Page 17 of Drunk Girl

“Not really,” she says. I’ve noticed she tenses up or freezes whenever the possibility of what she considers the bad comes up.

“Okay. I’m here if you ever need someone else to talk to,” I tell her honestly. I’ve never been one to discuss feelings, but something has me wanting to know everything about Ashley. I feel an incredible pull to her, one that has me wanting to protect her and ravish her, all at the same time.

“Thanks for the tour,” she says a few moments later. “What did you need to get done today? I don’t want to keep you from whatever it was.”

“Just some things around the house. Laundry, dishes, groceries. It’s my day to be an adult,” I say, laughing.

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” she says, stepping out of my hold. I follow her back inside the house.

“Feel free to turn on the TV. I’ll go get my laundry started and then we can figure out what to do next.”

“We could work on your bathroom,” she suggests, the excitement in her expression fucking adorable.

“We could,” I agree. “You might get dirty. Are you sure you want to work in what you’re wearing?”

She looks down at what she’s got on, then back up at me. “Do you have some shorts and a t-shirt I could change into?”

“I’m sure I could find something,” I tell her, ignoring the dirty thoughts running through my head about her wearing my clothes.

I head down the hall and into my bedroom. I grab my hamper of dirty clothes and toss them all into the washer after I toss in a couple soap pods, then return to my room and rummage in my closet. Just then, I remember Katie left some clothes here that she wears when helping out.

I cross over to one of the other bedrooms and rummage around in the dresser drawers until I find a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. They aren’t mine, but better than Ashley ruining the clothes she’s got on.

“Here ya go. I remembered Katie had left some things here from when she’s helped out in the past. These will probably fit you better than anything of mine,” I tell her, handing over the clothes.

“You sure she won’t care?”

“Nope, she’s pretty laid-back. She’ll be happier that she isn’t the one having to help,” I say on a laugh.

“Okay,” she says, accepting the clothes and flashing me a huge smile. “I’ll go change, then be ready to work.”

“I’ll go gather some tools and supplies,” I tell her as she walks down the hall and disappears into the bathroom. I force myself to head into the garage and start gathering things we’re going to need. Laying tile is easiest with two people, so I figure we can start with that. I’ve already got the wall all prepped, so we just need to measure everything out, apply the thin set, and then start attaching the tile to the walls.

“Can I help carry anything in?” Ashley asks, when I bring in an armload of supplies.

“Sure. We’re going to tile the shower, so can you pick up a few stacks?”

“Absolutely.” She follows me back out into the garage. It takes us about ten minutes to get everything inside, between the dozen or so trips back and forth. We stacked the tile where the vanities are going to go, separating the main tile from the accent pieces.

“Okay, so we have to measure everything out first.” I grab the tape measure and long level. “Since I’m adding in the accent pieces, it’s important we keep everything level and aligned,” I instruct as I start making marks on the wall.

“That makes sense,” she says, watching me carefully as I finish up the marks I need.

“Now we can apply the thin set, and then comes the tiles,” I tell her as I open the bucket of thin set. “You can use this to apply it to the walls, we just want a thin layer of it like this.” I demonstrate how to apply it, and how much to apply.

“Looks easy enough,” she says as she gets to work on one of the smaller walls while I tackle the larger wall. It doesn’t take us long to have the thin set done and ready for tiles to start being placed. We laid them out on the floor to make sure I liked the pattern and to make sure it was correct. It’s a pain in the ass to remove the tile to replace pieces if I fuck it up and put it up wrong.

“Okay. If you want to hand me the pieces one at a time, I’ll get them attached.”

We fall into an easy rhythm, Ashley handing me tiles and my attaching them to the wall. It only took five or so before she started adding the thin layer of thin set to the backs of the tiles for me before she handed them over.

“Are you sure you’ve never tiled a shower before?” I ask about halfway through the project. “You’re a natural at this.”

“Nope, never. Must be beginner’s luck or something,” she says, a huge smile on her face. I take in her appearance. She’s got thin set smeared on her cheek, and dust from helping carry in the materials and from just being in the bathroom and around the unfinished walls, yet she looks beautiful.

“What?” she asks, looking down at herself. “Something wrong?”

“No, nothing.” I shake my head at the thoughts running through my mind. “Just wanted to say thanks for helping me,” I say, as I lean forward and bring my lips to hers. The tile that had been in her hand hits the floor, breaking as it does so.

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