Summer Lights

Chapter 4

"You are my dearest friend, my deepest love. You are the very best of me."

- The Best of Me, in theaters today

Chapter 4

Present-2014

“Hello?”

“Ms. Wright, this is Sandy with New Dawn Realty. First off, let me start by apologizing for the late call but I wouldn’t have even considered picking up the phone if it wasn’t important.”

Shayla closed her eyes, silently praying that she wasn’t getting ready to tell her the deal fell through. That was the very last thing she needed right now. “It’s not that late,” she finally spoke. “And yeah, I kind of figured that you would only be calling if it was something important.”

The realtor took her cue and jumped right into the conversation. “So the thing is I got a call from our buyer a few minutes ago. He just so happens to be in the area and asked if it was alright to stop by the house and take some measurements in the living room. He was looking at buying a new entertainment center and wanted to make sure it would fit properly in the new house.”

Thank God! Shayla instantly felt a mountain of relief roll off her back. The buyer wasn’t going to back out of the sale. She was still going to get the proceeds from the house and her fresh start as she previously planned. As usual, she was too busy working herself up over nothing. Life was still good.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Shayla opened her eyes and then ran the words that Sandy just spoke through her head again. There was one word that stood out in particular. He? She hadn’t met the buyer yet. Hadn’t even thought of meeting the buyer actually. Up to this point Sandy handled all the negations and just told her where to sign. When finally she signed the contract she barely even noticed the name of the corporation listed as the buyer—something like SJW, Inc. She hadn’t thought of the buyer as being an individual at all. “Okay?” she asked, wondering where this conversation was leading.

“You are at the house this weekend packing up, right?”

“Yes,” she agreed, still perplexed. “I’m here.”

“Perfect!” Sandy announced. “He’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Whoa… wait a minute? Did you just say that he’s coming here?” She glanced down at her dusty yoga pants and the thrift shop tee that’s seen better days she was wearing. “As in right now?”

“Well, technically we’ve been talking for about five minutes so it would be more like ten minutes before he should get there. I remembered you told me you were coming down this weekend and didn’t think it would be a big deal. He’s only going to measure the dimensions in the living room. He should be in and out in no time at all. It’s okay, right?”

Shayla frowned at herself, knowing that she was looking pretty rough right about now. “I guess it’s going to have to be.”

“I’m sorry,” Sandy quickly apologized. “I probably should have called you first. I just didn’t think. Never mind. I can call him back and set a time later when I can meet with him so that it’s not an inconvenience for you.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head helplessly. The guy was already on his way. It would be stupid to tell him to come back another time. Besides, she didn’t want to give him any reason to back out of the sale. “Don’t call him back. I’m already here so it’s no big deal. The house is a mess but most of the living room is packed up. He’s already on his way and I’m already here so let him come on and get his measurments.”