“Knight in shining armor looks good on you!”he called out as I hopped off the boat.
“If I’m not back in thirty, run the two p.m.solo.You think you can handle that, Lightning Bolt?”
“It would be my pleasure, Capt’n.”He winked and bowed to me.
I sprinted down the dock and up the street to the Starfish.I could hear the howling from outside the front door.I turned the knob and it was locked.
“Sam?”I yelled as I pounded on the door.It sounded like someone with a jackhammer was right inside having a heyday.I looked down and tiny bubbles were oozing out under the door.
Uh-oh.
“Sam!”I yelled again.
“Coming!”
The door opened and her face filled with relief the moment she saw me.Her hair was piled up on top of her head with little bubbles attached to it and her face was flushed.The left side of her shirt andjeans were completely soaked and suctioned to her skin.Jesus.So much for working her out of my system.
“Here, watch your step.”
“Why’s your door locked?”
“Because I want to keep the bad guys out.Obviously.”
“This is Florida.People don’t lock their doors here.”My attention was ripped from her as I looked to the ground, where the floor was completely covered in soapsuds three inches high.As I walked through the living room, it felt like little suckerfish popping up against my shin.
“Wow.You could have called me sooner.”
“I texted you.”She wiped her forehead, knocking loose a flurry of bubbles that started floating toward me.I held in a laugh.“Don’t give me that look.It happened really fast.”
The room was small so it didn’t take long to get to the back closet where the washer and dryer sounded like they were keeping a gremlin hostage.I tried to pull the unit straight out but it wouldn’t budge.I shimmied myself between it and the wall and pushed.My feet skidded out but I caught myself.
“Oh no, is it slippery over there too?”she asked innocently, looking at me with her arms crossed and her hip jutted out to one side.Such a pain in the ass.
I was able to move it a few inches forward and reach behind to unplug it.The gremlin slowly quieted as I eased myself from the wall and turned toward her.
“See?Not that bad—”
A sound popped behind me and the machine started rocking back and forth.My feet went flying out from under me and I landed flat on my butt, a snowstorm of bubbles floating up all around me, covering me as I landed.I turned on all fours and scrambled to get back to the washer but my hands kept slipping out from underme, sending me face-first into the foam.I managed to scoot a few inches, pulled myself up on the washer and unplugged the dryer too.It slowly came to a halt with one last pop for good measure.
We both stood staring at it for a moment, waiting for a possessed demon to poke its head out the top.
“What in the hell was that?”I asked, more to myself than to her.
When a good five seconds passed, I looked over to her.She gave me a once-over, then cracked up.I was soaked from head to toe.I plopped onto the floor, soapsuds covering every inch of my frame.
She crawled over toward me, grabbed a fluff of bubbles and rubbed some on my cheeks and around my chin.My skin buzzed where she touched me.I took a handful and put them on my head in the shape of a mohawk.
“You look like George Washington.”Tears hung from her eyelashes.
“Yeah, well, you look like a wet cat.”
She tried to get up but slipped back down on the linoleum.Half her face was covered in foam.She tried to get up again but her arm slipped out from under her and she fell face-first into the bubbles.She looked completely absurd, trying to get up and falling right back down, a new spray of white puffing up every time she thudded back to the ground.My side squeezed a little more with every slip from laughing so hard.I hadn’t laughed like this in a long time.
I tried to crawl closer to help her and my knees skidded out from under me and my hands slid forward.I was completely laid out.She roared next to me.I blew a huge breath her way as a wave of white flew toward her.We looked utterly ridiculous.
“What the hell happened here?”Our heads snapped to the door as Josie stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips.It felt like we were two kids who got caught with our hands in the cookie jar.
I cleared my throat and tried my hardest to keep a straight face.“Washing machine was acting up just a bit.I came by to help.I think we stopped the bubble production, but there’s just a bit of a cleanup needed now.”
