Haunted House Flipper

Chapter 25

I pulled into the church parking lot and went inside. Right away I could hear a low constant hum coming from the sanctuary. I knew the sound by now and wondered when Claire wasn't vacuuming in there. I gently pushed through the doors and saw her shoving the thing around between a row of pews about halfway down the aisles.

She looked up and saw me, but then went right back to her work as if I wasn't there. I walked between the pews until I was right across from her. I knew she could see me, but she didn't look up.

"Hi Claire!" I yelled over the roar of the vacuum.

She ignored me.

"Listen, I've got some good news about the house. We can still work on it!" I yelled.

She kept vacuuming.

"Isn't that great?" I screamed in my most joyful scream.

I knew I was the one in the wrong here, but now she was being rude.

"Claire! What's it going to take for you to talk to me?" I bellowed.

She stopped pushing the vacuum around, took a deep over exaggerated sigh, and turned off the machine. Then she finally looked up at me.

"An apology," she said as if it was the most simple, easy thing to realize.

I did the dumbest thing possible and laughed. Back then I wasn't used to apologizing to anyone, except clients. Even then I always thought they were in the wrong, but I needed to make a sale so I sucked it up. Let's just say my childhood didn't teach me the valuable lesson of apologizing to people, which is why when I laughed at her response she went from mad too furious. She turned off the vacuum, and headed for the exit. I yelled after her, but I don't think it helped that there was still quite a bit of laughter in my voice. I started speed walking to catch up to her.

"Look Claire, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Where are you going? Come on, talk to me."

She just kept walking away, So I followed after her. She finally stopped in a back room with a soda machine. She stuck a couple quarters in and pressed the button for diet.

"Can we please talk? I'm really sorry," I said.

She raised a finger at me while bending down to retrieve her can of soda from the machine. She stood, cracked it open, and chugged what I guessed was half the contents. Then she burped a massively impressive burp and looked at me.

"Look man, that's great that you got the house back somehow, but I'm not going to work with someone who acts like a three-year-old and just storms off because he's upset. Did you even think once to come and talk to me?"

"I know. You're right. I have anger problems. I always have. It got me kicked out of a lot of houses. I'm sorry."

"Look I know you've got a lot riding on this, but can I get your word you won't act like that again while we work on this project? There's gonna be a lot of really frustrating things that go down; I can promise you that. It always happens. Even on projects that seem super easy."

"Thank you so much Claire. Yes, I promise I won't act like that again. I'm really sorry. I think we could make a great team. If we pull this off I know I can find another mansion and we can renovate it and make a lot of money,"

"And help people sell their once haunted property," Claire said.

"Yeah that too. What do you say I buy you dinner and we can talk things over? Come up with a game plan? Then tomorrow, if it works for you, we can start in on that yard and see what else we can get done?" I said.

She took another huge swig of soda, stopped to burp, and then finished the rest of it. she burped again.

"Excuse me. Vacuuming makes me thirsty," she said.

"Well? Does that sound okay?" I asked. I was desperate to get an agreement to keep working on the house together. It was like closing a deal with a buyer.

"That sounds reasonable. I like it," she said.

"Awesome. Thank you!"

She turned and started heading back for the entrance of the church. I followed after her, relieved that I still had a contractor to help me restore my first mansion.

"We might be able to get through the front yard at least," she said as we walked.

"No, it's cool. Why don't we have a nice meal and get some rest tonight. Then we can start on it early tomorrow morning first thing," I said.

"Alright. Well, thank you."

"It's my pleasure. I really wouldn't be able to do this without you. I hope you know that."

"Yeah, I know that. I'll make a great construction worker out of you before we're done though."

She laughed again. This time I laughed too, but I think it came out as a nervous laugh. And just like that Claire lightened the mood. I've never known anyone like her. Someone so easy to get along with, even after you're a total jerk to them. She has helped me learn many times how to apologize.

"Let me ask you something," I said.

"Go ahead."

"Does it really take that much vacuuming to keep that place clean? I mean you had to have finished it before."

She laughed a whole lot harder this time, and like before it spread over to me like an unstoppable avalanche of glee. She stopped laughing just long enough to say, "I vacuum when I'm upset."

Then she was back to deep gut laughs. We couldn't stop until after we got in my car and I started driving.