“Hmm… Yes, you’re not dressed for heavy labor.” Then she laughed. “Come to think of it, the only heavy labor I’ve seen you in was when you gave birth to the Giants. The whole universe heard you scream, and I had to hold your hand.”
“No. I was holdingyourhand so you wouldn’t go looking for the father who knocked me up with Giants.”
Karma covered her smirk. “Whatever. That was a long time ago. So now you have a date with a lovely man, and you want something cute to wear that can stand up to mud. Is that right?”
“Yes. Precisely.”
“No problem.” Karma snapped her fingers, and Gaia looked down at her strange outfit.
“Thanks?”
“You’re welcome. Have fun!”
Gaia returned to the construction site wearing blue-and-white pinstriped overalls with a pink T-shirt underneath. She had no idea if this was what female construction workers wore, but the outfit seemed less heinous than she’d expected.
She yanked up the pant legs and noticed a pair of work boots and thick socks protecting her feet. They were clunky and ugly, so she snapped her fingers and turned the boots into high-top sneakers and the heavy wool socks into white cotton socks. “There. Not too shabby.” She piled her hair up on top of her head like she had seen some women do and turned it into a bun. Then she stuck a stick through it to hold the bun in place.
“Okay, I think I look fairly normal.” Then she slowly shook her head. “Gawd. What I do for this man. Making myself look normal? Who would’ve ever thought.”
She reappeared and handed Aaron his first block. He glanced up. “Thank you, Gaia. Cute outfit.” He laid the mortar on all sides and set the block. She held onto the next block, waiting until he’d spread the mortar, then she set the block next to the one he had just laid. “Is this where you want the next one?”
“Yes. That’s perfect.”
She thought it might be easier to go all the way up first and then do the next row to the top. Oh wait. That would make columns. She rolled her eyes at herself. She liked columns, but they didn’t use those much these days.
What the heck. She could try it and see what he thought. She dropped the next block on the one below it.
“Um. I need to put some mortar down first. That will hold the block in place when it dries. And since I’m staggering the pattern, I need to go horizontally, not vertically.”
She let out a quick breath of frustration, but he didn’t seem to notice. He just plopped down some more mud and spread it out. Then she put her block on top of that.
“Now you’re getting it.”
What a frustratingly slow process!But at least she got to spend time with Aaron. At this rate, a lot of time.
“How did you learn to build a house? You’re a doctor.”
“The same way everybody does nowadays. I watched YouTube videos.” He chuckled. “And then I went to a building supplies store and talked to the experts there. Before I started anything, I bought a set of plans and hired someone to take the debris away, because I didn’t have the equipment to do that.”
“Oh. So you’re just learning how to do this? For the first time?”
Aaron shrugged. “Yes. I’m sure I can do some of the grunt work. But I will have to hire other people when it gets to the more specialized areas like plumbing and electrical needs. As soon as I have four walls, I’ll need to add interior framing and a roof. I don’t think I can do that all by myself either, but by then, Noah will be helping me.”
“I see.” She put another block on top of the mud he had just spread. “So you’re going to do this all day?”
Aaron grinned at her. “Probably.”
She let out a long-suffering sigh. “This is going to get boring.”
“Not if I have your beautiful face to look at all day.”
She laughed. “I see. You’ll be entertained by my face, and I’ll be entertained by your charm, is that it?”
“I could think of worse ways to endure a little boredom. Later, after we’re finished for the day, I’ll take you out to dinner.”
“Okay. Let’s do this, but maybe a little faster.” She began speeding up the process. He kept up with her, slapping the mud down, letting her place the next block on top, then he scraped the excess mud off. They repeated this process, laying down new block after block, and before she knew it, the whole outer shell was complete up to the window openings.
At last, Aaron said, “I need a break. How about you?”
