Page 35 of Two Friends in Marriage
Chapter 12
Evan
“Isithotinhere, or is it just me?”I ask on Wednesday, as Jane and I eat lunch together.
I wince.Did that sound dirty?
“I mean, do you think the a/c is working?”I amend.I’m sweating, and while I’m particularly prone to sweating, I’m usually comfortable inside our house, which is set at 23°C; the basement, where I work, is a couple of degrees cooler.
Jane sets down her chopsticks.“Yeah, you’re right.It’s a bit warm.”She gets up.
“You don’t have to…” My voice trails off.She’s already at the thermostat.
“It’s twenty-six in here.”
Shit.After the morning I’ve had, the thought of figuring this out is a little too much.
Jane heads to the basement, where the heat pump is located.I finish my last few bites of lunch and join her.
“What’s wrong?”I ask, though I don’t expect her to have an answer.
She shrugs.“You go back to work, and I’ll worry about this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
I return to my basement office, which is blessedly cooler than the kitchen, and I’ve spent about twenty minutes answering emails when there’s a knock on the door of my office.
“Come in,” I say.
Jane appears in the doorway.“I tried a bunch of things I found online, but nothing worked.So, I called a local repair guy.He’s on vacation, but the second company I called can come tomorrow morning.”
I know this is all stuff I could do myself.However, it’s nice to have someone else take care of it.I would have gotten anxious, wondered why the hell I thought I was ready for home ownership, then beaten myself up for freaking out.
“Thank you,” I say.“I really appreciate it.”
Do I sound too grateful?I don’t know.But it’s better than taking Jane for granted.
We decide it’s too hot to cuddle while watching our K-drama that evening, but with a fan, I manage to sleep okay, and the doorbell rings at 11 a.m.Though it’s quickly followed by the sound of Jane’s footsteps on the stairs, I figure I should go up, too.
I arrive just as Jane opens the door to a white man in his fifties.When he asks what the problem is, he looks directly at me.Because I’m the man of the household, I guess.
However, when she answers, he immediately redirects his attention and further questions to her, and she leads him to the basement.I debate whether to stay with them, but Jane looks comfortable enough handling this, so I head to my office, though I keep the door open.
Fifteen minutes later, she appears at my door and names something that needs to be replaced, which he’s doing right now.It doesn’t mean anything to me, but it’s apparently three hundred dollars, and everything will be operational again soon, which is the important part.While I cringe a little at the price, it could have been so much worse.Besides, we’ve budgeted for repairs like this.
And Jane really does look nice in that blue V-neck T-shirt and jeans shorts.Her skin glistens with sweat, and I think it would also be nice to see her sweating beneath me…
No!Why am I thinking about that?
I scrub a hand over my face.
“Evan?”she says.“Is that okay with you?”
“Yes.”I clear my throat.“Of course.”
My attraction to Jane is really becoming a problem, and I swear my heart skips a beat in the silliest of situations.Like when she found Watson sitting in her chair at dinnertime, and the left corner of her mouth curled up.Just a little thing, but I’m still thinking about it twenty-four hours later.
