Several hours passed, during which I alternated between napping and anxiously staring at the clock; as the sun set, my feelings of agitation simmered in the background, causing me to nearly jump when the buzzer on the door chimed merrily.
“Sorry, I know I’m a little late,” said Acai, shifting on his feet with the most handsome sheepish grin I’d ever seen, “Hopefully you don’t mind too much Miss Daphne.”
“Oh, oh no, it’s fine- I just- here, you’d better... have a look.”
Berry above but he was handsome; strong jaw, lanky, and with dark plum colored hair, he seemed sent straight from the berry side layer to grace my humble abode. My heart beat painfully fast as I attempted to adopt a devil-may-care attitude, pointing out the offending object in question,
“Well, here you go, oh Captain my captain; make of her what you will.”
“Oh... well that’s not nearly as bad as I thought it’d be, all things considered. You said this place had been unused for awhile, right?”
“Yes, definitely, Nan hasn’t been here in over a decade.”
“Sounds about right; but again, it could be a lot worse, the actual bones of the plumbing looks, outwardly, to be in passable shape.”
He mused thoughtfully, stroking his chin and eventually sauntering over to the sink. He flipped his wrench idly and clanged it once or twice on the spout, before walking back to address me again.
“I’m fairly certain it’ll require a new faucet to be operational in any sense for eating purposes, you definitely don’t want to cook with whatever that is going to produce; but for the time being, I could get the pipes clear at least and return in the morning to really have a go at it.”
The thought of seeing Acai again the following day brought on butterflies in my stomach, and I stammered an affirmative response.
“S-sure yeah, sounds fine, if you don’t mind-”
“Not a problem, but of course I could just be attempting to catch you with your guard down and ask...” here he trailed off and raised an eyebrow while giving me an appraising look, “If it’s not too forward, what’s a beautiful woman like you doing in a backwater like this?”
“I- oh I mean that is to say- ah-”
Acai’s laughter was loud and pure, the sound warmed the cockles of my heart and brought on an uncomfortable heat in my face. I placed my hands over my eyes and groaned,
“Ugh, you were teasing me!”
“Sorry, sorry! I just couldn’t help it, you the pure sugary ingenue and me, the dark rogue here to sully you! My sisters made me watch a lot of romantic comedies growing up, it’s sort of my shtick. Although, I wasn’t teasing that you are beautiful, and all, just the lecherous part is a put on.”
He winked and turned, leaving me flummoxed by the sink and called out over his shoulder,
“Be back in two shakes of a lambs tail, I’ve got some Draino under my bike seat, then we can sit and talk more while the pipes percolate.”
