SWNOVELS HUGE STEPS: Chapter 8
“Hey thanks, Paul. I owe you one.”
I hit the end button on my phone and lean back in my seat, watching the cars go by.
Maybe I should feel guilty about dropping out of work early for the day, but I’m so damn distracted by all things Abigail-related, that I nearly left a stupid snake in one of the s-bends of a client’s toilet.
“You gotta get your head on straight, man,” I say to my reflection in the rearview, running my hand through my hair. I yank it away the moment Abi’s gorgeous red hair springs back into my head like an all-out fucking assault on my senses, my pride, and not to mention my dick. I adjust myself accordingly before throwing the truck into drive.
I know the moment that I park, I’m not going inside just yet. Abi’s car is in the apartment complex’s parking lot, and I chew on my lip, debating. With all that went down between the three of us that night and then Abi wigging out the next morning, I haven’t had much of a chance to say anything to her. Jared begged me not to go ‘making things worse,’ by trying to talk to her, but who would I be, listening to my little brother’s every wish like that?
“Fuck it.”
I stride across the street, stopping to make sure my breath isn’t gross after my lunch, and knock on her door.
I don’t hear anything inside, so I knock louder this time and wait. I’m not exactly known for being the patient type. I mentally try and go over what I want to say to her, how I want to apologize—something I don’t ever do. But my brother’s sorta right…I don’t want to make things worse and I have a shitty way with words sometimes.
From somewhere inside, I hear Abi’s voice calling out.
Not long after, the door opens, so I launch into my whole spiel as fast as I can. “The thing is Abi, I’m not sorry about what happened with us, but I am seriously sorry that it made you feel uncomfortable because that’s not what we meant to do—”
She’s in front of me, her t-shirt half-soaked and her face red from exertion, brandishing a large wrench, staring at me as if she’s seeing a ghost. It’s a funny enough scene that if I weren’t in the middle of apologizing, I would probably laugh.
I raise an eyebrow at her. “Busy?”
Abi blows a strand of hair from her face. “You could say that. I’ve been working on this stupid sink for over half-an-hour. I can seem to fix the little doohickey.”
Snorting, I let myself inside. “Doohickey, huh? You might want to let me handle that since I’m—you know—the professional and all.” I can practically feel her eyes rolling as I head further in. “Lead the way, ma’am.”
She may try to hide it, but there’s definitely a smile on her face as she scoots past me and heads to the bathroom. “It’s back here. I busted my butt in here because the floor was flooded with nearly an inch of water around the sink. I thought maybe there was a leak somewhere, but I’m not sure.”
Sure enough, there’s water all around the base of the sink, and wet towels pushed into the corner of the room. When Abi turns toward the sink I even see where she fell ass-first into the water, the liquid leaving a heart-shaped print on her fine behind. Not the time…not the time.
My dick doesn’t seem to be listening.
“All right, let me take a look here,” I say, leaning down and checking out the pipes underneath. “Oh yeah, I can already see it. It looks like there’s a hairline crack along the length of the trap here.” I point to the small crack that’s leaking a few drops at a time. “It’s a pretty easy fix.”
“The trap?”
“This part right here, you see the pipe? That’s the trap.”
Abi leans down close enough for me to smell the sweet scent of her hair, her face screwed up in concentration as she looks for the crack. “Oh. Okay, I see it. So, the big pipe is the trap?”
I smirk, unable to help myself. “Some think so.”
Just as I hoped, Abi’s cheeks flush pink. She leans away from me and runs her fingers over the leak. “What could’ve caused something like this? It’s not like I shove a lot of stuff in there.”
Oh, she makes it too easy. “Shoving things into your pipe isn’t all that bad sometimes…but yeah,” I continue, turning back to the sink, “this is definitely going to need to be replaced.”
“Well, I mean, I didn’t mean like—” she sputters, but I just wave her off.
“It’s okay, Abi, I know what you meant. I think I actually have a few extra replacement trap pipes that will fit here. If you give me a minute, I can go run and get them from my truck.” I don’t stick around for the reply, knowing she’ll probably just say something stupid about not needing my help—the typical Abi reply. God knows she doesn’t want anyone thinking she can’t handle something herself.
When I come back inside I notice how she’s taken her hair down from the bun it was in, and it takes me all of the focus I can muster not to stare at it.
“Could you grab me a—”
“Here you go,” she says, sticking a hand towel into my open palm.
I nod feeling a little awkward at how eerie it is that she’s guessed exactly what I was going to say. “Ah, okay. Cool.”
“Is it hard?”
I laugh because it has been since I saw her are the door, but I don’t think she was referring to that. I bend down to get under the sink.
Abi chuckles a little, groaning. “I meant, is it difficult. Trying to fix the leak in the pipe?” she gestures to the sink.
“Nah, it’s not that bad. You just have to make sure the pipe is cut to fit right, and that you have enough caulk to fill it up. Goddamn,” I sigh, shaking my head at myself when Abi bursts out laughing. “You’ve got a dirty mind, you know that?”
She feigns being offended. “Uh! I so don’t. It’s you! You’re a bad influence!”
I turn off the water valve, still looking at her. “What can I say? I’ve always been the naughty one. Mom could tell you some stories.”
I get hold of the tool I need. “Okay, so I’m going to take this part off here…”
I spend the next hour replacing the old pipe with a new one, and I may have taken twice as long to replace Abi’s pipe just because. “Ouch. Stiff back,” I say, finally standing up. “But it’s all done, at least. As long as you’re not shoving things down your drain, you shouldn’t have a problem.”
Abi rolls her eyes but she’s smiling and I fucking love to see it.
She’s trying to put things back on a level with us and I don’t question it. It’s why I came round to check on her in the first place. I don’t want to move from where I am but I have to. Abi awkwardly leads me from the bathroom, clearing her throat when I head to the door. “Hey, uh, thanks, Jamie.”
Dammit. Why does she have to always pull me back like this? “You’re welcome. It’s not a big deal, really.” Abi digs into the wallet that’s on the table, and when I realize what she’s trying to do, I put my hand over hers, shaking my head when she meets my eyes again. “You don’t have to pay me, seriously. Listen, Abi, I wanted to tell you I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“You know. I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable the other night. I’m just sorry, that’s all.”
Fuck, I’m beginning to sound like Jared.
Abi’s face softens and she goes quiet for a minute. “Don’t be sorry,” she says. “I’m not sorry it happened, Jamie. It just can’t happen again.”
It’s the words I didn’t want to hear, and they sting just as hard the second time.
“Okay,” I say. “You call me if you need anything, okay. Plumbing related or not.”
She smiles. “I will.”
I wave as I walk away. After a few steps I turn back and she’s still standing at the door watching me leave and I have no idea what to make of that.