Chapter 2
This time, I didn’t argue with her the way I usually did. I didn’t lose my temper either.
When people like that treat taking advantage of others as a talent and mistake someone else’s good manners for weakness, reasoning with them is a waste of breath.
“You’re right,” I said with a polite smile, pushing up my gold-rimmed glasses. “Close neighbors are better than distant relatives.”
Mrs. Watson froze for a second, then broke into a triumphant grin, revealing a row of yellow teeth, like she had just won a war.
“Now that’s more like it. Young people should know how to behave. Oh, and your parking spot is nice and big. If my son comes back and can’t find parking, he can leave his car here overnight too. You don’t go out much at night anyway.”
She had gone from taking an inch to demanding a mile.
I nodded. “Sure. Be my guest.”
Completely satisfied, she strutted off. On her way out, she even took the unopened bottle of water I had left on my trunk.
The moment I got back in my car, the smile vanished from my face.
I opened the app connected to my charger. For convenience, I had always left it on plug-and-charge mode, so anyone who plugged it in could start charging right away. On the screen, I slid to system settings, tapped remote lock, then selected authorized accounts only.
After that, I called the dealership and booked guest charging service for the next two weeks.
Then I called the electrician who usually handled wiring work for me and asked him to stop by the next day.
Not to fix the charger.
To install something.
Finally, I booked a flight to Miami.
If they liked standing in that trap so much, I was happy to let them stay there as long as they wanted.
I had already dug the pit for them.
I hoped they’d enjoy jumping in.