The last two weeks had been excruciating. Livi was growing by leaps and bounds, taking to the work we did with a surprising level of aptitude for a beginner. When she first came here in her fancy nails and ridiculous high-heeled sneakers I thought for sure she’d be dead weight the entire time she was here, but she actually was a help. What’s more, she’d earned the respect of the crew, and they did not tolerate slackers. She wasn’t nearly as skilled as they were of course, and she had some little accident pretty much every day, but she laughed it off, learned from it, and moved on. And she hadn’t been late or left early once the entire time she’d been here. That said a lot about her work ethic.
I thought about how she’d told me that people at her family’s company assumed she was in her position because of her last name. It was too bad that those people didn’t pay attention,or they’d see that she really knew her stuff. Just yesterday Livi helped me with some government paperwork I’d been stuck on. She was clearly smart as a whip, with a good head for business and an affinity for manual labor. Such a contradiction.
I was almost sad that after today she only had two more weeks with us.
“You look like you’re having big thoughts there,” Livi said, bumping her shoulder with mine.
My body instantly heated. That was the problem. It’d been two weeks, yet I couldn’t get that kiss we’d shared in my office out of my head. And the almost kiss in the kitchen after I saved her from the squirrel. Every time I was near her, my body vibrated with something I couldn’t define – awareness, but something more, almost like a sense of rightness. It made no sense.
Every steamy look, every accidental touch made it worse. I was on the edge. Never in my life had I been this attracted to someone. I’d already lost count of the number of times I’d masturbated to the thought of Livi’s smile or the curve of her ass in the skintight jeans she wore onsite.
I thought I was hiding my feelings, but I guess I wasn’t doing as well as I thought because of all people Barney – a guy who notoriously hated talking about anything, especially feelings – brought it up when we were working on the roof a few days later.
We’d had a few windy days which had dislodged some shingles, and even though we had a plan to get the roof replaced at theend of the project, we decided to patch the area with the missing shingles. We had no idea what the condition of the roof decking was, but I had a strong suspicion when the roof was torn off we’d find rotting wood beneath it. No sense risking a leak inside the house.
“That Livi sure is something,” Barney said casually. “Had my doubts when she showed up, but she’s turned to be a good worker. Sweet gal too, bringing gifts for… people.”
He gave me a pointed look with the last word.
“It’s ridiculous. She needs to stop bringing me shit.”
This morning she arrived with a Posturepedic bed for my cat. A cat she’d never met. A cat who was now going to be sleeping on a nicer mattress than I did, all because I’d mentioned at lunch one day that Leo was getting up in years and seemed less comfortable than he used to be.
“Maybe that’s how she shows her love.”
I made a dismissive huffing noise that dislodged the nail I was holding between my lips. It skittered down the roof and landed in the rain gutter. Barney handed me another one, and I hammered it into the roof, securing part of the patch.
“You know the entire time I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you wound up about a woman.”
“You don’t know what happens on my personal time,” I protested unconvincingly.
Barney just raised an eyebrow.
I dropped my ass down to sit on my heels, giving my friend and coworker a long look.
“This will end badly, Barney. I can see it coming. Even if there’s some kind of an, uh, attraction between us, it’s never going to work.”
My friend shrugged. “My Evelyn and I are total opposites.”
I nodded. This was not a surprise to me. Barney’s wife was a bubbly extrovert who liked nice things – not unlike Livi really – and spent all her free time engaging in social activities. Barney was more like me, he’d never leave the house if he didn’t have to go to work.
“Evelyn’s parents are pretty wealthy,” he said. “Not on the scale of Livi’s family of course, that girl is a legitimate heiress, but Evelyn’s people belong to country clubs and vacation in France, shit like that. I kept pushing her away because I figured she’d never be content to be with a guy who remodels houses for a living.”
I was surprised. It was obvious that Evelyn had champagne tastes, but I never got a rich girl vibe from her. And she wasn’t remotely snobby.
“What changed?” I asked.
“I listened to her when she told me that she knew her own mind and I was the man she wanted,” he answered. “She was adamant that she wasn’t planning to live off her family’s money for the rest of her life anyway. Her parents weren’t happy about us getting together, not at first, but they eventually came around. They’re just happy their daughter found a guy who treats her well.”
We worked in silence for a few minutes before I admitted, “I do like her, so much that it scares me. I don’t want to get hurt.”
My mind flashed to the last time I fell in love with someone wealthy. It nearly broke me.
“You might get hurt,” he said. “But you might not, you never know what’s going to happen until you take the risk. I’ll tell you that it’s clear as day to all of us that Livi is as smitten with you as you are with her. She’s going to be done with this assignment in a couple of weeks, are you going to let her drive off in her hot little convertible and never see her again?”
My belly pinched at the thought. “No.”
Barney gave me a smile. “There’s my girl. Now you just have to figure out what your next step is.”
