The creaking of wood floors startled me out of sleep. I blinked my eyes open and looked around. Why was I in the spare room?
Another creak. A footstep.
The night came rushing back to me. The storm, the power going out. Eli’s call. The flood, bringing him here and putting him to bed in my room.
I glanced at the clock on the bedside table. The face was dark. The power wasn’t back yet? What time was it? I checked my phone. Just after eight in the morning.
The bright light streaming in from the window through the curtains told me the storm was over. That was good at least.
Another creak, this time on the stairs.
Eli must be up.
My chest tightened at the memories of him trying to run away from me last night. The anguish in his voice as he’d demanded to know why I’d been nice to him was etched into my brain, the same as the way he’d asked what I wanted from him. The dejected, resigned tone had haunted me long after I’d left him in my room.
What the fuck had happened to him?
Another creak, followed by a loud crack and a soft exclamation, drew me out of my thoughts. I threw the covers off and stood, rubbing a hand through my hair haphazardly, then pushed the door open.
“Oh!” Eli jumped. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He stood halfway down the stairs, his eyes wide and his hair a rumpled mess. He looked cute. A little chaotic and sleepy.
“It’s fine. I’m usually up earlier than this. I forgot to set my alarm. Do you need to eat breakfast?”
He nodded.
“I was hoping the power would be back by now. It’s going to be a rough day without my morning coffee.” I stomped down the stairs. Stealth wasn’t a possibility in a hundred-and-ten-year-old house. “Do you drink coffee?”
“No. Never could get used to the taste. And caffeine doesn’t really affect me, so there’s no point.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t affect you?” I fell into step beside him.
“I feel all the physiological reactions, but it doesn’t wake me up or make me feel more alert. It just makes me jittery.”
“Maybe because it’s not a habit for you. I didn’t start drinking coffee until about six months ago and was fine. Now I need it to feel human most days.”
“Why six months ago? Seems like a random time to start.”
“I started working for my father.” I brought him into the kitchen and pointed to one of the stools at the big island in the center of it. “You sit, and I’ll find you something to eat.”
“Is that when you moved back?”
“Around then.” I opened my pantry and scanned the contents. “What kinds of things can you eat?”
“Do you have any bread? Hopefully, whole grain or something like that?”
“I have multigrain.” I pulled the bag off the shelf.
“That should be good. What about peanut butter?”
“Is almond butter okay?”
“Yeah, that’s great, actually.”
“What else?”
“A piece of fruit?”
“I have apples, bananas, or grapes.”
“An apple.”
“Do you like cinnamon?”
“I do.” I could hear the confusion in his tone and grabbed the spice container.
“Have you ever had almond butter with cinnamon on top?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“It’s good.” I put the food on the island. “I have water or sugar-free electrolyte drinks.”
“Water is good for now. I finished the bottle you gave me last night. I should have brought it down to refill it.”
“I’ve got more.” I went to the package next to the fridge and pulled two out. I also got an apple from the fruit bowl on my counter and put them in front of him.
He was reading the back of the bread package.
“I already washed it, but I can do it again if you want.”
“That’s fine, thanks.”
“Is the bread okay?”
“Yeah.”
I wanted to ask how he was feeling and if his sugar had leveled off, but it wasn’t my business. He was an adult and didn’t need me nagging or bugging him. He was more than capable of taking care of himself.
“What about you?” he asked as I put a plate, a cutting board, and two knives in front of him. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I am. Just didn’t have enough hands.”
I went back to the pantry and grabbed a cereal bar, a bag of dried apricots, and another of high-protein chocolate chips.
I brought my food to the island, but rather than sit beside him, I leaned against it and stood across from him.
“Chocolate chips for breakfast?” He arched his eyebrow as he slathered some almond butter on a slice of bread.
“Not usually, but I gotta get my caffeine fix where I can today.” I opened the bag. “But these are cheater chocolate chips.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re technically chocolate chips, but they swapped out the good stuff with protein powder so they’re not nearly as tasty.”
“So why eat them if you don’t enjoy them?”
“Because… I have no idea.”
He smirked.
“It’s just one of those things adults do and you don’t question it. Like I hate eggplant, but I still eat it because adults like eggplant.”
He snickered and picked up the cinnamon. “I didn’t get the memo that adults like eggplant. I don’t.”
“Maybe that was the wrong example. But aren’t there things you do because you think you’re supposed to? Eating chocolate chips at breakfast isn’t something an adult does, but eating protein-enhanced pseudo-chocolate that kind of tastes like sadness seems like it would be.”
