Page 17 of Clean Sweep

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I sucked in a calming breath then slowly blew it out, incredibly aware of the cameras capturing every moment. "I left you here three hours ago. Three hours. What have you done during that time?"

He gestured to a shoebox. "Figured what I want to get rid of."

I heard a strangled laugh from the crew behind me.

Calm, Laura. Stay calm.

Erik, it turns out, may have moved from a tiny apartment to this giant house, but it hadn't stopped him from hoarding things in a storage container. A very large, very expensive storage container.

I'd never seen Liv more excited than when we'd cracked that baby open and a box had immediately tumbled out, spilling its contents on the concrete entry. The contents being, wait for it, empty used tissue boxes.

I still twitched thinking about it.

"Magnificent television," Liv had declared, practically dancing with delight. "My brother is a hoarder!"

Erik had protested, but even I had to admit he seemed to have difficulty letting things go. I mean, used tissue boxes?

Erik had explained that he used the cardboard when creating lettering for different painting projects. But I wasn't so sure.

It had taken a full day but we'd cleared all the junk and brought it back to his house, unloading in his garage.

I tasked him with getting down to the bare minimum. In three hours, he'd only managed a shoebox. A freaking shoebox?

Breathe Laura. Even perfect men have their issues.

I crouched in the garage, reaching for the box and rummaging inside. There were three receipts, a stray button, two bent paper clips and a chocolate wrapper inside.

"Erik," I said slowly, clearly. "Please don't tell me this is it."

He tilted his head to the side, giving me an eyebrow lift. "Are you disappointed?"

Calm!

"I'm not disappointed, just… surprised." I said finally. "There's a lot still to get through if this is it."

"It took me a while to double check the button wasn't from one of my existing shirts."

I blinked once. Then again. My vision clouding with grey as Erik watched me. For a beat he looked utterly genuine then his lip twitched, his eyes brightening right before he burst out laughing, slapping a hand on his knee.

Behind me, I heard the crew laugh.

"You goddamned liar," I said, picking up a stuffed animal and throwing it at him. "You're already done!"

He caught it easily.

"Mostly," he agreed, still chuckling. Erik tossed the toy from hand to hand. "Gotcha."

"Totally," I agreed, reaching for the year book. "Now show me your photo."

He groaned, then flicked through presenting me with an image I wasn't expecting.

"Glasses and braces." I laughed. "You were head of the drama club."

"Four years," he agreed. "never did land an actual role, turns out I'm not very good. But I was enthusiastic."

I patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure that helped."

He laughed, "not even once."