“You can always order in pizza,” one of the guys said. “But good luck trying to get us to agree on what kinds.”
“Is that really a problem?” she asked. “Here I was figuring I could buy a couple of the most common varieties, like supreme pepperoni and say, you know, ham and pineapple or something.”
All the men were nodding. “You know what? That works,” Arnold said.
Mack looked down at her. And then he whispered, “How would you know what the most common varieties are?”
She beamed up at him. “Internet,” she said. “It gives us all kinds of good ideas. So, six?” But her voice was hesitant. “Are you guys eating one each?”
Arnold nodded, but Chester shook his head. Arnold immediately sacked him in the gut and said, “Of course you are.”
Chester rolled his eyes. “You are too funny,” he said. “If you eat too much pizza, I’ll tell your wife.” At that, the two of them wrangled about it.
She chuckled, looked up at Mack, and said, “What’s your best guess?”
“Get seven just to make sure,” he said.
She nodded and headed back inside. She’d never ordered pizza in her life. So she took her phone to her laptop, with a web page already up. One was supposed to order online, but that didn’t look like something she wanted to do. So she called them.
When she explained what she was looking for, the guy on the other end laughed and said, “Not a problem. We can get it to you in about thirty minutes.” She was delighted with that. He also said that she could pay cash when the pizza got there. When she got word of the bill, her eyes rounded.
“Sure,” she said in a strangled voice. “That sounds good.” She would also have to add a tip. With the total pizza bill, she grabbed her wallet and carefully counted out the money, including a tip. She didn’t want to disturb the guys as long as they were working, so she’d wait for the pizzas, when it was time to eat. Then they could be completely sidetracked with that. As she refilled her fridge with more beers, she decided to stay in her kitchen, out of the way.
Mack hopped inside, looking for another beer.
She said, “Pizza is on the way.”
“Good,” he said.
She stepped forward, closer, and said, “Do you think I can afford all these new changes?”
“Yep,” he said. “We’re getting there. We might still need to buy some things, but it shouldn’t be too bad.”
“I hope so,” she said. “You know how broke I am.”
“I know,” he said, “but think of this in another way. You’re adding a ton of value to your home. More than that, you’ll have so much joy having your deck and a patio. The patio was a really good idea.”
“How much would it be to get a truck in to pour that?” she asked.
He frowned. “If it’s all ready to go, and you have somebody who can actually work it, it’s still likely to be about $1,000 to $1,500.”
She sucked in her breath at that.
He nodded. “But remember…”
She interrupted him. “I know. I know,” she said. “We were planning on paying at least that anyway to begin with.”
“It’s hard to spend money,” he said sympathetically.
“It’s hard to spend money you don’t have,” she said. “The pizzas will be about $90.”
He nodded. “And don’t forget we might repeat this tomorrow.”
She nodded. “Right. Good thing I had that bowl of money from Nan.”
“Do you still have the cash?” he asked. “Just in case.”
“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t move it.”
“Good,” he said. And, with that, he hopped back out again. She stood here and watched from the kitchen as the men worked. She made some iced tea and, after pouring herself a glass, put it into the fridge. Hearing a sound, she walked to the front door. And, sure enough, a pizza guy walked toward her steps with a huge stack of pizzas. She opened the door as he reached the bottom of the steps, and she laughed at him. “Wow,” she said. “That’s a big stack.”
He grinned and said, “Well, it sounds like you’ve got a crew working in the backyard.”
“I do,” she said. She held out her hands to take the seven pizzas.
“Show me where the kitchen is, and I can take this directly in,” he said. “You don’t want to be carrying them. They’re hot.”
She opened the door wider and led the way to the kitchen table, and he dropped them there for her. “Here’s the money, with a tip for you for delivering it too. Thank you for that.”
As he accepted the money, he took one look at the crew and said, “Wow. I’m out of here. That’s all cops.”
She chuckled. “Yep, sure are.” As soon as he was gone, she shut the front door and headed to the kitchen. She picked up two different pizzas and carried them out to the back. “I don’t have an outside table big enough for all you guys,” she said. “So I’ll open these and offer whoever wants one.”
The first pizza was pepperoni, and everybody had one piece, and it was soon gone. She shook her head, opened the supreme, and said, “This one’s got everything.” And everybody had a piece of that too. But now they each had one they were eating and one they were holding, and she already had two empty pizza boxes. She grabbed the ham and pineapple and held it out. “So, now that you guys are all full, I can have this one, right?” she teased.
But Chester was already out of pizza.
“Are you empty-handed already?” she asked. He nodded and grabbed the largest piece in the box. She took this moment to grab a piece for herself, and it was hot and gooey and delicious. She moaned. “I can’t remember the last time I had a good pizza.”
“About six weeks ago,” Mack said, “when I delivered it.”
“I remember that.” He was
