“There seems to be some water damage in this corner, but we might be able to work with that. Help me with the rest and then we can see.”
We spend the next few hours peeling and scraping the last of the vinyl flooring off until we’re left with maple flooring covered in glue remnants that are crisscrossed all over it.
“Why would they put vinyl over this?” Theo asks, running his hand over the floor.
“There was a period of time where designers hated on hardwood floors, so this must have been that time.”
“Such a shame. Is this herringbone?”
“It is,” I say, proud he knows that.
“Do you think you can save it?”
“I can give it a good shot.” I grab a steel spatula and carefully run it across the glue, trying to peel it up. When I see that I make some progress, I hand him a spatula as well and say, “Start scraping.”
“Sheesh, my forearms are on fire.”
“Notice how I haven’t complained at all since we started doing this?”
“And like I said, you’re tougher than me, Gossy.”
“If you’re not enjoying yourself, you can leave.”
He shakes his head. “This has actually been the most fun I’ve had in a while. I like seeing that I can make a change. The complaining is just because I’m weak. But I’ll grow tougher as time goes on. Just watch, I’ll go from a wealthy aristocrat to a rough-and-tumble construction worker who wears orange vests and rubs his nipples before taking on a job.”
“Do you really think they rub their nipples?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“You’re so strange.”
“And yet you choose to hang out with me,” he says, helping me scrape the glue off the floor.
“No, you have forced yourself upon me.”
“Uh, don’t like that phrasing. Also, you’re the one who made the rule that you want to be friends, so…what does that say about you?”
I sit cross-legged, facing him. “That you’ve worn me down so much with your incessant need to be near me that in some weird way it has brainwashed me into making poor decisions.”
“Wow, quite the story you’re spinning yourself. And if you want to believe that, that’s your choice, but I’ll know the real truth.”
“Uh-huh, and what is that?”
“You’re the one that seduced me into this pseudo-friendship.”
“Me?” I ask, pointing to my chest. “How on earth did I seduce you?”
“By matching with me on Fiance-er dot com. You’re the one that started this all.”
“You could have walked away after realizing that I was looking for a financier rather than a fiancé,” I point out.
“Oh no, the minute I learned that you messed the two words up, I was invested. I had to see how it all played out. So this all falls on you. Gossy, it’s you, you’re the problem.”
I shake my head. “Keep believing that.”
“I will. I’ll sleep well knowing that we had this conversation and if anyone is to blame, it’s you.”
“Okay, Theo.”
