Read Online Can't Stand the Heat by Shelly Ellis - Free Book Online Page B

time and more money—and believe it or not, Bill, I’m not made out of Benjamins. This is really irritating me.”
    Bill lowered his eyes again and grimaced. “Sorry, Mr. Weaver. It’s all just part of—”
    â€œOh, come on, Cris! Lay off the man!” Cris’s friend Jamal suddenly shouted over the noise as he walked into the living room.
    Cris turned to find Jamal, a friend he had known since college, striding toward them in a pin-striped suit with a wide grin on his dark-skinned face. “Stop busting the man’s chops! Besides, what do you need a kitchen for? It ain’t like you can cook anyway!”
    Bill laughed at Jamal’s joke, but he stopped when Cris turned back around and glared at him. The chuckle froze in his throat.
    â€œStop yapping and let the man do his job!” Jamal stood next to Cris. He clapped Bill on the shoulder. “Really, man, Cris is a good guy, but he’s always like this. I think it comes from having a dad who was in the army. He’s wound up tighter than a Swiss watch until you get a couple of drinks in ’im. Don’t worry about it. Just do your thing.”
    Jamal then thumped Cris on the back. “Come on. Show me around the place. I bet a lot of stuff has changed since the last time I was here.”
    Jamal steered his friend toward the doorway leading out of the living room and into a long corridor. Though Cris wasn’t finished with Bill, he let the conversation end. As the two men retreated, Bill wiped his sweaty brow. The contractor raised his pants again, turned around, and headed off to one of the downstairs bathrooms to supervise the tile installation.
    â€œJay,” Cris said as they passed a group of lighting guys who were installing recessed cans, “why the hell did you tell him I’m uptight?”
    â€œBecause you are! You have been as long as I’ve known you.”
    Of course Jamal would say that. Even in college, he had always argued that Cris needed to lighten up, to break the chains of his strict upbringing and chill out sometimes. Cris always had been the studious one, going directly from football practice to the campus library to work on an essay for American Lit or crunch for a biology test. Meanwhile, Jamal would be partying at some hangout on campus or hitting on a girl at the student union cafeteria, completely oblivious to whatever test or paper was due the next day. But the polar opposites were assigned as roommates their freshmen year and, despite their differences, they quickly formed a bond and had been friends ever since.
    â€œI’m not uptight,” Cris muttered. “I’m just tired of being stuck in renovation that never seems to end. They told me they could do this place in two months . . . three months tops ! This thing is already into its fourth month. I’ve been renting that place in DC so I wouldn’t have to breathe sawdust while I slept and hear hammers banging all day! Half my stuff is crammed back at the town house. Hell, if I would have known it would take this long, I would have just ripped the whole house down and started from scratch!”
    â€œThe house had good bones. That’s why you bought it. There was no reason to tear it down, and even if you did, that would have taken another year to build a new one.”
    â€œBut that doesn’t change the fact that—”
    Jamal held up a hand and waved it gently like a symphony director, silencing his friend. “Just chiiiiiiiiiill , Cris. Do some meditation exercises or somethin’. They’re just building it the way you want it. What’s the rush? I mean, what else do you have to do? You’re a retired man with plenty of time on his hands. Right? Right?”
    â€œYeah . . . but this just isn’t how I envisioned spending my retirement,” he mumbled sullenly as they walked farther down the corridor.
    â€œI see you have your shrine up already,” Jamal said,