Going Full Throttle

Chapter 43

"Chicky do you want to do the meds today?" Gwen called around the corner.

"Sure!" I shouted back as the click of her shoes on the hard tiles got farther away. Mr. Bishop jumped in his chair from the loud disruption then glared at me under his bushy grey eyebrows.

"I'm sorry," I whispered as I patted his boney knee. Mr. Bishop sat back in his wheelchair and mumbled under his breath. It steadily got louder and even though I could only understand some of it, he reminded me of an angry hornet; buzzing around and ready to sting.

"There is nothing wrong with my generation," I scoffed when I caught the tail end of his rant. Mr. Bishop waved away my retort with a, "Yeah yeah yeah" and clapped his hands on the armrests of his chair, signalling it was time for me to push him.

"Hey, have I told you what my husband is doing today?" I rarely played into Mr. Bishop's fantasy that Tyler was my husband. It was, however, a great tactic to distract him. Sure enough, his eyes lit up and a slow chuckle rattled from the back of his throat. He nodded at me to go on and from the small smile at the edge of his mouth, I knew he had already forgotten my indiscretion.

"Well, okay, so get this. That idiot has decided to buy my kid a dirt bike! Can you believe it? Finn is four and he's going to be operating a fricken machine." I pushed Mr. Bishop's wheelchair into the kitchen as he laughed wholeheartedly at my story.

"What's got him in such a good mood?" Gwen asked as she leaned against the kitchen counter.

I opened the book that listed each client's meds and flipped through until I found Mr. Bishop. "Tyler is buying Finn a dirt bike," I said as I scanned the page and popped pills out of the bottles as I read them.

"Holy shit, brand new? Do you know how expensive those are?" Gwen choked.

"No?" I said over my shoulder as I walked back to Mr. Bishop. "Bottom's up," I grinned to him as I passed him the paper cup of pills and a glass of water.

"I mean brand-new, I'd say at least $4000.00," Gwen said in a reverent hush.

"Shit," I mumbled. I flipped to the next page as Gwen took Mr. Bishop to the living room and brought back the next client. I popped his pills and drilled my nails against the counter. I didn't think a bike would be cheap but that was more than I made with two months of work.

"Yeah, dirt bikes aren't cheap," Gwen gushed. "Adult bikes average like $7000.00 maybe even more if it's a good brand."

"Jesus, Tyler and Scotty bought a brand-new bike each at the beginning of the summer. I really need a new job," I laughed.

"Don't you dare leave me you bitch," Gwen sassed with a pointed finger.

We finished up the meds as I considered whether I should have said no to Tyler. It was touching that he wanted to give Finn such an extravagant gift, but that was crazy. After all the clients were resting in the living room I put on a pot of coffee for our break.

"So, it must be serious if Tyler is dropping that much cash on Finn," Gwen said over the rim of her coffee mug.

"I mean," I dragged out the words as I thought over everything, "Finn and Tyler were really close before anything happened with us. But I don't really know. Everything between Tyler and I is... complex."

"What does that mean?" Gwen prodded.

I took a sip of my coffee to gather my thoughts. "It means, on one hand, from the second we both pulled our heads out of our asses and admitted we liked each other... things have been easy. Everything feels right with Tyler. He's good to me, but not in a boring way. He loves Finn and Finn is happier with him around."