2019-08-10 - Little Fixes

21 Elm Street is a part of a run down duplex that apparently has a dark past. A girl went crazy there, and her throat was slit. New drywall, some paint, and a lot of excuses later it became the residence of a stripper, a hacker and a tattoo artist.

The problem today is that the air conditioning only works when it wants to, like some kind of cold hoarding penguin that doesn't want to play nice with others. Zoiya asked around about someone who might be able to take a look at it and at a few other issues the house is having, because calling a contractor seems expensive and she has bills to pay.

Right now Zoiya sits on the couch in the duplex, wearing a baggy pair of sweats and an old tank top. Her hair is piled on her head and she has a light sheen of sweat coating her skin. She's fanning herself with a take out menu, looking like she could be pushed into murder any second. Every so often she picks a piece of ice from her glass of water, holding it against various parts of her that aren't covered with clothing.

Knock knock.

Declan stands outside wearing a crummy t-shirt and pants with a couple holes in them. He wears his work boots. His hair, as usual, is perfect. Maybe too perfect. He's not sweating yet, but it probably won't take too long for it to start. As he waits, Declan looks off into the distance. His hand rises casually to his mouth, and he huffs to check his breath. It must smell okay, because he doesn't reach for a mint.

Zoiya gets to her feet, padding barefoot to the door. She flings it open, gives Declan a once over and then sighs. "Please tell me you're the handy guy." She steps back so he can come in. "The unit is in the back yard, the old lady who owns the place has no clue what is going on. Other than to say.. Oh honey this happens all the time." She shakes her head, mystified. "How does she live here?"

She walks ahead of Declan snagging her phone from its place on the couch. "How much do you charge for stuff like this? Am I going to regret texting you?" She turns to grin in his direction, adding a wink to show she's mostly kidding. The back door is opened and she steps out into the early afternoon sun, taking a deep breath. "Gonna rain later."

Declan begins to talk a few times. Each time, he stops. Stepping forward, he closes the door behind himself and looks around the place. His attention eventually settles on Zoiya. He's close to remembering where he's seen her before, but that's all masked by a quiet expression that doesn't change very much. "I can give you an estimate today, Zoiya. I can also probably fix it today. Unless it's a replacement part that I need to order, or if the whole unit is busted. But I'll be upfront about that. As for cost - that depends. It's usually a sixty dollar minimum, plus parts and labor. I charge twenty an hour, parts are entirely out of my control. But if you were referred, I'll knock that down a bit."

Zoiya folds her arms over her chest, regarding Declan for a few beats before she nods at him. "Appreciate all of what you just said." She points out the system, an old boxy thing with some wires that don't look connected right. She brushes some errant curls behind her ears, and settles in to watch. She could probably leave him alone to do whatever he's going to do, but she's an soul that is slow to trust. There is an old swing set in the back yard from people who lived here at one time, so she carefully walks across the grass, settling on a swing. "If the whole unit is busted, it's gonna be expensive, isn't it?"

Declan looks at... that. His shoulders don't slump. He doesn't sigh. Instead, he baps a wire and leans a hand against the wall for a moment. "Depends. I've worked miracles to make one work for one more summer. But yeah. If the whole thing needs replaced?" he turns and looks at her. "It's about six grand for a cheap one. And I can't install it. You'll need a HVAC unit to do that." He turns back. "But we'll see what I can do. Let me pop the panel off and check the error codes." He pulls out a screwdriver and starts to do that, talking as he goes, "So. You rent?"

Zoiya pushes her feet off the ground letting the swing sway her back and forth. "Six grand huh. Fuck." She tilts her head, wind pulling at the curls, pulling them into her face. "Do your thing baby, let me know if I need to do anything." She gazes up at the sky, taking in the clouds with a sigh. "So how long you been doing handy things?" She glances down at her toes skimming the ground. "Do you like it?" She realizes that she's probably being obnoxious so she goes quiet.

Declan starts opening up the panel while Zoiya talks. "At least, yeah. But we'll see what we can do." Once the panel is open, he pulls a tablet from his bag and starts to research the code. It takes a bit. "Since I was sixteen. About fourteen years." He glances at her. "I like working with my hands, sure. What do you do?" he turns back to his tablet and begins to check results.

