A/N This story is a sequel to "At least the Road to Hell is paved, I'm not good with Stairways", I recommend reading that one first.

"Haley!" Abby yelled again. "You're going to be late for school."

There were still no noises coming out of her daughter's bedroom so with a sigh Abby dried her hands and made sure that the waffles were in the toaster and that the toaster was actually toasting before she left the kitchen. She needed a new one, this one only worked when it felt like it but that was pretty much at the bottom of her list. There were way more pressuring things she needed to take care of. Like getting Haley out of bed.

"Haley!" She cracked the door to her daughter's room open and sure enough, she was still in bed. Just a tuft of curly hair peeking out from under the covers.

"Haley," Abby said softer and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Hey, time to wake up." Through the blanket, she rubbed her back. "C'mon, get up. I made waffles." Which she should get back to, there was a slightly burned smell coming from the kitchen.

"Shit." She sprinted out of the room just in time to save the waffles. One was pretty dark on one side but Abby scraped that off with a knife and nobody would be the wiser. At least behind her, the bathroom door fell shut. Looked like sleepyhead had finally made it out of bed.

While her daughter was nibbling at her waffle, Abby was downing her second mug of coffee. She didn't say anything about the barely touched waffle and just made sure that Haley had her lunch with her. Hopefully, she would get hungry over the day.

"You have everything?" Abby asked to which Haley nodded. "Okay, off you go."

Once Haley was out of the door, Abby grabbed her keys and hurried to get going as well. She was late already and traffic was a pain at this time of the day.

She made it to the office ten minutes late which got her a pointed look from Karen. Who had been there on time, of course, sometimes Abby wondered if her co-worker was sleeping under her desk.

"Morning," Abby greeted her nevertheless and turned on her computer. First a few hours of paperwork and a few calls, then a viewing, lunch, two more viewings and then, if she got a contract, more paperwork . The day didn't look too bad.

"Did I tell you?" Karen broke the silence between them. Abby had just opened her emails but she forced a smile on her lips and looked up to listen to whatever Karen wanted to tell her. "Terry and I are going on a cruise this summer."

"That's nice." Abby turned her attention back to the screen in front of her. She couldn't remember the last time she had been on vacation. Did visiting her parents in Wyoming count? Her last trip had actually been with Marvin, she remembered. For his brother's wedding.

Abby had to pause for a moment. Bits like this still crept up on her. Somebody said something or did something or it was a goddamn smell that brought back the memories. She remembered the big things just fine, the ups and downs of her life with Marvin, but what threw her off every time were little bits like this. Like the three day trip to attend Rick's wedding. Marvin had been his best man.

Abby tried to clear her throat as discreetly as possible, eyes fixed on the screen in front of her without seeing anything.

While she had been lost in thoughts, Karen had kept talking. About how hard it had been to come to a decision. Terry wanted to visit Europe but Karen had been set on a cruise. They had agreed on Europe next year.

"We still have to figure out where we want to go." Karen didn't even notice that Abby wasn't really listening. "What do you think? Paris or Rome?"

"I don't know," Abby answered more clipped than intended. "Sounds both lovely, why don't you do both?" Because why not? Terry was earning good money, they didn't even need the meager income his wife got as an estate agent to go on a cruise this summer and travel through Europe next year, no problem. Abby bit her tongue and didn't tell her that she needed a new toaster and didn't have the money for one.

Abby almost fled the office when it was time to meet her first clients of the day at the apartment she hoped to sell them.

They were nice people, Abby had gotten along with them quite well and she thought that she had found just the right apartment for them.

However, they were nitpicking at everything. Still friendly and polite but the bathroom was too small, the kitchen too big, it was taking too much off the living room. It was ground level and with that a way too easy target for a break-in.

"I sleep with the window open," the wife told Abby in a low whisper as if she was admitting something scandalous here.

They didn't take the apartment.

But they assured Abby that she was doing a wonderful job and that she should keep looking. Abby promised to stay in touch and then went for an early lunch. She ate her sandwich in the office, updating the file of her clients with details like no ground floor and big bathroom. It would have been nice to know things like this beforehand but more often than not people didn't think of things like this until they were noticing them in the viewing. Most assumed that Abby just knew what they needed. Abby saved the file and went to get more coffee. It felt as if she was living off coffee these days but last night had been a short one. Again.

"Oh, Abby." Karen came around the corner with a fake smile on her lips and a file in her hand. Abby fought the urge to roll her eyes and in her head, she was already calculating where she could make some time. "I hate to ask but can you take over this viewing for me?"

"I have two viewings scheduled for the afternoon." Abby tried to get out of this one but she knew that she would take over Karen's appointment anyway. Otherwise, the other woman would be sulking for days and maybe even complain about her and Abby couldn't risk that. She needed this job.

"Don't worry, they say they are free all day. Just give them a call, you can do their viewing after you're done with yours," Karen said as if she was generous because she didn't demand that Abby rescheduled her own appointments. Abby forced a smile on her lips and took the file.

