20. Theo
20
THEO
On Saturday morning, I arrive at Mia’s house just as the sun is peeking over the horizon. The air is cool and crisp, promising a beautiful day ahead.
I park my truck and grab my toolbox. I’m assuming Mia has all the materials she will need, but I’m prepared just in case she didn’t think of everything.
Today is a big day—not just for the renovation, but for us. Working together could either bring us closer or drive us further apart, and I’m hoping for the former. I like spending time with Mia. I feel like we’ve only had a few, good, unargumentative moments, but I want to share more of those with her.
I knock on the door, and Mia answers almost immediately, looking a bit surprised to see me so early. “You’re here already?” she says, raising an eyebrow.
“Figured we’d get an early start. There’s a lot to do, and it’s going to feel like hell when the sun really starts heating up that porch.”
She nods, stepping aside to let me in. “You’re right. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. And…thanks for coming.” There’s a little bit of shyness in her voice, and I like it. I like the timidity. She’s not 100% sure of herself, and that’s sexy to me.
I follow her through the house to the sunroom. The first thing I notice is she’s absolutely right. It looks like this room was turned into an extra attic. There is junk scattered in every corner, and what little I can see of the flooring shows it’s been abused.
Even so, I can see the potential. I set my toolbox down and take a deep breath, ready to dive in.
“Where do you want to start?” I ask, looking around.
“Let’s move all the junk first, then we can tackle the windows.” Mia starts combing her dark, wavy hair into a ponytail, and I watch, mesmerized for a moment before I realize that I’m staring.
Shaking my head, I grab a couple of pots off a nearby shelf. “Out in the yard or in the house?”
Mia makes a face as she finishes tying her hair back. “In the yard, I guess. I’m going to have to take most of it to the dump, but I’ll worry about that later.”
“If you let me back my truck into the yard, we can dump things in there. I’ll take care of getting rid of it.”
Mia pauses as she’s patting her hair, studying me like she doesn’t believe I actually mean what I say.
“What?”
“I’m just… It’s… You’re being nice.”
“Am I not allowed to be nice?”
“No, you’re not. I mean, I kind of know what to expect from you. And offering to help me for free was not…well, on the list.”
I shrug and nod in the direction of my truck. “So, yes? No?”
“Sure.” Mia shrugs, and I set the pots back down, heading for my truck instead.
It takes a while to move all the junk out of the room, but it feels a whole lot bigger by the time we are done. I can feel sweat pouring down my back. A couple of times, I reach for the hem of my shirt to pull it up and off, but then, I think about Mia’s comment about me working with my shirt on, and I decide to leave it on a little while longer.
Finally, though, I’m too hot. I have to take it off. I sling it onto the ground just outside the sunroom and survey the empty space.
I can feel Mia surveying me .
“That windowpane needs to be replaced,” I point out, eyeing one that has a long crack down it. “There’s no point in putting the window film on a window that’s not going to hold out much longer.”
Mia purses her lips, and I can tell that she doesn’t want to take my advice on anything. We had been falling into an easy rhythm, but now, she seems frustrated.
“Fine, you can take it out. I’ve ordered one pane, but I thought I would use it to replace that one over there. Look at how bad that one is.”
I examine the pane that Mia is pointing at. It has a very clear hole in the corner, one that could allow rain inside. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s take this one out. You can replace the other one later.”
I reach for it and slide it out of its frame, lifting it above my head.
“Careful with that!” Mia snaps as it shifts unexpectedly in my hands.
“Relax, I’ve got it. I’m not going to break anything.” But there’s something about the panic in her voice that annoys me. It’s like she doesn’t trust me…with anything.
She mutters something under her breath, and I can tell she’s annoyed, too. We continue working in silence for a while, each of us focused on our task.
By the time I get back from discarding the broken window, Mia is already pulling out the window film and taking measurements. I suggest a break.
Mia heads inside, and I follow her into the a/c. She hands me a glass of water, and I down it in a few gulps. “This is more work than I thought it would be. I thought we would be done in an hour or two,” I admit.
“Yeah, it is.” Mia takes a moment to drink her water as she leans against the counter. “But it’s going to be worth it.”
“Definitely. This place is going to look amazing when it’s done.”
We share a brief smile, and for a moment, the tension eases. I want to step toward Mia, wrap my arm around her shoulders and tell her that I admire how hard she works. But it’s not long before we’re back to work, and I start to feel frustrated again.
“I think we should paint the walls first before installing the new window,” Mia says, looking at the peeling paint. “I mean, I don’t even have that second pane of glass, so I couldn’t finish the job right now anyway.”
“We should go ahead and install the one you have. You can paint if you want, and I’ll install the glass. That way, you can put the window film on the windows and work in a relatively cool room.”
Mia crosses her arms, glaring at me. “Why do you always have to be right?”
“I’m not trying to be right. I’m just trying to do this the best way possible. I mean, maybe you like sweating. I just thought it would be helpful. The paint isn’t super necessary but installing the windowpane is.”
She huffs, turning away from me. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
We continue working. I take the lead on installing the windowpane once Mia’s shown me where it is. She works on cutting the film into rectangles that are the right size for the windows.