"I'm a stripper." Zoiya seems to be enjoying the breeze that swinging brings her, even if it's next to none. She leans to the left, watching Declan work on the panel. "Do you just handyman things?" She asks, eyebrows raised slightly. "I mean, from what you quoted me, sounds like a decent enough gig." She wiggles her toes in the dirt, wrinkling her nose as some dust settles on her pedicure.

"Let me know if you get thirsty, babe. I have bottled water in the house." She clearly wants to say something else, her lips are pressed together, and she looks like she's trying not to giggle.

Declan reads over whatever he sees. He flips at the screen, breathing evenly, and eventually checks the wires. Mentions of stripping don't earn much of a reaction. "I bet you know a friend of mine," he eventually says. A moment later, Declan bites his lip and turns to look at Zoiya. "I work a lot. Keeps me busy. But I also bartend in the evenings." There's a brief pause while he regards her. "You okay over there?" he asks with a bit of a grin.

"Got some dirt on my toesies." Zoiya holds a leg up, not that he could see from there. She aims a bright grin in his direction and continues to watch him work. "Who is your friend, because if she's a stripper too then I do know her. Only one place where you can get that shit in this town." She pushes her toes into the dirt again, swinging herself slowly. "Oh, you're a bartender? You know Dahlia, don't you?"

Declan nods a few times and crosses his arms. He continues to grin. "I do, yeah. Dahlia and I know one another. We're... friends." Something. His tone suggests some weight. Glancing down at her toes, Declan shrugs once. "Might want to plant some seed out here. That'll help with the dirt. I know a good brand." He looks back up at her, still grinning.

"You're telling me all these things I need to do, it's all work, and I'm about letting other people do the hard lifting. I work hard enough at work." Zoiya grins up at Declan and then makes a face. "Fuck me, I didn't even introduce myself." She gets to her feet, holding out a hand toward Declan. "I'm Mae. It's nice to meet you." She looks briefly embarrassed before she adds. "Unless you've seen me at work and then maybe we met because you were stuffing singles in my g-string, after a while it's like a sea of faces. No offense."

Declan holds out a hand and takes hers. It's given one shake. "Declan." He watches her quietly for a moment, but he's... still grinning. "I didn't put any money in your g-string. But I thought I remembered those tattoos." His hand slides down. "I was only there one night, to see Dahlia's first dance. As for the rest - I can plant the seed. It won't even take me twenty minutes. It's pretty cheap for a yard this size."

"Excellent Declan, thank you." Zoiya is grinning back at him, and she shrugs before she settles back down on the swing, pushing off again. "Missed opportunity then, maybe one for another time. You're going to come back, aren't you?" She glances around at the patchy yard, a slight frown on her face. "You make this place pretty, who's gonna keep it up? Mow it?

Declan chuckles a little. "I might, sure. Depends." His head tilts. "I suppose that'd be you, unless you hire a lawn guy." Declan watches her for a few moments. "Do you have a lawnmower?" His attention drifts back to those wires, but it returns immediately to Zoiya. "Anyway. I'm not sure if I'll be back. Dahlia keeps trying to drag me back over. I probably will. Something tells me you don't need me there for good tips, though."

"Lawn guy." Zoiya huffs out a sigh, rolling her eyes. "Costs just keep cropping up, don't they?" She glances around, as if she's looking for the lawnmower. She lets her tongue drag across her bottom lip as she is lost in thought. "I don't think I hid one around here anywhere." She grins up at Declan, eyebrows raised. "Oh you have to come back. Body shots, bitches and fun. You look like someone who likes fun." She takes his compliment with a tilt of her head, an impish smile forming on her lips. "More tips couldn't hurt babe."

Declan laughs for a moment. "You're trouble." He winks at her, then gestures back to the HVAC unit. "Let me look at these. Get cold air running. Then we'll talk about... wherever you were wanting to take this." Declan turns back to the wires, unplugs one, and starts to check his tablet again. "I think I can fix all this part. Whoever messed with this probably didn't know what they were doing. No offense. Anyway, they let you do body shots at Cabaret? I thought it was no touching." He continues to work.

"I can be trouble." Zoiya remarks, coming to a stop on the swing set so she can get to her feet. "Okay." She follows him toward the unit, he'll probably pay more attention if she stands next to the thing. She folds her arms back over her chest. "I'm sure whoever did it had no clue. I mean, I have no clue who the old lady was using for a .. handy person, but there is other shit in the house that's fucked up." She shifts her eyes to Declan. "We can decide how much touching we want, and .. I don't mind being touched when I'm in an okay mood."

