Page 21 of Claimed By my Frenemy

“Here,” she says, handing me the old pipe. “You can be responsible for getting rid of it.” Mia starts to measure, but I notice she’s holding the tape measure incorrectly. She’s measuring from before the zero.

I gently tug at the tape measure and show her how it should be done. Mia bites her bottom lip, probably embarrassed but not wanting to say anything about it. “Yeah, you’re right. I think I’m so shaken from what’s just happened that I can’t even remember basic things.”

She re-measures the pipe, then cuts a new section that will perfectly fit onto the old.

Once we’ve reset the pipe in place, I help Mia by collecting the tools and setting the old pipe in a separate pile.

Mia brushes one of her wavy, black strands of hair out of her face. “Alright, let’s test it out.”

I head to her front yard and try to mess with the valve. Each time I do, I shout back to Mia to see if anything is happening.It seems like nothing is leaking, but when she goes inside to test the water flow, nothing comes out.

“They turned off the valve down the street,” I finally realize. “You’ll have to wait to know if it worked until they turn that back on.”

Mia stands up and brushes at her dirty pants. “Well, at least I’ve done my part.” She looks around at her muddy yard.

“I’ll take care of the yard. If I need to pay for you to have new grass put in, I’ll do it. Or whatever you need to get this place back into shape.”

“Thank you, Theo. I didn’t think you’d actually get your hands dirty.”

I shrug, trying to play it cool. “I couldn’t let you handle this alone. Besides, it’s my fault it happened in the first place.”

She laughs softly, and I feel like her frustration is starting to ebb away “Well, I appreciate it. And I’m sorry for being so stubborn.”

“No need to apologize. I get it.”

She hesitates. “You must be hungry. I was about to make dinner before all this happened. Would you like to stay and eat?”

I’m surprised by the offer, but I quickly recover, a genuine smile spreading across my face. “I’d like that. Thanks.”

11

MIA

I can feelTheo watching me from his place leaning against the kitchen counter. I’m just making something simple–omelets–because the truth is, I don’t have a lot of energy to make something else right now, not after dealing with that disaster in the yard.

I finish chopping the peppers and push them into a pile on the edge of the chopping board. “You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” I ask, the idea suddenly popping up in my brain.

“No, no allergies. And I’m not picky if that’s your next question. Put whatever you want in mine.”

“When we were in high school, you would eat anything, but I didn’t know if that changed.”

“No. Why would it? All food is good.”

“Well, teenage boys think those frozen pizzas are good, and then later, they realize they actually taste like the cardboard they’re packaged with.”

“Hey! I may have class, but those pizzas are good on a night when you don’t want to leave to pick something up.”

“You could cook.” A thought suddenly stops me, and I turn and make eye contact with Theo and his charming, brown eyes. “Youdoknow how to cook, don’t you?”

Theo’s eyes shift away from mine, and I can’t tell he doesn’t feel comfortable with the question.

My mouth drops open, and I stop whisking the eggs. “Theo! You’ve never learned how to cook!”

“There are other things that require my attention. I need to focus on my properties, and as you can tell from today, there’s always a fire somewhere.”

“I would say that flood was the opposite of a fire actually, but Theo, does that mean you eat out all the time? How do you stay so…” My eyes drop to his body. I can’t exactlyseeit, but I can tell his general shape. He’s definitely not overweight. In fact, he’s very fit.

I can tell from the muscles on his arms that he doesn’t just sit behind a desk all day. I wonder what I would see if I were to lift the hem of his shirt.

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