4 No Buts

Casey Parker stared at the card in his hands. It had been days since his encounter with Vera Gilmore and he still hadn't gathered the courage to call her.

Logically, he knew that she could really help him out. He wanted this house out of his hands as quickly as possible and had already put it off too long. Having someone else help him would be both easier and have a bigger payoff in the end if what she had said about historical homes was true but he didn't like dealing with people.

He preferred doing things on his own so he didn't inconvenience anyone or embarrass himself. He had done both when he met Vera.

She insisted he hadn't been a bother though and seemed to mean it. She had been incredibly nice about the whole thing considering he took up her valuable time and dripped all over her floor.

Casey couldn't remember the last time he met such a kind person. She hadn't made fun of his stutter either.

He was such an idiot. Why couldn't he speak properly? He stumbled over his words constantly and frequently switched the first two parts of words that went next to each other. It made talking to anyone a trial.

"Are you going to call her or not?" an annoyed voice sounded from his left. A very familiar annoyed voice.

"I d-don't want to bother her," Casey mumbled.

Kane strode over with his hands in his pockets and snorted. "Casey. It's literally her job. You aren't bothering her. She asked you to call her, didn't she?"

"Yes, but—"

"No buts. If getting rid of the house will make you feel better, do it. I know how much you hate the place. Calling her will get it done faster and make more money so you can buy a better house that doesn't remind you of Candy."

Casey shuddered. "P-p-please don't talk about her."

Kane made a scoffing noise and kicked at the ground before leaning against the table in a cool-yet-casual way Casey could never pull off even though they shared a face. "Wimp. Make the phone call. Unless you'd rather I make it for you—"

"No! I…I'll do it."

Casey didn't want Kane involved in this. Things never went well when he got involved. He was the one that met with Vera; he should be the one to call her. Even if he really, really hated making phone calls and Kane knew it.

He forced himself to make the call and felt his heartrate spike as the dial tone sounded. He half hoped she wouldn't pick up so he could put this off until later but of course he had no such luck.

"You've reached Old and Bold: Antique Repair and Sales! This is Vera, how may I help you?"

Casey's heart stopped and in his panic he nearly dropped his phone. He could see Kane rolling his eyes and mouthing "wimp" at him and that snapped him out of it.

"H-hi, Vera. This is C-casey Parker. We met a few days ago?"

"Casey!" Vera said happily. "I was hoping to hear from you. Is this about the consultation on your house?"

"…yeah. When are you available?"

"Wow, you managed to go a whole sentence without stuttering. Bravo!" Kane mocked from the other side of the room.

"Get out of here!" Casey mouthed and he shrugged before doing as he was asked.

"As I said before, I'm usually available outside of store hours any day but Sunday. When are you free? It might be easier to work around your schedule since I'm pretty flexible," Vera suggested.

"Right. I have weekends off so can you do Saturday morning?"

Kane's sarcasm had annoyed him enough that he managed to get yet another sentence out without stuttering. He truly was pathetic.

"Absolutely! If you tell me the address I can meet you there at 8:30. Is that too early for you?"

"No."

Casey told her the address and she didn't seem surprised it was in Woodinville. There were some rural areas out there and the house in question was a farmhouse, though he didn't think he had mentioned that specifically. Maybe that house she mentioned working on before was in Woodinville too.

"Alright! I'll see you then," Vera said cheerfully. "Have a nice rest of your day, Casey!"

"You too."

He sighed and slumped against the back of the chair, utterly spent. Why did phone calls have to take so much out of him? It didn't matter what they were for. This happened any time he had to call anywhere.

At least he wasn't due for a doctor or dentist appointment for months. He could probably avoid making any phone calls until then barring any unforeseen emergencies like the tow truck.

That had been frustrating. His stupid car had overheated and needing the cooling system overhauled. There went $1300 in one fell swoop.

Casey was more of a saver than a spender so it wasn't like he didn't have that lying around for emergencies just like this but it was the principal of the thing. Who wanted to spend that much on car repairs?

He hated going to work so he didn't want to spend his hard-earned money on annoyances like that. It was a miracle he even managed to get a job considering how terrible he was with interviews. He had gotten very lucky to become an editor at a publishing company.

Since he worked with technical writers rather than creative ones he didn't have to advise them on their work. All he had to do was fix the errors on his own and turn things in.

Even so, Casey still had to report in to his supervisor now and then and nearly had a heart attack every time. He was praised for his efficiency but that didn't make him feel any better because his writing skills were far better than his speaking ones.

Half the time what came out of his mouth was indecipherable mush. At least he didn't have that problem in writing. He far preferred emailing when he could instead of calling.

Emails were safer. He could edit what he was going to say beforehand so he didn't sound stupid, which wasn't possible when speaking in real time.