn to do in Rising Sun, and then the rest of our day is going to be spent in Norfolk,” he told me.

“Sweet,” I returned.

Rising Sun was the town I lived in. People from all walks of life lived here. Some folks were wealthy, and others were just making ends meet. My family was in the latter category. We weren’t starving, but we also weren’t the kind of people who needed to hire a pool cleaning service company because we didn’t have a pool. Both of my parents worked blue-collar jobs. My father was a plumber, my mother a seamstress. They made a decent living and had meager savings, but we wouldn’t be living in the mansions like so many of the people in Norfolk lived in.

Following the completion of our first lawn in Rising Sun, which took us only thirty minutes to accomplish, Matt and I had finally pulled up at the first house in a neighborhood that had four client homes we’d be working at today.

It was an hour before lunch when we finished the first mansion. Matt and I decided to move on to the second one, get the pool cleaned, and have lunch before we finished up with cutting the grass.

Most of our clients, particularly those that lived in a neighborhood like this, were set up with contracts. It was nice because we wouldn’t need to wait around and speak to the homeowners to get our work done. In fact, they weren’t typically home anyway.

So, that allowed us to get our work done quickly.

Which is precisely what happened at the second mansion. The pool, though large, was done just in time for us to break for lunch. Matt and I went back to the work truck to grab our lunches, and he said, “Hey, I’m going to give my girl a call. Hope you don’t mind.”

I shook my head. “Not at all,” I replied.

To give him some privacy, I lowered the truck bed’s tailgate and sat there to eat. While I ate, I looked around at all the homes. It was mind-boggling to think that people made so much money they could live in homes like this. I found myself wondering if they were simply working to pay their bills and afford these homes or if they just had that much money that a home like this was a drop in the bucket.

When I finished my lunch, I decided to unload the first mower. I knew I’d get started, and Matt would follow shortly afterward. He’d take his full thirty minutes for lunch because he spent that time on the phone with his girlfriend. It didn’t bother me. I just wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to sit around. I enjoyed working.

And I couldn’t necessarily blame Matt. If I had a girlfriend, I was certain I’d probably spend my entire lunch break talking to her, too.

Figuring we’d do what we’d done on the first mansion, I decided to tackle the lawn in the rear of the home while leaving the front for Matt.

About five minutes after I started, though, I realized I wasn’t alone.

A girl, who looked as though she was close to my age, was sunbathing. She was beautiful. More beautiful than any