Page 71 of Love in Mission City: The Shorts

Not in it for the Money is a 5k scorching short story about a boss, his employee, and the inheritance of a lifetime.

Dedication

Randall

Kaje

Contents

1.Chapter One

2.Chapter Two

3.Chapter Three

4.Chapter Four

5.Chapter Five

Chapter One

Julian

Augustlookedlikeshit.

He hadn’t looked great all week—who would after losing a beloved sister—but today he looked truly awful.And him being in my house spoke volumes.We didn’t havethatkind of relationship.He was my boss.I was his employee.Occasionally, he took us out for a round of drinks.But showing up out of the blue was definitely not him.

My stomach churned as I led him into my living room.Surreptitiously, I sniffed my pits.Showering after work was a necessity, but I always worried the smell of sweat might linger.

The day had been brutally hot.September in southern British Columbia wasn’t known for heat, but summer was lingering extra long this year.

Frankly, I wanted the sun to take a break.But that would mean the return of winter, which was equally shitty.

Get over it already.

“You want a drink?”I pointed to my beer.

He dropped onto my couch.

Weary.

That’s the word I’d choose.Like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

And maybe he did.Losing Nia had to hurt.She might’ve been a decade older than him, but at just forty-two, her death felt wrong in so many ways.An aneurysm.And she lived alone.Heck, the coroner said she’d been dead three days before August checked.

That guilt hung like an anvil around his neck.That he couldn’t have done anything didn’t matter—he felt like he’d let his sister down.

“I don’t…” He gazed up at me.His dark-brown eyes begged me to understand.To decide.

I scratched my beard.I couldn’t do it.He never drank when he took us out.Once, to me alone, he’d made a comment about an alcoholic mother and an absent father.Hell, Nia had practically raised him from the time he’d been a toddler—taking on the role of mother when she wasn’t even a teenager herself.

“Buddy, I don’t know how to help you.”My chest felt too tight.As it had all week as I watched him suffer.He’d come out to supervise us a few times—we didn’t need it, but it made him feel good to be doing something.“Hey, didn’t you see Everett today?”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

Well, couldn’t blame him.

Today’d been the reading of Nia’s will.

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