Page 26 of August
“Help me? Like, stand behind me or something?” Elisa asked with a flirtatious smile.
Itwasflirtatious, right? Elisa was flirting with heragain. Myra had thought that had been the case over dinner the previous night as they had shared pasta and wine. Elisa had forgotten to cook the chicken, and the garlic bread had been a little burned, but Myra had had a lot of fun watching her tryto scrape the burned cheese off the bread as she continued to apologize for not cooking the chicken that Myra hadn’t cared about at all.
“Yeah,” she replied. “If you want to try it.”
Elisa just nodded, so once Myra had finished measuring and marking her lines, she carried the two-by-fours outside, and Elisa followed her. Having set up the first piece of lumber on the sawhorses, Myra explained the rules of the saw first. Elisa would have to wear the safety goggles since Myra hadn’t brought her face shield, and she would need to let the saw reach full speed before she started her cut.
“I look weird,” Elisa said after Myra took her through the rules and placed the goggles over her eyes.
“No, you don’t. DoIlook weird?” Myra asked, pointing to her own goggles.
“No, but you look like you know how to do this stuff, so you can pull those off. I probably look like an amateur who shouldn’t be wearing safety goggles for anything.”
“It’s really not that hard. These are basic cuts. I’ll do the more difficult ones at the shop, where I have the rest of my saws and supplies. I’ll bring those pieces over this weekend. These are straight lines. They teach these cuts in high school woodshop classes.”
“Making me feel worse? Really?” Elisa joked.
Myra laughed and said, “Here. We’ll practice. The saw is still unplugged, so just hold it first; feel its weight a little.” She held it out to Elisa and moved behind her.
“Heavier than I thought,” Elisa noted.
Myra pointed to the different parts of the saw and explained their purpose. She didn’t have to do this. Elisa could saw a straight line just fine, she guessed. But being behind her like this gave Myra a chance to breathe her in and touch her on the back as she attempted to keep Elisa steady with the saw in her right hand.
“You should just do this. I’ll watch,” Elisa said, trying to hand Myra back the saw.
“Probably,” she replied with a little laugh. “I’m notexactly insured to have you saw something.”
“What?” Elisa turned to her, and the saw bumped against Myra’s side. “Oh, shit.”
“It’s okay. The blade is covered, and it’s off, but yeah, I think that about wraps up our saw lessons for the day. I’ll do it, and you watch. Maybe you can learn a little, too.”
“Sorry,” Elisa said. “I got really nervous.”
“Why? It’s just a saw.”
Myra took it from her and stepped away.
“Um… I’ve never done it before.”
Myra nodded for Elisa to stand aside and said, “You can plug it in from very far away, and I’ll take it from here.”
“Sounds good,” Elisa replied with a laugh and moved over to where the extension cord leading to the outside outlet and the cord for the saw met.
Myra moved into position, and after Elisa plugged in the saw, she checked that Elisa had stayed several feet away and looked down, checking her line and her saw blade. She turned it on, let it get up to speed, and began cutting. Five more cuts later, she was done for the night, so she turned off the saw and set it down. Then, she turned to Elisa and took off her goggles.
“You can take those off now,” she said to Elisa.
“Oh, right,” Elisa replied and pushed the goggles onto her forehead. “You’re… very good… at that.” She pointed to the stack of two-by-fours on the grass.
“It’s easy,” Myra said. “And when you’re less nervous about giving it a try, I can show you for real.”
“No, I think I’m good with not using the saw. I’d love to learn other stuff, though. Not that I expectyouto teach me on top of the massive discount you’re giving me, but I’ve always had someone do stuff for us around the house, so now that I’m on my own, I want to learn how to do it myself.”
“Why? You have a contractor living next door,” Myra said with a smile.
“Well, I can’t expect you to always drop everything and come over here if my sink is leaking.”
“No, you can’t because I’m not a plumber. I can probably still fix it, though, but you’d want to call a professional for that. I know one if you need one. I know afew, technically.”
