Page 19 of Maybe You

“Quinn.”

“I won’t tell him. Problem solved.”

He snorts. “You wouldn’t have to. It’s Quinn. Believe me, he’d know. Somehow, some way, he’d find out about this, and then I’d be even more in trouble. I’d rather just do my time now and free up my schedule for more enjoyable activities later. Besides, he’s all worried about your injury seeing as he’s managed to develop such a wide ethical streak.”

“You told him about that?” I slam my hands onto my hips. The stupid splint gets in my way again.

“The moment he started going on about how I shouldn’t break into places. I just threw you under the bus to distract him.” He looks around the empty room and at the cleaning supplies in front of our feet. “Clearly that backfired a bit for me.” He gives a sad headshake before he dismisses that and aims a grin my way. “Long story short, here I am, so use me. Any way you want to. I’m not picky, but if you need ideas about the how, I’ve got plenty of suggestions.” He waggles his brows.

We both stare at each other for a little while, neither of us giving up, until I let out a deep sigh and accept the inevitable.

“Fine. Do you want to wipe or mop?”

“Both are terrible choices,” he says cheerfully. “We can flip a coin.”

I debate that for a moment before I narrow my eyes at him. “Really flip a coin? Or are you one of those people who’ll be all, ‘Heads, you mop. Tails, you wipe. If it stays on the edge, I’ll go get a beer, and if it remains hanging in the air, I’ll do the work?’”

“That does sound like me,” he says thoughtfully before he snorts at whatever look he sees on my face. “I won’t this time. Scout’s honor.”

“You were a Boy Scout?” The skepticism rings out loud and clear in my tone, and I’m not even trying to hide it.

“For a whopping day and a half before I got myself kicked out.”

I quirk my brow at him. “For?”

“Something that wasn’t even half as compromising as they made it out to be. That cucumber just happened to?—”

I hold up a hand and shake my head. “On second thought, I don’t want to know.”

He simply grins. “Do you have a coin?”

“No.”

“No worries. I bet there’s an app.”

He pulls out his phone. Of course there’s an app.

“Heads, you mop?” he asks, and I give a reluctant nod. He holds his phone out toward me. “You can do the honors. Just so you can be sure there’s no funny business.”

“You saying that makes me think there is funny business,” I inform him before I tap on the screen, and we watch the virtual coin turn for a few seconds before it lands on heads.

I aim a smirk his way. He’ll be running out of here soon enough.

“Have fun with the bathrooms,” I say. “Some kids have terrible aim, so really give it some elbow grease.”

He makes a face before he picks up a sponge. “I really would’ve preferred penile servitude. Just saying.”

“Welcome to the real world,” I say sweetly. Yeah. He’ll be gone in no time at all.

I pick up the bucket, fill it with water, and add a dash of cleaning solution. To be honest, I expect Sutton to be useless, so I’m already preparing myself to go over whatever he manages to clean again. I’m not happy about it. I’ve had a long day, and I just want to do my job and go home. I’ve already accepted that I’ll be here later than usual, courtesy of the finger, but now I have to add chaperoning somebody to the mix.

But then when I get back into the changing room, I find Sutton actually working, and actual elbow grease is actually being used. Which is actually unexpected. So unexpected I just stand there for a while and stare before I finally catch myself, take the mop, and start cleaning the floor. For all his earlier complaining and insinuations about not being thrilled about having to do manual labor, Sutton moves quickly and efficiently, and we finish the first changing room in record time.

It’s when we’re heading toward the second changing room that I let the curiosity get the better of me.

“What do you do for a living?” I ask.

He throws me a look over his shoulder while he wrangles his supplies to the showers.

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