Manage Me

The pool house wasn’t dirty at all. There was dust and it smelled musty, but there was no trash or puke or anything to keep me there for longer than an hour or so. In fact, I was nearly done. I was in the process of wiping down the windows, singing along with my iPod. Every so often I would remember Alex slipping me his number and smile. And then I would remember the look on Jack’s face when he saw me this morning and the smile would disappear. I don’t even know why I bothered coming to work today.

“Hey, Katie.” I jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice coming from the door way.

Instead of turning around to look at him, I continued wiping down the windows. Maybe if I pretended I couldn’t hear him he would leave. And then we could avoid this awkward conversation completely.

“I know you heard me, I saw you jump.” His voice was light and teasing which made absolutely no sense. I just kept wiping. “Hey, Katie.”

I jumped again. He had moved so that he was standing right behind me, his lips at my ear. I could literally feel him smile as his warm fingers tugged the headphones away. His scent filled my nostrils. I found it difficult not to turn around and pull his lips to mine. Then I felt his hands on my waist, and he gently spun my body around. My breathing hitched. We were standing so close I could feel his chest rise and fall with each breath. I looked up to meet his gaze. It was soft, a grin still gracing his lips.

“Hello, Mr. Barakat.” I said flatly.

His lips fell into a frown, hurt replacing the happiness. His hands were still on my waist though, and as much as I wanted to remove them, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“I thought we were past that.” This time I did move away. His hands fell back to his sides. “What’s wrong?”

“I just really need to get this work done. It’s my last day.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” He mumbled.

“What did you just say?” It came out snappier than I intended, but I didn’t know what was going on. Wasn’t he mad at me? Didn’t he just want me gone?

“Nothing.” He said with a sigh.

I watched his shoulders slump as he turned and walked back into the house. I shook my head to clear it. My thoughts buzzed around, jumping from thought to thought. Somehow, they all happened to revolve around a certain guitarist who happened to be inside of the house just a few yards away. Suddenly, my phone vibrated in my apron pocket. I let out a relieved breath. This was just the distraction I needed.



I smiled. Of course I had already added his number to my phone, so I didn’t need him to tell me that, but it was cute nonetheless. My fingers flew across the keyboard.



A silly smile stole across my face, as did a blush. I didn’t get flirted with often, except for the few times I’d been stuck with a pervy ass boss. But Alex was cute, and obviously things with Jack weren’t going to work out the way I wanted them too. I had absolutely no plans to see him after today, so what was the harm in flirting with Alex?



I bit my lip and grinned again. A small voice in the back of my head was screaming at me that this was a terrible idea, and the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach backed that theory up. But I didn’t care. I had been feeling unwanted and rejected by Jack, but Alex was the exact opposite. I knew he wanted me. Hell, everything about him screamed that he wanted me. So I agreed and got back to work.

I fought with myself the entire day. I knew I didn’t want Alex. I didn’t want him at all. I wanted Jack. But Jack didn’t want me. And Alex did. It was such a clusterfuck. By the time I had finished with the outside, I had even gone so far as to hunt down a lawnmower and take care of the ridiculously long grass in the front and back, I still had four hours left. I was mentally cursing myself for leaving early yesterday. Although, maybe if I finished with everything Jack would just let me leave. I didn’t think he’d want me sticking around longer than necessary.

I entered the house only to find that Jack wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I spent two hours cleaning every surface and wiping down each window in the downstairs area. I moved upstairs and found the door to Jack’s room closed. So, I did a quick cleaning of the guest room and then forced myself to knock on the bedroom door.

“Mr. Barakat?” I heard a shuffling but he didn’t say anything or open the door. “Jack?” More shuffling. “C’mon, Jack, open the door.”

I leaned my head on the wood. There was silence on the other side. That stung. I closed my eyes and sighed. Suddenly, the door disappeared and I stumbled forward. Warm arms grabbed me, my head falling onto Jack’s chest. I looked up at him. He still looked hurt, but I honestly could not understand why. I took a step back, but he kept his hands on my arms.

“I’m done.” He looked at me, confused. “With your house. It’s clean.” Realization dawned on his face, and his grip tightened slightly.

“Don’t go.” He sounded almost…desperate? No, that couldn’t be.

“There’s nothing left for me to do.” I shrugged his hands off. “Goodbye, Mr. Barakat.”
I took another step away from him and headed down the stairs. My stuff had already been piled by the door and I gathered it together before slipping out. Footsteps sounded behind me.

“Katie! Wait!” He called out. I didn’t stop walking until his hands were on my arms again. He was panting, his eyes burning with some unknown emotion. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Stay here. Don’t go.”

“My job is done.” I removed his hands once more. And then he said the words that stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Move in with me.”