“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do?”
“No, I’m almost done,” he grunts.
I take the opportunity to lean back into the harsh corner of the counter and inspect his appearance. Henry was still annoyingly attractive—even in the daylight. His attire has shifted to a more relaxed version of his uniform from the night before. Now he wears black pants with a light grey cotton T-shirt hanging loosely from his torso. My mind starts to wander to what’s under the loose fabric, but I quickly shut those thoughts down and continue my assessment.
The color of his skin is slightly darker than I noticed last night. His complexion has an olive undertone that glows in the small glimmer of sunlight coming through the tiny windows in the kitchen.
I’m so lost in my observations that I barely notice when he lifts himself off the towels crumpled in front of the sink. There are small wet stains slowly drying on his T-shirt as he wipes his hands off.
My eyes travel from his hands back up to the round frames perched on his face. When my eyes meet his, I can see small wrinkle lines beside his deep brown irises.
“That should do it,” he declares before placing the used towel on my kitchen counter. “I just have to turn the water main back on.”
Not sure what to say, I just nod my head and watch him walk to the door that leads to the basement. As soon as he’s out of the room, I let go of a weary breath. My fingers glide down the smooth fabric of my leggings as I stare blankly at the space he just occupied.
What is wrong with me? I haven’t felt this aware of someone in a long time and it terrifies me.
I slowly shift my neck, working out the kinks and clearing my mind. Forcing myself to focus on anything else, I start cleaning up the discarded towels from the floor and toss them into the laundry basket by the door.
Before I can fully compose myself, I’m interrupted by heavy footsteps making their way back up the steps. When Henry emerges from the basement, I try to fight the overwhelming feeling that I don’t want him to leave.
“Thank you for fixing my sink.” I smile.
“I don’t know if I would call that fixed, but that’s what my dad said to do until he could get to it,” he says with a smirk.
“Yeah.” I laugh awkwardly. “If I would’ve known that was all you were going to do, I would’ve done it myself.”
His smile drops slightly, and my heart starts thumping against my ribcage. “I—uh—that’s not what I meant. You were very helpful.”
He flinches at my quick save. “It’s fine. No hard feelings. I’m sure you would’ve done a much better job.”
There’s a beat of silence between us that I attempt to fill with a smile. I wanted to ask him all the questions I didn’t get to last night, but I couldn’t. I feel like a little girl with a crush who is too chicken to talk to the boy she likes.
Henry looks down at his hands tangled in front of him before looking up at me again. “I wanted to apologize for last night. I feel like I left in a hurry, and it made things awkward.”
The apology catches me off guard. “I thought apologizingwas my thing?” I ask, surprising myself with the cheeky response.
His eyes light up with approval. “I figured I’d give it a shot.” Henry chuckles. “Anyways, that’s not how I wanted the night to end. If I’m being honest, seeing that photo of you and your son on the fridge freaked me out.”
I’m not sure how to respond. My eyes hover on the photo of Milo and me he’s referring to as I grip the edge of the counter. It’s a photo of us at Wren’s family farm, happily sitting in the grassy area in front of the main pasture. Milo was making a fuss because he wanted to pet one of the cows on the other side of the fence, but of course, his mean mom wasn’t letting him run right up to a bull three times the size of him.
I didn’t like the way my words burned at the back of my throat. I never regretted Milo, except for this moment when I wanted something I couldn’t have.
“Freaked you out?” I echo, not sure what else to say.
“Mierda.That probably wasn’t the right way to say it,” he mumbles, scratching the back of his neck. “I panicked because I wanted to kiss you last night, but then I realized we’re basically strangers.”
The confession lingers between us, but it doesn’t surprise me. I wanted to kiss him too. Regardless, hearing him say it out loud sends a fresh wave of longing up and down my spine.
I sigh and bow my head, knowing what I had to do next. “Henry, I think it’s a good thing we didn’t kiss last night. The truth is, I’m a single mom who just got out of a six-year marriage, and I’m not ready to kiss strangers yet.”
Henry lowers his head, and an unmistakable wave of sadness radiates off him. “I get it.”
I exhale, trying to ease the guilt of disappointing someone else in my life. “But I do like you, Henry, and I would love it if we could be friends.”
He chuckles, tucking his hands into his pockets. “I think I can handle that.”
Relief hugs my body, but there’s something else. An ache that I don’t want to overthink or try to understand. For now, friendship is safe.