Declan checks his tablet, glancing over things, then sets it aside. The power is gone from the one large wire, so he goes to work on the rest of that... shit. Some of it gets stripped with a pair of plyers. More gets pulled free, checked, and cleaned. It's slow work, and he talks as he goes. "I can check what's inside." He wipes his brow. "Tell me what an okay mood means, Mae," he says. He's definitely sweating, now. But not a lot.

"Mmm if you fix it, you'll be my new best friend." She puts on a sad face, pouting in his direction. Summer has been murder. Zoiya steps aside, watching him with her hazel eyes while he works. She's watching his hands and whatever he's doing with the wires mostly, but every so often it flits to his face . "Oh good, because one day someone is gonna turn on that light and it's going to explode or worse." She plants her hands on her hips, shrugging. "When I get there, you're more likely to catch me in a good mood. After three sets, five lap dances and four table shimmies, I'm tired. You know?"

"Yeah?" Declan asks, glancing at her. "You make best friends easy, then." He turns back, checks the tablet, and starts to rewire what needs to be fixed. That takes two minutes. "Probably just the wrong type of wiring. No big." He continues to listen, moving with purpose, eyes narrowed. "Sure. Yeah, it's work. Of course. You get tired. No one's in a good mood after work for two hours." Declan looks up at her. "I'm curious, though. Do your regulars come early? How do you manage that?"

"Well, no because neither of my roomies could fix it." Zoiya grins at him, leaning in to see the gibberish on the tablet. "If we have air when they get home, I'll kiss you. It's been so fucking hot." She shrugs, leaning her shoulder against the house. "My regulars don't always come early, but when you start to recognize someone, you're nicer to them. If they keep coming back to see you, you need to take care of that relationship."

"When I'm tired and I don't feel like doing private dances and stuff, I still talk to the guys, flirt a little. Make them come back again, where they'll hopefully ask when I'm not quite as tired." She looks out at the yard and sighs. "I try to keep myself going until at least an hour from last call. Sometimes I'm dragging, sometimes I'm just done, but I try really hard. Being nice and sweet is part of the job, gotta make the men think that you want them, so they want you back."

Declan stops working and listens. He eventually leans against the unit, arms tensing. The more she talks, the more Declan frowns. "I know what you mean." Studying her, his head tilts. "When you give all you can to a customer, and they think it's something real. And you put yourself into it, letting them think it is. But at the end of the day, it's just you giving a shit about your job. Wanting to be good at it. Yeah." Declan shrugs. "I get that, Mae."

"You're good at your job, you obviously give a shit, so.. I guess you get it." Zoiya flashes a smile at Declan, and now that he has her full attention she takes a step closer. "You do that at either of your jobs? Give and give and then get tired of it? Want to just get away and do something that has nothing to do with giving?" She shrugs, glancing toward the horizon. "I get that way, so I come home, dance for fun and drink tequila. Works out."

"I work through most of the day. I don't usually stop giving, no," Declan answers. He studies her quietly, thinking for a moment. "It's really all I do, if I'm being honest. Fix people's stuff," he grins and gestures, "make people drinks. Sometimes, there are breaks. Not many." The work is forgotten for a moment more. "Why don't you go inside. Pour some of that tequila. By the time the ice hits the glass, this will be done."

"You don't do anything for you?" Zoiya frowns and doesn't shift or move under his study, she's still and contemplative. "Gotta get yourself a fun hobby, babe." She reaches out, pats his cheek gently and turns after his suggestion. "Want a glass?" She asks, pausing at the back door, eyebrows raised. "I'll get you some money too, and try to remember all the shit in here that's fucked up." She rolls her eyes at that and walks inside.

"Not really." Declan watches her, not shying away from being touched. Studying, Declan adds, "Yeah, please. I'll be there in just a second. Cold air should be blowing soon." He turns back to the unit and fixes two more wires. After that, the cooling switch is greased. The unit is turned back on when the wire goes back in... and the fan starts to run. The AC switches on. It's not instant relief, but the air moving into the home is cold. He puts the panel back on.

