Extraordinary: It ends with us (Ironhide) (2)

Chapter 4. Apartment

Maggie hurried towards the door, almost collapsing over some boxes. 'Ironhide?' He flashed her a smile, peeking inside. 'You want to come in? It's still a bit messy.' She stepped aside to let the mech pass. 'Damn... you got a nice apartment.' Maggie shut the door. 'Once it's cleaned and not messy, it will be,' she replied, jumping over some boxes. 'What brought you here on an early Saturday morning?' she questioned. 'You weren't at the base...' he trailed off. 'No, Will gave me the weekend off, so I can settle. Every day I come home in this depressing cesspool.' Ironhide snorted as he passed her. 'It's not a depressing cesspool, needs some work, but... I like it so far,' he replied. 'I was on a patrol and I was nearby, so I only came to say hi,' he replied. 'Ah, well, I am glad you came... I saw that I am scheduled for your shooting practice Monday... and since you are the weapons specialist, I thought, maybe we can make a challenge. If you shoot the most targets, right in the bullseye, I will take you out for dinner and pay, and if I hit the most, you have to take me out for dinner.' Ironhide started laughing. 'Any idea how many times I have done that and won?'

'Well, I am a sniper, so...'
'Oh... really?' I hummed. 'A sniper, huh? Well, I won't believe it until you prove it to me,' he added. Chuckling, Maggie walked back to the kitchen, putting her long dark brown hair up in a ponytail. She caught Ironhide staring at her. 'Something wrong?' He shook his head and sat in a lonely chair standing not too far from the kitchen counter. 'You're gonna paint the walls?' He gestured at the faded light blue walls.' Maggie sighed, putting her hands on her hip. 'I was actually planning on doing that, but I don't have the time. Blue isn't an ugly color, right?' From Ironhide's milt reaction she could tell he wasn't sharing her thoughts. 'You dread it?' He nodded. 'Let me paint it.' She blinked. 'You? Don't have better things to do? I mean, you're an Autobot, not a painter,' she mocked, turning the kitchen cabinet to put the freshly unpacked glasses in it. 'You don't trust me?' She laughed. 'I do, but why would you waste your time on it?'

'Because I want to. Pick a color and I'll paint your walls.' A smile crept up on her face. 'Alright, I will go to a construction market and find a nice color. Maybe three white walls and one... beige or something, I don't know.' She shrugged before turning back to the cabinet. 'What about the furniture.' She found it almost amusing with how engaged he was in her apartment. 'I have furniture, Hide. You're sitting on my chair, I got a table, which is still fully loaded with boxes and I have a bed.' Ironhide got up, walking up to the kitchen. 'You want to live with four pieces of furniture?' he mocked. 'Until I can afford more. I don't have a money tree growing on my balcony. I am a soldier, remember? I don't get the grand prize.' He crossed his arms. 'I can borrow you some money–' she cut off his sentence before he could even finish saying it. 'Absolutely not! No. I'll be able to pay for it by the end of the month. I am not going to borrow any money. I am not bankrupt. Just low in cash.' She passed him,– grabbing a new box. 'It's not that bad.'

Ironhide raised a brow. 'I could've been worse. Stop complaining so much. Otherwise I start believing this is a depressing cesspool.' Ironhide snorted and turned back towards the door. 'Alright, fine...' he raised his hands in surrender. 'So, I will see you Monday? Unless you want me to stay and help or grab dinner with me tonight,' he offered. Maggie put the box down and approached. 'I am really grateful for your help, but I need to unpack on my own, but we can have dinner tonight.' His face lit up. 'I will pick you up then.' She hummed. Ironhide brushed some strands from her face. 'I will see you at 7?' She nodded. 'Sounds good.' Ironhide bent over, pressing a soft kiss on her cheek. 'Sassy queen,' he mocked teasingly in her ear before leaving.

Maggie sighed, watching the closed door for several minutes. All she could think about was the peck he gave her. Her phone started ringing, which wasn't always a good thing. She reached for it and looked at the display. A grunt escaped from her lips. Robert Brown, board member of the Forester foundation. She didn't have a good relationship with the man, but she knew that if she ghosted his phone calls any longer, he would be pissed and the phone calls wouldn't be pleasant. 'Hello?' She tapped on the counter. 'Maggie! I have been trying to call you all morning.' She wasn't impressed by the snapping but it didn't do her mood much good either. 'I am sorry. My phone wasn't on and I was unpacking.' She sat down on the chair. 'Right, listen... I sent you some documents, did you get them?' he asked. 'Yes, this morning but I haven't had the chance to look at them yet.'

'You need to sign them.' Maggie got up and reached for the large envelope. 'What is it about?' She asked.'Loans and grants.' She frowned. 'As much as I like doing the financias...' she began with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. '... I don't want to get occupied with this all the time. We talked about it last time during the meeting.'
'Which was a month ago. We need more money or the foundation won't exist any longer,' he stated. 'Look, my grandpa believed it, he created this foundation and I don't understand how the money can just suddenly disappear? I saw the numbers before I left. In fact, I made copies of the papers and kept them in a folder. You want to explain to me how this happened?' There a silence. 'Robert?' A long sigh followed. 'We aren't getting as many donations as we have had in the past. We can't keep helping these people if we don't have the money, so can you please sign the forms?'

'I will read them tonight.'
'No, you have to sign them now and send them back to me.' Maggie rolled her eyes. Robert had always been inpatient with her. He didn't care much about her and she doubted he cared about the foundation, but her grandfather saw something in him years ago, so she had to trust his judgment. 'I will have a look at it later, alright? I will sign them and send them back, after I read them. In the meantime, why don't you send me the papers from last month? You can send them through Email. Money doesn't just disappear and if the numbers are decreasing rapidly, I want to know why. I don't want people to think we are throwing the money away on other things, got it?' Robert sighed again. 'Yes, ma'am.'

The phone call was disconnected shortly after. Maggie rubbed her face before getting up. Sometimes she wished she didn't have to deal with this. They had talked about the money before, a day before she left Boston, so where did the money go? She was still trying to wrap her head around that one.