“It’s looking great,” I say with a smile, hoping to change the mood of the atmosphere.
Mia pauses, her scissors frozen as she looks at me as though checking to see if my compliment is genuine or not. I smile at her and continue adding the sealant around the edge of the new window.
Finally, I need another water break, so I sit down next to where Mia is cutting and watch her.
“So, why did you start this business? Buying property and flipping it?” Mia asks suddenly, catching me off guard.
I take a deep breath, considering how much to share. “Honestly? I did my time in fast food, dead-end jobs. There’s only so much work that can be done in the off-season. Nothing I started into seemed to work out for me.”
“So, you bought a house?”
“I got a loan from the bank for my first property. I bought it, flipped it, and invested the profits into the next property. Like that.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It took years. And…it wasn’t always easy. I didn’t go to college. There were only so many jobs open to me. And…” I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but it just sort of slips out of my mouth. “I was scared of failing. I needed something I could control, something that would prove I could be successful. Even though I can’t control everything in this business, I’ve learned how to make a profit. I piggyback off that for the next property I invest in.”
Mia looks at me, her eyes softening. “Everyone’s scared of failing, Theo. But you’ve built something great. You should be proud of that. I mean, it’s pretty impressive to own multiple properties at our age. At least, I think it is.”
A warmth spreads through me at her words. “Thanks, but it’s not always easy. There’s a lot of pressure to succeed, to keep everything going. I mean, if for example, this property fails completely, I would lose a couple million dollars.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re trying to guilt me into selling you this property.”
“No, no!” I promise her. “I wouldn’t do that. I’m done trying to make business deals with you.”
We fall into a comfortable silence, finishing our waters. I study the glass and try to estimate how much work is ahead of us. Because the sunroom is on the opposite side of Mia’s house, I can’t see how my own contractors are coming along. But somehow, I like the privacy this room makes me feel with Mia.
As we get back to work, Mia puts on some music, and the whole atmosphere feels lighter. Mia holds the film in place over the windows while I use the plastic tool to smooth out the wrinkles. The job requires us to stand close to each other, and I wonder if Mia feels the same attraction toward me that I feel toward her.
Obviously, we have physical chemistry. We know that from what happened between us last time. But is there something more than that between us?
“What are you thinking?” Mia asks suddenly.
I drop the plastic tool like an idiot, and I have to bend down and pick it up. It buys me a couple of seconds. “I was just thinking about everything that needs to get done.”
“You had this look on your face.” Mia makes a look that is supposedly a copy of how I looked, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself make that face before.
I burst out laughing and drop the tool again .
Mia’s hands are stuck to the wall, holding the film in place, but I see them wobble as she starts laughing too.
“You better stop making me laugh or we’re never going to get this done.”
I go back to pressing the air bubbles out of the film, and Mia is finally able to remove her hands as the film adheres firmly to the glass.
She shakes her arms out. “My arms are getting sore from doing that.”
“Do you want to switch jobs? I’ll hold and you press?”
“Sure.” Mia takes the next piece of film and hands it to me. I situate it so that the edges are perfectly aligned with the window glass. Mia ducks under my arms and starts pressing the film down, one stroke at a time. Her back is to me, but there is only a couple of inches of space between us.
Her bare neck is in front of me, and it would be very easy to bend down and start kissing her skin. It takes a lot of self-control to keep my hands on the window film. But just thinking about what we could do in this position makes me start to get hard.
Mia finally moves, and I’m allowed to shake my hands out. I take a couple of deep breaths. Mia bends down for the next piece of film, but as she stands, her eyes catch on my groin area.
I can tell there’s no hiding what I’ve been thinking about, but I still attempt to turn away from her so it’s not as obvious.
“I probably shouldn’t ask what you’re thinking about, huh?” Mia finally says.
I burst out laughing. “Only if you really want to know.”
Mia bites her bottom lip and looks away. She wants to say something, I can tell, but she’s not willing to be completely vulnerable with me yet. And I understand it. I’ve been badgering her about this property, and she doesn’t completely trust me.
When we finish with the film, my arms are burning from holding them in such an awkward position for so long.
“This looks incredible,” I say, turning my head back and forth and taking in the effect.
“It does. We did a good job.”
“Yeah, we did. Thank you for letting me help.”
“ Letting you help? You saved me hours of work. Actually, I don’t know how I could have done the window film without you there.”
There’s a moment of silence, and I want to say something meaningful. I don’t just want to head back to my resort and take over what’s happening there.
“Mia, I know things have been complicated between us, but I want to find a way to make this work. Not just the renovation, but us. I don’t want to keep fighting.”
She looks at me, her eyes difficult to read. “Theo, I… I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to give me an answer. Think about it. Think about if we could be a couple.”
“Again.”
“Yeah, again, if you want to count what happened in high school. You were my first girlfriend, but what I thought was a real relationship back then, well…I had no idea what I was doing.”
“And you do now?”
“A bit more.”
I nod, feeling a sense of relief. “I… Theo, I need some time to think about it.”
“Sure, take your time.”
A little smile plays on Mia’s lips. I don’t know exactly what she’s thinking, but I know that I want to explore things with her even more. And she didn’t say no. That’s what I’m going to hold onto.