Zoiya has two squat glasses sitting on the counter, two cubes of ice in each and a few fingers of tequila. She's holding a washcloth against the back of her neck, and it's probably a cool one. When Declan comes inside, she aims a look of relief at him. "You are a life saver, it feels so much better in here already. In a few hours, I won't know myself." She pulls the washcloth around to wipe down her collarbone. "Oh.. who thought air would be so necessary in this part of the country?"

"No problem," Declan replies, walking over. He looks at the glasses. "Show me those lights? Or whatever it was," he replies with a grin. "Pretty sure you'll feel normal. I made sure it'd switch to heat, too. It will, if you need it." Declan leans against the counter. "I wouldn't say that. It can get hot out here, just not very often. I'm kind of surprised this place has an HVAC unit, though."

Zoiya pushes the glass toward Declan, picking up her glass and moving toward the light in the basement stairwell. "It's this one. It blinks on and off, and when we turn it on it almost seems shorted. There is also something wrong with the garbage disposal, it doesn't .. crunch things?" She flashes a smile as she turns around to make eye contact with Declan again. "Well, it would need it for the heat, wouldn't it? I'm not familiar with any of this shit." She crooks a finger at him so he'll come look at the light.

Declan glances at the drink. He probably shouldn't, but he does anyway. It's all gone in one long guzzle. The glass goes down, and he follows her to the light. "Light's probably easy." He turns of it off and reaches up. It's unscrewed, and once it has been he checks the connections. Yep, easy. More wires are stripped, but slowly. Declan takes his time, doing it right. It won't take longer than ten minutes, though. "Garbage disposal can be more complicated. That'll take me awhile. Probably have to clean it, and that stinks." Focusing, he adds, "How well do you know Dahlia?"

Zoiya watches Declan move, watches him fix things. She can't do that, and she's grateful something is being done about it. "I've just met her when I got hired at the club." She shrugs a shoulder, filling the glass again so she can walk toward Declan as she sips. "I'm going to owe you, and I'll pay the money, but if you need anything else. You let me know."

Once the light is grounded, Declan screws the thing back in, moving quick, and checks the switch. It's fine. On, off. No more flickering. "That's it? You guys don't know one another well?" he wonders. It remains turned off. He moves for the kitchen and the sink. Kneeling, he checks... the disposal. That's always a gamble. "If I'm being honest, I can think of a lot of 'anything else,' Mae." The first thig he removes is the pipe. It smells like ass, but Declan doesn't flinch from it. Instead, he wipes his finger across the rim to check what's there... then it goes on his pants. He sighs.

"No, we don't know each other well. Just met. Is that.. a problem?" Zoiya tilts her head as she regards Declan, taking a sip from her glass. She walks toward the kitchen, and watches him work there. "What kind of anything else?" She queries, turning her head to give him a brief look before she rises on her tiptoes to gaze into the garbage disposal. "Fuck. That looks bad." She winces and turns, hoisting herself up on the counter next to him, crossing her legs slowly.

"Not at all, just surprised. Not sure why." Declan works the connecting pipe free and tosses it onto the floor. "More alcohol. More flirting. But not while my hands are covered in this." He swipes his hand through the disposal... and sighs again. "Well. It's clogged. It's not the end of the world. Probably a block deep in it." He leans forward and reaches into his bag for a rag. "Maybe I can get it out without taking the whole thing apart."

"Well I'm new to town, so I don't have many friends at all. Makes me sad sometimes, don't I look like I might be a nice friend?" There are butterflies on her left leg, wings spanning along her thigh almost down to her knee. Zoiya extends her leg and lets her toes tickle along Declan's knee, dragging upward as a grin forms on her face. "Flirting, alcohol, and yes.. not while your hands are covered in shit. You get it on me and I'll be a lil upset babe." She leans in to look down into the disposal again. "Bonus if you do."

Declan continues to work, despite the brushes against his knee. He pulls out a screwdriver and begins to work it around, searching. A few things just... yeah. Declan doesn't react very much. It happens. "It might be soap. Sometimes that happens." He moves out from under the sink, sighing, and reaches for a rag. The mess gets wiped up. "None of it is going to get on you." Grabbing the pipe, he lifts it up to look. "How long have you been in town?"

"Almost a month now." Zoiya looks amused as she watches him dig around in the garbage disposal. She leans over every so often to see how far he's getting, brushing her hair back from her face when some falls from her bun. "Well, it was like that when we moved in. This place looked like it had been through the ringer. I want to get it painted, try to fix it up a little bit. I have a tiny bit of free time to try to make it.. a home, I guess." She shifts her ass on the counter, crossing her legs instead of distracting him.

