When I finished, the blonde turned and gave the redhead a pensive look. "You know, I think shedidsay something about that."
The redhead made no reply. Instead, she turned back to me and demanded, "So, what are you saying? You stole our decorations?"
Was she serious?
I was no thief.Through gritted teeth, I said, "No. It was mistake, like I said."
She gave a little snort. "Nice story."
"It's no story," I told her. "It's the truth."
From the look on the redhead's face, she wasn't buying it. "And this 'mistake' of yours, I supposewehave to fix it?"
I gave her a look. "It wasn'tmymistake. It was the company's, which is why they're coming back tomorrow to doyourhouse."
She frowned. "That sounds like an awful lot of work."
Was it?
Not being the decorating type, I had no idea.
When I answered with only a shrug, the redhead said, "That'll take six hours."
Six?The number sounded high. Or maybeshewas high. On what, I had no idea, but it couldn’t be good, considering her level of aggression.
I asked, "How do you figure?"
"Well…" She paused as if thinking. "It took two hours for them to put everything up, which means it will takeanothertwo hours for them to take everything down. Andthen, they'll have to move everything over here, which is another—"
"Yeah. Six hours total, I get it."
Her chin lifted. "No, I don't think you do."
What Ididn'tget was her attitude. Okay, yeah. I was here late, and maybe I should've waited until tomorrow. But she was missing a big chunk of the equation.
I hitched a thumb toward my house and said, "Don't worry, I'm keeping those up."
"The decorations?" She glared like I'd just stolen some kid's Christmas candy. "So you'rekeepingthem?"
By now, I'd heard more than enough. "Yeah. And paying for the service."
This made her pause. "Really?" For someone who'd just gotten good news, she looked anything but happy.
"Yeah," I said again. "The company's bringing new ones for you tomorrow." I pointed to the Kitten Cove sign, still resting against the brickwork. "Except for that, because it's custom."
"Oh." She paused for another long moment before repeating, "Really?"
By now, my jaw felt tight enough to crack a walnut. "Really."
She shook her head. "But…why?"
"Why what?" I asked.
"Why would you pay for something that you didn't order?"
This should've been obvious. "Because I was gonna have the house decorated anyway, so I figured I might as well pay for what was already done and save everyone some time and money."
"Oh," she said yet again.
