Well, lesson learned.
“Hey, Hank,” she said when the man picked up on the first ring. “It’s Cadence Meadows. Sorry to call so late, but I’m over at the gallery and we’re… standing in a swimming pool.”
Hanktsked. “Well, that’s no good, huh?” He sounded completely unbothered by the late hour. “All right, let me get on my workin’ boots, and then I’ll be right over.”
“You’re the best, Hank,” she said before hanging up.
When she was off the call, Tyler gave her a teasing look. “Oh,Hankis the best? Here I am, drenched to my bones, but Hank…” He laughed when she gave him a playful shove.
“You’re the best too,” she told him. She found that she meant it. She didn’t know how she would have made it through this evening without him.
Tyler looked a little bashful. “Well, thank you, Cadence,” he said sweetly, which made her smile. He never had been very good at accepting legitimate compliments. He cleared his throat. “Should we do another sweep of the gallery to make sure that nothing is in danger of getting wet?”
So, that was what they did while they waited for Hank to arrive. As it happened, their initial flurry had been reasonably effective. They did find a few pieces that could be put in asomewhatsafer location, but mostly things were all out of the danger zone, thank goodness. Cadence wouldnothave enjoyed having to tell any of the artists that their work had been destroyed due to a freak plumbing accident.
Hank arrived shortly thereafter, bearing hellos from his wife, Trudy. He took one look at the water, glanced up at the pipe, and said, “All right, then. I can fix this.”
Cadence felt her shoulders unclench a little.
“Thanks, Hank. I appreciate it.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it a bit, Miss Cadence,” he said. “I’ll get you fixed right up.”
As Hank began to work, Tyler pulled her aside. “Hey, Cadence, are you good to stay here alone for a bit?”
She felt a pang of disappointment. It wasn’t fair to ask him to stay with her all night, after all. He was probably tired, wanted to go home.
“Oh, yeah, of course,” she said.
“Okay, great,” he responded. He waved his cell phone. “I just texted Martin, do you remember him? The guy I worked with on that big housing development project a few years back. Anyway, he has a wet vac and he said I could scoot over and borrow it. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, tops. I just thought it might not be good to leave all this puddled here all night.”
Cadence’s disappointment vanished as soon as it has appeared, replaced with soaring happiness. He wasn’t trying to leave, although truly, she’d meant it when she’d thought that she wouldn’t blame him for it. He was trying tohelp. He was trying to show up for her.
She worried that she was grinning like a maniac at him. Far too excited a response for a wet vac.
“That would be amazing,” she said.
Luckily, Tyler wore a dopey grin too. It wasso nicewhen they were on the same page.
It had been so long. And it felt just so, so good.
True to his word, Tyler was gone and back quickly, lugging a giant wet vac behind him. As Hank finished up, promising to send his son to follow up in a week or two, just to makesure his quick patch held, Cadence and Tyler began taking turns maneuvering the giant wet vac around the room.
“This is kind of fun, actually!” she shouted over the giant vacuum as she watched it slurp up the puddles.
By the second hour, and the fourth trip to dump the dirty water outside, she no longer found it quite so fun… even though Tyler was the one doing all the heavy lifting.
It took them a few more passes before things were as dry as they were going to get. Cadence propped her hands on her hips and realized, with a flash, how late it had gotten. Midnight had come and gone, and they were approaching one in the morning. It had beenfive hourssince Tyler had pulled into the parking lot and asked her to go grab a bite to eat.
“Oh my goodness, Ty!” she cried. “It’s so late. I can’t believe that I kept you here so long!”
He turned to give her a skeptical look, briefly abandoning his task of wrapping up the wet vac for transport.
“Cadence Meadows,” he said sternly. “Did you tie me to a pipe?”
She blinked. “Uh, no?”
“Did you hold me here at knifepoint?”
