Page 26 of The Reverse Cinderella
By the time he came back all her towels were wet and she was alternating between mopping up water with them and wringing them out. He still had a smile going and the thought crossed her mind that this was a sort of rush for him, doing something that he admitted never having done before and having to problem solve it. She only hoped her bathroom would survive the experience.
“I need something long and thin. Strong too.” Max looked around. “Do you have any really thin knitting needles?”
“Do I look like a woman who knits?” Piaget gave him a look that clearly communicated that she thought he was out of his mind. How had she let him start this mess? Why had he been so confident when it was clear he had no idea of what he was doing? “What do you need it for?”
“I need something to hold down the spring until I can insert the cartridge,” Max explained. “The tweezers are too fat. If I don’t hold down the spring the washer and it get displaced by the water pressure when I try to put in the cartridge.”
“Wait a moment,” Piaget got a sudden idea. She ran to the kitchen and fumbled through the drawers looking for the skewers that she had. Finding them, she brought one back to Max. “Will this do?”
“Perfect,” he grabbed it and carefully did a sort of plumbing surgery on the tap. A minute later he used the wrench and the water mercifully stopped flowing. Max crouched in front of the sink. “Fingers crossed.”
He turned on the water and nothing happened. They stared at the sink. It wasn’t dripping steadily anymore. It wasn’t dripping at all. Tentatively, Max turned on one handle and water flowed. He shut it off then tried the other handle. Water flowed and shut off as it should. They looked at each other in amazement.
“It works,” Max was ecstatic.
“There’s no drip anymore,” Piaget could hardly believe it. “You fixed it.”
“We fixed it,” he held up the tweezers and skewer.
“It drove me crazy for months, but I couldn’t afford a plumber and now in an hour you’ve fixed it.” Her bathroom looked like a bomb had gone off, yet she didn’t care. Piaget gave Max a hug. “Thank you.”
“Admit it. For a moment you thought I’d totally screwed it up,” Max said in her ear as he hugged her back.
“Maybe,” Piaget allowed, smiling.
“Well, I might have thought the same thing. For a moment.”
Max let her go and she realized that they were both sopping wet. Piaget pushed her hair out of her face and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. “Um, I’m going to change into something dry. I have your shirt if you want it. I washed it.”
“That would be good,” he tightened the handle and began putting away the tools. “Have you had breakfast yet?”
“No,” She replied. In her bedroom, Piaget grabbed clothes at random from her closet. No, not that shirt, she threw it on the bed and grabbed another.
“I know a place that makes great omelets,” Max said from the bathroom.
“Sounds good,” she said as she shed her cut offs and pulled on a pair of jeans. Piaget hoped it wasn’t an expensive place because her cash level was low and she didn’t get paid until Friday. The good thing was, Max didn’t strike her as an expensive type of guy.
“It just a Mom and Pop place but it’s clean. I like the owners, they remember their customers.”
“Nice,” Piaget shrugged into a shirt. She was going to have to use the disaster of a bathroom to do her hair and makeup. Grabbing Max’s clean and folded Henley off the top of her clean clothes pile, Piaget made her way to the washroom. “Here.”
“Thanks,” Max had wrung out her towels and had them hanging over the shower rod and the side of the tub. He had put away everything back under the sink where it belonged. “Here’s your skewer.”
“You didn’t have to clean up.”
“Not a big deal,” he exchanged the skewer for the shirt and Piaget left him to get changed.
“Thank you,” Piaget quickly shoved the stuff back in the drawers of the kitchen that she had riffled through to find the skewer and closed them. Max came out wearing his Henley which looked much better on him than on her and carrying the toolbox. “I’ll just be a moment.”
In the bathroom Piaget swiped on some mascara and lip gloss. She ran a brush through her hair. It was all she really felt comfortable having time for considering Max was waiting in the other room. Besides, it was only breakfast.
The restaurant turned out to be a cramped little space that used to be a store along the old downtown area. It was brightly painted and cheery but not much in the way of seating. Fortunately, someone vacated a table and they were able to sit in the busy little eatery. The food smelled amazing. It only took seconds before the owner and his wife were at their table, greeting Max and introducing themselves to her in broken English. It was obvious Max was a favorite amongst their patrons.
They promised to take good care of Piaget and Max, leaving them to enjoy their drinks.
“They seem really nice,” Piaget sipped her tea and watched as the owner greeted a pregnant woman, kissing her on the cheek and grabbing her bags of groceries. He pointed in Max’s direction and she frowned as she spotted Max.
“Uh oh, incoming,” Max stood as she waded over, a stream of language following her as she said something to him. Max looked a little shocked and repeated a word before he hugged her.