Page 40 of Another Last Call
“I was hoping you’d let me into my apartment. I broke a guitar string and wanted to grab a spare.” I looked at his puffy eyes again. “But honestly, don’t worry about it. You should go get some sleep.”
He was shaking his head as I finished talking and motioned for me to come inside. “I have to get the last coat of paint done. So yeah, I can let you upstairs to get your guitar thing. Just wait for a sec while I get changed.”
Sighing, I stepped inside as Caleb jogged up the stairs.
“It works out great, actually,” he called down. “They’re doing the final inspection tomorrow afternoon. I was—”
“Wait, what?” I said, eyes wide. “They’re doing it already?”
“Uh-huh. I called in some favours to get it bumped up,” he said from somewhere above me. “I was going to call you in the morning, get you to come check it out. There’s still some aesthetic stuff to finish, but it’s almost done. Just ignore that the wall needs one more coat. Oh, and the high tops aren’t done. I was going to varnish them in the morning. Oh, and…”
He kept talking as I looked around. He’d started some of the renovations on his cabin, but not much, from the looks of it, at least not on that level. Maybe he was working more upstairs.
I still didn’t quite understand what was so terrible about this place. It was warm and cozy, maybe not the newest or most modern looking place, but it had the feel of lived-in memories. Through the windows, I could see the sun setting over the lake, and the warm glow filled the house with hazy, dreamy light.
When Caleb bounded back down the stairs, he looked slightly more refreshed. He’d splashed water on his face, and a few errant drops of water clung to the scruff on his cheeks.
“Come on,” he said with a grin. “I think you’ll like the new bar.”
Twenty-One
Maggie
Lessthantenminuteslater, I was waiting behind Caleb as he unlocked the front door. My stomach was doing flips and I wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or dread. He pushed the door open and stepped in, flicking on the lights just as I crossed the threshold.
The light spilled across the bar and I stopped in my tracks.
It wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t know what I expected. But it was exactly what I wanted.
Caleb had redone almost everything, but it was still The Sea Glass. The light fixtures were new but still cast the same warm glow. The flooring was new, dark hardwood instead of the old vinyl tile that used to be there. It gleamed under the soft lights. Along the walls and pillars, Caleb had added dark wood panels and painted the rest of the wall a lighter shade of the rich brown that used to coat them.
The bar front was redone, and new cabinets lined the wall behind it. Tiles lined the floor there, and a band of them ran around the front of the bar where the stools would eventually sit. The liquor shelves were empty, but he had added a feature wall of frosted stained glass that seemed to glow on its own. Sea glass, I realized.
As I stared around the room, it slowly dawned on me that I’d seen these materials already.
“Isn’t this the stuff you bought for your cabin?” I asked.
Caleb shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah. I hope you don’t mind. With the time constraints, I needed to use stuff that was available and that I could get more of right away. But I bought most of it direct from the supplier, not from… not from the place I got it from before.”
I didn’t respond, just took a step further into the room. In the corner where I used to play my guitar, there was a short platform.
“What’s that?”
“A stage.” Again, he looked uncomfortable. “The first night I came here, you were playing, but I couldn’t see you. This way… well, if you still want to play, I mean… everyone can see you.”
I didn’t respond. He cleared his throat.
“It’s easy to take out if you don’t want it. Or just leave it and not use it as a stage. I figured we could use it as seating for a bigger table, like if we get a group of ten or twelve or something.”
“You did all this in less than a week?”
“I had help,” he replied. “And it wasn’t too bad. Anything I could do before we shut down, I did. We had all the materials and stuff ready so we could get in and put it all together. Then they let me work up here while they were finishing up the electrical and stuff.”
“I can’t believe you did all this.”
Caleb cleared his throat again. “So, does it look okay?”
I finally turned and looked at him. He looked uncertain, almost terrified, as though I was about to lose it. I thought maybe he was expecting me to scream or gush or throw things, and even though I was just trying to process how I felt, I couldn’t blame him one bit for thinking that.
