AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll see what I can do. I’ve gotta run now, but thanks.” Freddy made a mental note to remove his mom from the top of his contact list. If he was going to make changes, one of them needed to be not calling his mom for help.
“Of course. I love you, Freddy. Tell Sabrina I love her too, and I’m glad she’s okay.”
“Love you, too,” Freddy said and disconnected the call.
He needed a new plan.
Freddy returned to the office to connect computers and set up the systems while he thought about how he could help Sabrina make her room her own again, even though she didn’t have any of her things anymore.
He wanted to turn the entire house into her personal sanctuary, so she’d never miss the things she lost. That wasn’t realistic, but browsing Amazon felt so far removed from what he wanted to offer, he struggled to reconcile them. Still, it was the best he could do for now and would allow him to pick out everything from soft throw pillows he knew she favored to posters and art prints he’d seen her admire.
Then he headed upstairs to work on the last of the updates to the tech manual that was due. Patrick had confirmed pushing the delivery to next week, but all that was left was proofreading. Freddy couldn’t write for shit, that was why they’d hired Sabrina, but he could read well enough to spot typos.
That was how Sabrina found him yanking on his hair and swearing at his screen sometime later in the evening.
“Freddy?”
He whipped around, surprised to see her at the top of the steps. “I didn’t hear you pull up.”
“Your Audi is quiet. Why do you think I startle every morning when you arrive?”
Huh. He hadn’t thought about it, but now that she mentioned it, that did explain the regular coffee splatter and occasional shriek of surprise.
“I’m trying to finish up proofing this,” he explained as she walked up behind him and peered over his shoulder. Unlike when Renner had done the same thing, with Sabrina it felt comfortable.
“Oh.”
Freddy wasn’t sure if it was possible for a human to verbally wince, but if it was, Sabrina had just done so. “I’m messing it up that bad, huh?” he asked.
“Um, I appreciate that you’re trying,” she said politely.
She was never polite. That was weird. Freddy spun his chair to look at her. “Why are you being nice?”
Her face shifted to the affectionate annoyance he was used to, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Excuse me? Are you saying I’m rude?” She stuck out her jaw in defiance. “Why are you smiling about this?”
He was, too. He didn’t mean to, but it was hard not to grin when she turned into her usual self. His best friend had survived a near death experience, lost everything, kissed him and rejected him, but she was still ‘Rina. She was still the best friend he’d ever had. “I’m grinning because you went back to being you. So now you can yell at me for being a horrible writer, lecture me on my bad grammar, and then fix it while I do whatever else needs done.”
“Is that your way of offering to unload the car, put away the food, and make us dinner?” she asked.
“If you’ll fix this shit, then yes. One hundred percent, yes.” He hesitated, but if Freddy wanted them to be their usual selves, he needed to do his part. “Well, so long as you got pizza rolls,” he added.
“I did not,” she said while pointing her nose up toward the ceiling in mock formality.
“Cheese sticks?” he asked. “Chicken tenders? Pizza?”
She looked back down at him and smiled. “Well of course I got all of that. The only pizza rolls they had were combination.” Sabrina made a face of disgust. “Those ones are gross.”
Freddy agreed. “Good call.”
He stood up and stretched. “Here, you take over this, and I’ll go deal with other stuff. I’ll holler up when dinner’s ready.”
“Okay. Oh, but I also got Caesar salad, so mix that up too, please.”
“Of course, your majesty.” He fake-bowed and started to back away with his eyes still on the ground.
“If you fall down the steps, I’m calling your mother instead of nine one one,” Sabrina teased.
It felt good to have her here. Freddy missed her while he was gone. The clack of her mechanical keyboard trickling down the steps made his house feel a little less like someone else’s place where he stayed, and a little more like home.