"Who is this?" She asked, already leaving through the file of the apartment she was supposed to show the clients.

"It's a couple," Karen told her. "Two men. They are gay."

"That's usually the case with two men." Abby tried to gloss over the comment and to focus on the file in her hand. "What do they do for a living?" The financial records were in here but it was easier to just ask.

"They are artists," Karen said as if it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. And in this point Abby had to agree with her, artists usually didn't come with a regular income. Which meant no reliable client. "But this checked out?" Abby skimmed over the financial record.

"I don't know." Karen leaned against the counter, looked like this would turn into a round of gossip. "I only met one of them, handsome young man, but when I googled his name, Abby dear, you have no idea what I found."

"What did you find?" Abby took the bait.

"He's a photographer." Karen made a dramatic pause. "A pornographic photographer. I never closed a window this quickly in my life." She shuddered. "I'm a good Christian woman, I don't have to see this ... this ... smut."

Abby bit her lip to keep herself from smiling but she did make a mental note to google the client herself. She was curious what counted as pornographic in Karen's mind. Most likely she had seen a nipple.

"And the other one? He a photographer too?"

"No." Karen snorted. "He makes comics."

Apparently, they had a lot of requests for their new home. It had to be big, at least four bedrooms, and no stairs.

"They're young folk," Karen dismissed the last one. "They're just lazy. Can't hold a job and most likely sleeping all day. I'm telling you, the youth today ..." and with that, she launched into another rant about how lazy the kids were today. Every time she went into that spiel Abby wondered if she also counted as one of the young folks, she was just over thirty after all, but she never dared to ask.

Abby gave her new client a call to set up a time for the viewing. She didn't know if she had the comic artist or the pornographic photographer on the line but whoever it was, he sounded pleased that they would get to see the apartment today.

She would be home late and she didn't want Haley to come home to an empty apartment so she shot her daughter a message that she would pick her up after school. Haley could have a snack in the car and maybe start with her homework while Abby did the viewing. With that set up Abby had to hurry to her next appointment.

She was on time but her client wasn't. Great. She gave him a call which he didn't answer but he did show up fifteen minutes late when she was about to leave.

"Sorry." He gave her a wide grin. The smell of weed came off him in strong waves but Abby kept it professional. She showed him the apartment, just a furnished room and he really seemed to like it but when she told him the rent, he backed off.

"Can't do that, man." He raised his hands in defense. "That's way too much."

He tried to thank her with a joint and she had a moment of worry that he would insist but when she declined he just gave her another wide grin. "More for me, then."

Abby didn't make a contract with her next client either, it was just one of those days. And then she had to pick up Haley from school.

"How was your day?" Abby asked while she eased the car back on the street. The apartment she wanted to show her new clients was a bit outside, an hour's drive at least. If they managed to avoid the rush hour.

Haley gave her a nod as an answer and Abby threw her a glance. She had become pretty good at reading her over the last few months. Because Haley had stopped talking. She hadn't said a word since ... well, since. But they managed. Abby had taken her to the doctors but physically there was nothing wrong with her. Two times they had been to a child psychiatrist. Abby would have liked to keep up the visits with the psychiatrist, Haley had seemed to like her, but the bills had been piling up and they had to stop.

"Give her time." Had been the last advice Abby had gotten from her, free of charge, and she knew that the psychiatrist was right, it had only been a few months, but seeing her usually loud and chatty child now quiet, just watching the world with dark eyes, it was hard.

"Sorry, Karen put this one on me," Abby tried to fill the silence between them. "I don't know the apartment and I don't know the clients, I hate it when she's throwing me into the deep end like this."

Haley typed something on her phone.

She's a bitch, Abby read when she glanced over.

"Language, young lady," she scolded her but she had to admit that Haley was right with her statement. Karen was a bitch. But they were sharing an office and for the better part of the day, they were working side by side so Abby did her best to get along with her.

They even were a few minutes early so Abby parked the car and made sure that Haley had snacks and something to drink and that she would start with her homework right away. She would most likely be on her phone most of the time but it was worth a try.

Then another car pulled up and parked two slots to her right.

"That must be my clients," Abby told Haley and grabbed her purse and the file and she took a second to check in the mirror that her hair was still sitting right. Her bun still looked professional even if some hairs had gotten loose and were now curling up. She liked it but some clients had a problem with that.

"Okay, I'll be quick." Abby hugged Haley and then she reached for the door. And stopped dead.

The man from the passenger seat was already out of the car, a handsome young man with a scruff and a leather jacket, and he was now watching the driver who was getting something out of the back of the car. There was also a big dog watching the whole process from the back seat and Abby took a moment to curse Karen for not telling her that the place had to be pet-friendly because she was pretty sure it wasn't.

However, what the second man was getting out of the car made her curse some more.

"Lazy my ass," Abby said when the man smoothly transferred over to his wheelchair.