Chapter Six
Mel
An hour later, Mattie and I were thrilled to finally get out of the suits. I could feel the sweat dripping down my back and was relieved to get fresh air.
"Well, I can honestly say I'm not jealous of your job," Mattie said, wiping sweat off his forehead.
Thankfully, I’d had some idea of what I signed up for, but even I had to agree that it was more grueling work than I'd expected.
I hadn't hated it, though. It'd been a long time since I'd had any sort of job that had me working outside – with my hands – and I didn't hate the sense of reward and accomplishment I was feeling.
"Not everyone's suited for this kind of work, I guess," I paused, waiting. When Mattie didn't immediately laugh, I said, "Get it? Suited? Like the bee suit?"
"Ha, ha, hilarious," he deadpanned, grinning a moment later.
"I know I am, but hey, bee nice to me and I might not ask you to help tomorrow."
"Time off for good..." he paused, raising an eyebrow before finishing, "bee-havior?"
We both started laughing at that. I adored Mattie. He just got me. He must've been thinking the same thing since he said, "You know, our lives would bee so much easier if we just got together."
It was a joke he never tired of, and I couldn't blame him. He was my soul mate, but in a platonic way. He was mostly, if not completely, into men, and while I was bi, I wasn't into him like that.
"Sorry, dude, you're too masculine for me," I joked.
He straightened up, wiggling his shoulders, saying, "Come on, I'm barely even masculine. The bees gave me a run for my money today. Not very manly of me."
I laughed, thinking of how he'd squealed and jumped an entire foot in the air when the bees started landing on his mask.
"You don't have to laugh that hard," he said with fake outrage before saying, "Besides, I'm everyone's type."
I waited a moment as the little shoulder shimmy he was doing devolved into laughter. I grinned, saying, "Even if you were, I'm so not your type."
His laughter moved to a sigh, saying, "I knowww, but how much easier would things bee if you were."
"I still wouldn't bee into you. You don't do it for me."
"What? Are redheads not your type?"
"I don't hate it on Cammie," I said with a teasing grin.
"Oh, really?" he asked, eyebrows so raised they were basically in his hairline.
"Um-" I paused, not loving the mischievous look on his face. I'd been mostly joking, but the way he was looking at me right then had me regretting it.
"Don't backpedal now, she's single, you know..." he said with a meaningful look.
"And your little sister!"
"And?"
"And that's weird!" I said, even though it should've been obvious.
"If you say so," he said with a shrug that made me wonder if maybe I was wrong.
Not that it mattered, since she probably wasn't even into women, but that didn't stop my thoughts from wandering for the rest of the day. She might have been Mattie's younger sister, but she wasn't that much younger, and I wasn't blind to the fact that she was beautiful.