someone we don't like!

He pulled his sweat stained cowboy hat down tight against his head. He didn’t care that he was balding and going gray. There were a hell ‘uv a lot of uglier people out there than he was. Cheaters, liars, the city crawled with them. Like maggots on road kill. Up on the roofs he needed protection from the sun. He hardly noticed that he looked ten years older without the hat. The point was the sun.

Moronic lady, this one. He pulled up and parked the pickup along the curb in front of her driveway. Waited too long to re-roof and now expected him to be God. Maybe if she was any good-looking. If she actually had tits instead of the dried up sacs that were the only explanation for the way her blouse hung and wrinkled there.
He heard her voice even before he opened the door of the truck.
“Mr Mellerman?” She waddled out from her front door. Have another donut, lady. “Your boys cannot proceed until the warping is addressed. I tried to explain that to the woman in your office-,”
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. He wasn’t in the mood this morning. Nan was the sweet talker, he hated this part of the job. He wasn’t any good at it either.
“Yes Mrs. Dodge. They know.” Jake made his words slide through his teeth. “See the wood in Jesse’s truck? We’re going to replace the warped boards today.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that Mr. Mellorman, because I thought they were just going to ignore the problem. They don’t speak English so I had no way of knowing. I ‘ve been worried sick all night…”

She was lonely, that was plain to see. A widow, her kids long grown. It would be tough.
“Well I speak Spanish, Mrs. Dodge, so you see, it’s all under control.” Jake gave the thumbs-up sign to Jesse on the roof.
Her nest-egg, this house. Clearly. For the most part, it was well tended.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Mrs. Doge was smiling now. “I always put a pot on in case my daughter drops by. She just started working in the city. She’s an accountant. Always liked numbers – strange for a girl. Unusual, her teachers used to say. I always told her that her gift would come in handy and it has.”

Jake was off coffee. Nan had worried him. The way his heart was flipping, for a few weeks, there. Doing somersaults. Nan pulled with her thumb and forefinger at his gut, the loose part he was starting to notice around the ole mid-section, and went on about the relation of belly fat to heart problems. Some bullshit. She said he wasn’t no spring chicken and he’d better quit the caffeine for a while and see if that helped. Nan was the boss, he had no trouble with that concept. She had come in to his business when they married and put it from red to black in six months time. The woman had foresight. She was no-nonsense, made him cut all his fluff. Sell the speedboat, the motorcycle, quit buying booze at Sam’s. She was a practical gal but she had a nice ass, that’s for sure. First thing he noticed. Nice knockers too. A handful each with some left over. Nothing to complain about.

“You tell me what I have to do to keep you from cheating on me and I’ll do it,” She was already giving orders on their second date. “I won’t have my husband running around on me. I’d rather you leave me. Is that clear?”

“Thanks Mrs. Dodge, but I’ll pass on the coffee. I’d best be checking on Jesse and your boards.” Jake tipped his hat.

Outside he pulled his ladder from the back of the truck, pushed it open and leaned it against the side of the house. One foot in front of the other, steady as we go. Workers comp just kept going up, no one could afford an accident. Roofers were plain out f----‘ed.
He had to admit, the cat suit was another of Nan’s good ideas. She worked it, that’s for sure. If the ladies at Sunday Mass could see her leaning against the banister like that in the entry-way when the kids were at school? Ha.
He had banged a few women in his day, true true. One of the perks of being a roofer. Mrs. Dodge was over the hill, Jesus, but he didn’t used to feel remiss about women twenty years older when he was twenty. Fake tans, blue eye shadow. He made them keep their high heels on. On the couch, in the bathtub. Before he started losing his hair, he was a lean and mean mother f---‘er.

On the roof Jesse was almost through, pulling the boards. The sun was coming up, it was fixing to be a nice day. Jake crouched down and looked at the roof frame. It had held up, despite the warping. Mrs. Dodge’s roof would be fine. Another job well done.
The radio crackled. It never stayed quiet for long. Nan liked to keep him in her sights.
“Jake, I’m home for an early lunch. Wanna meet me? I’ll make you grilled cheese.”
Nan stuck by him and he knew that wasn’t easy all the time. She liked him in a way no one ever had. He talked too much, told whoppers, he couldn’t always stop himself. Even now. They’d just come sliding out like when he was a kid, trying to get his Mama to get out of her room.
“Mam, the dog up and died. I put him in the oven and cooked him.”
His mother’s room was dark, all the shades kept drawn. It was like that till she left. No note. Then shades were up in her room. That’s how he knew she wasn’t coming back.
“Ruff ruff, Nan, what’s the music I wanna hear?” He may be going bald, but he was still hung like a horse.
“Meow” Nan said.
“That’s my girl.”
There’s no place like home, Jake thought to himself. Collect the old ladies’ check and get the hell outahere.