Josh’s mood had taken a considerable turn southward by the time he closed up the shop. He would have been all too happy to flip his sign and lock the door after the woman with the fried laptop, who had now officially taken the position of ‘Worst Customer Ever, had left, but he still had bills to pay. She had been way too young to be so angry, or at least that was his opinion. He likely wouldn’t have cared what her attitude was, good or bad, had she not forced it on him. Josh couldn’t stand the people who came into his shop and treated him like a slave, especially considering the fact that without him, their tech would remain broken. Five p.m. hit and not a second passed before he flipped the sign and turned out the lights, leaving the confining work space behind him. Once he was upstairs in his apartment, however, he found that the stress of his job had not been so easily left out of mind. There weren’t many things that he could do to unwind. When he was younger, all it would take was a beer (or ten), but now, he had to use other means. During the day, he dealt with his anxiousness through exercise or stuffing his face full of treats from Sherry’s Bakery, but at night, there wasn’t much to do other than fiddle with pet projects he dragged upstairs. Tonight, Josh couldn’t stand to look at another piece of technology, even if it was something simply for himself.
“You have got to be kidding me,” was his first response when the phone downstairs started ringing. He wouldn’t have been able to hear it had he not set the ringer at maximum volume to make sure that he never lost the cordless phone. It was well after hours and he couldn’t think of a single reason for someone dialing the line so late. By the tenth shrill ring, Josh was stomping down the stairs to get to the source of the noise. His intention, at first, had been to silence the phone; since he didn’t have an answering machine (which was due to a lack of forethought on his part), it would ring endlessly until the person on the other end finally gave up. It was only once he had the phone in his hand that Josh decided to answer so that he could know exactly who in the hell was calling so late. “Hello.” He said the word only because he had to, but that was all the pleasantry the person on the other end of the line was getting. His voice was completely devoid of humor, or any emotion outside of irritation.