"Month, huh?" Declan asks. He cleans out what he can, shaking his head, then begins to reattach. It doesn't take too long. "Bet it was. This is a mess. But after, it should be fine. Unless the blade is busted." Declan sits up, sighing, and glances at her legs. That's no help, so he moves the rest of the way to his feet and wipes his hand clean. That done, he turns on the sink and flips the switch. Some crap gets freed up and makes a horrible gurgling noise that spits back up into the sink. He doesn't flinch and lets it do its thing. "A fresh coat of paint does a lot. Have anyone who can help you?"

"Just a month." Zoiya confirms, and she looks pleased about the garbage disposal, hoping that it's going to work. "Again, you're a life saver right now. I am all thumbs when it comes to shit like this. My talents obviously lie elsewhere." She makes a face when the machine makes a gurgling noise and flinches when it spits shit into the sink. Declan doesn't seem worried so she attempts to look less worried herself. "I have two roommates, but I honestly worry what might happen if I handed them paint brushes. We would probably get it all over ourselves and none on the wall."

Declan turns the sink and washes the jumk back down into the sink while the motor and blades do their thing. He encourages the junk to where it's supposed to go with his hand. "Don't sweat it." While it continues to run, he turns back to Zoiya. "I paint too. It's pretty cheap, really. And it won't take me that long. I have two people that'll give me a hand, too. Make it even faster."

"Really? How much is that, same as the air fixing thing?" Zoiya watches him play with the sink, and since nothing is exploding and there is no dark smoke, seems like it's working. She meets his gaze when he looks at her. "I have a little nesty egg put away for stuff like that, I will probably take you up on it. I don't want to live in a dump, you know?"

She slides off the counter, drifting closer. "Is it working?"

"Paint? You buy the paint yourself, whatever brand you want. I recommend Valspar or Sherwin Williams. One can's I think... maybe sixty? After that, it's twenty an hour. If I'm here for something else, it's even cheaper. As for your unit..." Declan shakes his head. "And this stuff. I think I can cut you a deal for eighty. I didn't put any parts in, just fixed up messy wires. No big deal." He wipes his hands off on his pants and looks at the sink. "It is, yeah. I'm going to put some cleaner down it, too. That'll help the pipes."

"Why are you so nice?" Zoiya says this suddenly, like it just occurred to her, but really she's been thinking it since he arrived. People are not nice without a good reason. "I mean, if you tell me what's going on in your head, I'm more liable to work with you. If you're being nice for something, just tell me. Or are you just this nice to everyone, and if THAT is the case, why? What do you get out of it?"

Declan smiles and shakes his head. "Kind of an abrupt shift in conversation," he replies. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to raise your heckles. You okay?" Declan flips the switch, but lets the water keep running, and turns back to hear her answer. "And there are lots of reasons I'm nice, Mae. A lot of reasons. How many do you want?"

"One." Zoiya doesn't respond to anything else, not even him asking if she's okay. She looks a little tense, arms folded tightly over her chest as she regards him with a steady stare. Those hazel eyes divert briefly to the sink when he flips the switch, and then go back to his face. "One reason should be plenty, but don't lie to me. I hate it when people lie to me."

"Hmmmm. One." Declan lifts his eyes to the ceiling while he thinks. "I'll pick the best one, then." He smiles at her. "I read people. I try to figure out what they want. What they need. And then I help them get it. Usually that's some booze and a shoulder. Some cheap advice. But over the last forty-five minutes, you seemed like you wanted to talk to a friendly, flirty guy who wasn't going to try and push anything. A new friend in a new city, so that's what I was." Declan flips the sink off. "Of course I don't know shit about you. That's just what I saw. As for why?" Declan grins. "Because it's the right thing to do."

Zoiya listens to his words, and for some reason her eyes fill with tears. She expects very little from people. She's judged for her job, her ink, her demeanor and it's rarely ever the good kind of judging. That he nails her so easily and so completely just drives her forward. She attempts to wrap him in a hug, and keep the tears from breaking free to streak down her cheeks. "You're too good for this world, Declan."

