It feels clean, but it’s by no means nice.I’m pretty sure the last time this place was updated was the year my mother was born, with its cast iron sink and old walnut-colored cabinets.The crazy thing is, it’s all in decent shape, almost like it could be usable.Minus not having any flooring, though.
Honestly, the bare floors feel like a win when we finally get to the bathroom.
“You sure about this?”Sage says as we stand in the doorway, peering over my shoulder at the disaster that sits in front of us.
“I don’t know,” I respond, stepping in a little farther, testing the floor to make sure it doesn’t just collapse under my weight.
When it doesn’t, I move over to where the bathtub sits, completely covered in dust, the tile moldy, but like the kitchen, it seems oddly usable.
“I guess we did get the kitchen cleaned, so maybe this will be the same,” Sage suggests, loving the optimism I hear in her voice.
It’s why I asked her to help, not that Alana and Sloane wouldn’t have too, but I just can’t see Alana getting down and dirty in this mess without giving me a ton of shit.And Sloane, something about this disaster might be triggering for her after all those years in foster care, living in houses that were not maintained or clean.She’s come so far, and I don’t want this to be something that brings back shitty memories for her.
But when both of us look up at the ceiling, the paint bubbling and brown, we know that there’s water damage, and cleaning this isn’t going to help.
“What should we do about that?”Sage asks me, pointing to the mess above us.We got lucky when there was none of this in the kitchen or the living room, but here we are now.
“Probably get the roof replaced,” I simply say, and Sage laughs.
“Listen, I love you, and I would do anything for you, but I don’t think I can replace a roof,” she tells me, shaking her head.“But I think Nate could.Want me to go get him?”
“Nah, I’ll figure it out,” I say.Grabbing an oversized black garbage bag, I begin tossing some of the weird shit that was left in here: old towels, shampoo bottles, soap—all of it crusted with dirt and grime.
Opening the cabinet under the sink, it’s far worse than the moths that floated out of the kitchen.The roaches that scamper have Sage and me screaming and running for the front door.
We’re both running around, shaking our hands and stomping our feet, shrieking so loudly that I’m sure Nate can hear us down at The Pipe Dream.To be honest, I’m shocked we didn’t come across any live roaches in the kitchen, but it looks like they took up residence in the bathroom, making it their home.
We’re both still screaming when Miles pulls up.Climbing out of his car, he just watches us, his arms crossed over his chest, a smile on his face.
“You went in the house, didn’t you?”he says when we finally stop freaking out.“I told you to wait and that I would help you.”
“I wanted to surprise you by cleaning it, but we just…” I trail off, a shudder rippling through me at the thought of the roaches.
“Roaches!”Sage wails, swallowing hard and scrunching her eyes shut.“I need to go home and shower, and you two, you need to burn this place to the ground.”
Miles laughs at Sage’s comment, but I’m right there with her.I was unrealistically optimistic that we wouldn’t come across anything like that, but holy shit, I was wrong.
“Babe,” Miles says sweetly, “I know it needs work.I knew there would be roaches in there.You come across any mice?”
“No mice,” I tell him, again with the shudder.“Just lots of dirt until I opened the cabinet in the bathroom.They poured out from under there like something out of a horror movie.”
He tosses his head back, letting out a hearty laugh.I’m glad he thinks this is funny because I certainly don’t.Now all I can think about is one of those fuckers hitching a ride on my clothes or my shoes and bringing them back to infest my mother’s spotless house.
She would kill me.
“I brought mouse traps and bug bombs.I was planning to do it today, but somehow you got here before me,” Miles says, slinging an arm around my shoulders.He pulls me close, dropping a kiss to the top of my head.
“I’m going to go,” Sage says.“I think I’ve had enough bugs for today.Now I need to burn my clothes and shower outside.”
“Was it that bad?”Miles asks, and all Sage and I can do is nod.“Well, I’m proud of both of you for venturing in there and attempting to get it cleaned up.”
“We didn’t attempt,” Sage clarifies.“We did get it cleaned up until the bathroom.And we didn’t open the fridge.Something told us not to.”
“Yeah, I think we might just want to have that picked up by the trash,” I suggest, thinking about what could possibly be in there.
“Nate and I are going to start working on the roof today, and once that’s done, we’ll get the drywall replaced.”Miles says all this like he knows what he’s doing, and maybe he does.It will save us a ton of money if he can do it himself.“Nate helped Mitch replace the roof on The Pipe Dream a few years back, so he can guide me through it.”
“See, I told you Nate could help.He’s really handy, except when it comes to cars,” Sage says.“We leave that to Flynn.”
