The Repairman Part II

The Repairman

Part II

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“Why are you doing this to me?” Zoe asked hollowly as she stood there, telling herself that this wasn’t happening, but she knew better.

“I’m not paying someone a fortune to do something that I could do for free,” Trevor said as he finished pulling the refrigerator that was going to need a miracle to fix, away from the wall with a satisfied sigh that told her that this wasn’t going to end well.

“I really think that we should call someone,” Zoe said, wondering why he was doing this to her when they both knew that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

He was great with engines, an amazing carpenter, and she had to admit that he was great with plumbing, but appliances? He was the reason why she always made sure that she bought the extended warranty on all the appliances that they bought for their rental properties. She would have done the same for the refrigerator that was probably going to end up costing them a small fortune to replace, but she hadn’t been with Trevor with he picked it out.

“It’s a simple fix,” Trevor said, making her swallow hard when he repeated the four words that never ended well.

Before Zoe could beg him to reconsider doing this, Mikey was walking into the house with a satisfied sigh, a plate of what appeared to be homemade macaroni and cheese with ham, two large biscuits, and a large glass of chocolate milk in the other hand. “Don’t mind me,” she murmured as she walked over to the kitchen table, sat down so that she was facing them, and then, with another satisfied sigh and a murmured, “I really didn’t want to miss this,” gestured for Trevor to proceed.

“Sebastian’s at the library,” Trevor said, momentarily forgetting about the refrigerator as he plucked the fork out of Mikey’s hand and helped himself to a bite of macaroni and cheese, giving Zoe hope that he would be distracted long enough so that she could call a repairman only to hand the fork back to Mikey and returning to making her life a living hell.

“His loss,” Mikey said with a solemn nod as she dug into her food.

“Mikey, maybe you should-” Zoe started to say only to frown when Jonathan rushed into the room and dropped down in the chair next to Mikey with a relieved sigh and a murmured, “Thank god. I thought I’d missed this,” as he helped himself to a biscuit.

“I don’t think he’s started yet,” Mikey said as they both sat there, watching Trevor with hopeful looks only to end up gesturing for him to get on with it when her husband stood there, frowning in confusion.

“What are you doing?” Trevor asked, making Zoe shake her head because this was just sad.

“Nothing,” Mikey murmured, blinking innocently as Zoe was forced to pinch the bridge of her nose when she felt a migraine starting.

“They’re waiting to see how you how you manage to blow the fridge up,” she said, wondering why they had to go through this every time that someone mentioned calling a repairman.

“Like you did with my mom’s microwave,” Mikey said encouragingly.

“And with the vacuum,” Jonathan added.

“And the Aunt Haley’s dishwasher.”

“And Uncle Jared’s freezer.”

“And-”

“First of all,” Trevor said, cutting them off as Zoe dropped her hand away with a sigh, “the dishwasher didn’t blow up, it caught on fire. Secondly, they were all defective.”

Nodding in agreement, Mikey murmured, “Of course, they were,” as she grabbed a biscuit off her plate and once again gestured for him to get on with it.

“They were,” Trevor bit out only to narrow his eyes when Jonathan said, “And I’m sure that this one will be too.”

“Someone should probably grab the fire extinguisher,” Mikey murmured a minute later, worrying her bottom lip as she stood up and-

“Already grabbed it,” Zoe said hollowly as she gestured to the fire extinguisher by her feet.

“I can fix this,” Trevor bit out.

 “Of course, you can,” Mikey said, nodding as she sat down and after a slight hesitation, pulled her phone out of her pocket with a murmured, “Sebastian will never forgive me if I don’t record this.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jonathan said with a sad of his head as he helped himself to Mikey’s food while Trevor stood there, glaring at them.

“You know what? Call a repairman,” Trevor bit out, finally saying the words that she’d waited fifteen years to hear.

“What? No! Come on, don’t be that way!”

“We still believe in you!” Jonathan said as Zoe sighed in relief for the first time since this whole thing started.