Declan reaches for her even before she comes over. "Come here." He wraps her in a hug and gently rubs her back. For a little while, Declan's quiet. "Whatever you have, whatever's eating you up, it's going to be okay. I've been through the ringer and I made it out. It's okay. You can do it." His clean hand gently brushes through her hair. "I'm not too good for this world, Mae. I'm just a guy." He doesn't pull away, but his attention does drift away from her a little. "And I'll prove it. Just because I thought all that stuff? Didn't keep me from noticing you're hot as hell."

Her laughter is sudden and she squeezes him as it makes her shake against him. "You're a sweetheart, Declan. Those words mean more than I can probably say." Zoiya glances up at him, a wry grin on her face. "I'd have slept with you had you asked, mostly because it's one of the only ways that I know how to show affection. Product of a really shitty upbringing." She shakes her head slightly and leans in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Probably better for you if we didn't, and.. I hope it's going to be okay, but.. I'm not holding my breath."

"I'm in a... thing. With someone," Declan replies. "I'm not sure what it is yet. But let me figure that out, and if we get to know one another a little better, and we're still interested - sure. I'll ask. But yeah, it didn't really seem like that's what you wanted." He gently shifts his hand through her hair one last time. "It will be, Mae. I'll give you my number. We'll talk, I'll help talk you through it, and we'll find you some friends." Declan smiles. "Friends help a lot."

"It wasn't, I just really need this house to be safe, and to work for me and my friends." Zoiya takes a step back after his hand works through her hair. She reaches up to rest her inked palm on Declan's face, looking at his eyes before she steps back to pick up her tequila. "Friends are always welcome, especially when I'm in a dicey situation like I am here. Strippers aren't usually anyone's idea of .. good people."

Declan doesn't shy away from her hand. "Stripping doesn't make you better or worse than anyone else, Mae. But I get it. Most people don't think that, but they're just ignorant. Wish it wasn't that way, but there you go." He follows her back over to the drinks. "I work evenings at two places. Two if By Sea, when a shift opens up, and the Pourhouse. Why don't you plan to come by sometime? I'll make you a drink and we'll talk. About your day, problems. Whatever you want. If my shift ends and we're still talking, I'll drive you home and we'll talk more. Deal?"

"Sounds like a plan." Zoiya picks up her tequila, taking a drink and setting it down on the counter. "How much do I owe you for what you did today? I'll talk over the paint options with the roomies, see what we like, and then I'll text you about those?" She moves to get her purse, the thing large and able to hold a change of clothes, which it probably does when she goes to work. She plonks it down on the counter and pulls out her wallet.

"Cool." Declan waits while she grabs her stuff. "Eighty. Sixty to get me here, twenty for an hour. And don't think you can run away from that drink. I really want you there." Declan smiles at her and nods when she mentions the paint. "Yeah, that's fine. Just don't let them talk you into the cheap stuff. It'll never survive the humidity here, and you'll end up repainting in four years." If she starts pulling clothes out, Declan looks away.

Zoiya counts out five twenties, putting them down in front of Declan. "Bonus for doing such great work." She doesn't pull clothes from her purse, no, just her wallet. There are clothes in there though, street clothes, her stripper gear stays at work. "I'll come for a drink. I like to drink, Declan. Helps keep the demons where they ought to be." She flashes a grin and rolls her eyes playfully. "I'll bully my roomies into something classy and not cheap, swear."

Declan takes the money and puts it in his wallet. He pulls our receipt paper and writes it down pretty quickly, then rips the page free and slides it over between them. "Cool. We'll beat those demons back." Declan reaches forward and gently rubs her arm. "Thanks for the extra. That means a lot. But a conversation and seeing you laugh once or twice means a lot more, okay? So in the future, let's focus on that." Declan stands up straight. "And I should get out of your hair."

Zoiya walks Declan toward the door, laughing softly. "I'll keep trying to keep my chin up." She shrugs a shoulder and pats him on his when she opens the door. "I'll be in touch, soon. I'll buy some paint or something, it'll be an adventure." She has a genuine smile on her face as she gazes at him. "Thanks, Declan."

"When life hands you lemons, don't make lemonade. Go back to the grocery store and buy peaches. Peaches taste a lot better." Declan smiles at her. "Cheap advice," he elaborates. "And you're welcome, Mae. We'll talk soon." He gives her arm one squeeze, double checks his bag, and turns to leave. He gives one last wave over his shoulder as he does.