“I suppose.” He sprinkled some cinnamon onto his food. “I always take coupons when I see them at the store, even if I know I won’t use them. And my roommates and I save plastic bags. We have a bag of them under the sink. Never talked about it, but my mom does it, so I do too.”
“Exactly. You get it.” I shoved a small handful of the chocolate chips into my mouth.
“You look like you’re chewing on protein-infused dirt.”
“Then I look how I feel.” I swallowed a few gulps of water to wash down the taste.
“Did you know eggplants aren’t even a vegetable? They’re berries.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “And they have the highest levels of nicotine outside of cultivated tobacco.”
“Eggplant has nicotine in it? Shut the front door.”
He chuckled. “Yup. But only trace amounts. So do tomatoes and potatoes. They’re part of the nightshade family and were grown as ornamental plants because people used to think they were inedible.”
“Who knew eggplants had such a sordid history? And here I thought the most interesting thing about them is how they look like giant dicks.”
He snorted, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “Do they really, though? Have you ever seen a pitcher plant?”
“No.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Do they look more like dicks than eggplant?”
“You tell me. If you can find a signal.”
The Internet was slow as fuck, and I howled as I tapped on one of the photos to enlarge it. “No fucking way those are a real thing.”
“They are. They’re on the verge of extinction, unfortunately. But if you want to stick with penis-like food over plants, then look up the peter pepper.”
“Now I know you’re pulling my chain.” I typed it into the search bar. It took a moment for the page to refresh, and I nearly choked at the line of photos showing off bright red peppers that looked like uncircumcised dicks. “No fucking way that’s real. It has to be Photoshop.”
“Nope. One hundred percent real.” He grinned.
“Are they spicy?”
“They have a rating of between ten thousand and twenty-three thousand on the Scoville scale. Spicier than a jalapeño but not nearly as spicy as a lot of peppers.”
“A spicy dick pepper.” I snort-laughed. “How did I not know this was a thing?”
“Because eggplants have cornered the market when it comes to penis-impersonating food.”
“It would seem so.” I popped a few apricot slices into my mouth and checked out the power outage map on my phone.
“What’s that face for? You don’t look like someone looking at penis peppers.”
“Just checking the power map.”
“And?”
“Things are starting to go back online, but the estimated restore times are… concerning. They’re staying late tonight for this area.”
“What are they saying about student housing?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“And the east side?” he asked quietly.
“Middle of the week.”
“What? When?”
“They’re predicting Wednesday evening.”
“Of course they are.” His eyes darkened. “They’ll get the whole town up and running in a few days but fuck the east side. Let the people who have nothing sit in the dark and cold while the food in their fridges goes bad, and they miss days of work.”
I kept my mouth shut, even though I agreed with him.
“At least my parents are out of town.” He sighed.
“Are they on vacation or something?”
“They’re visiting my stepdad’s family.”
I opened my cereal bar and took a bite. “You didn’t want to go with them?”
“They have a full house with my brother and sisters. And his family kind of hates that Gray and I exist, so they pretend like we don’t.”
“Brother and sisters? I thought Gray was your only sibling…”
“Gray’s my only full-blood sibling. I have three half siblings.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“Why would you?” He shrugged and focused on cutting up his apple.
“How old are they?”
“Henry is seven, Lyla is six, and Harper is four.”
At least one of his siblings had been born when we’d known each other, maybe two. Had I ever asked him about his family? Had he told me about his stepdad or half siblings?
“Is your stepdad nice?”
“He’s great. His family are assholes, but he’s always acted like he’s our dad too.” He kept his eyes on his apple as he slowly and precisely cut out the core.
Beep.
I picked my phone up off the island and checked my notifications. I had a text from Phil, the plumber my father’s company had on retainer.
Last night, when I’d managed to hold a signal for more than a few seconds, I’d texted him and told him about what had happened to the water heater. I liked Phil, and he had over twenty years of experience. It didn’t make sense that he’d missed whatever had happened when he’d replaced the element last month.
Phil: I put all this in my report. The pipe was corroded. Badly. I told your father it was in danger of bursting. He’s lucky the whole thing didn’t blow.
West: Wait. What? The heater was in danger of exploding?
Phil: yeah. Showed all the classic signs. I told your old man to replace it right away. Maybe next time he’ll actually listen
West: can you meet me at the house in an hour? We can’t do much with the power out, but we need to get the water out of there before it becomes a biohazard
Phil: yeah. But we’ll need a generator to work the pumps
West: I’ve got one
Phil: see you in an hour
I sighed and put my phone back on the island.
“Problem?”
“Not sure. I was texting my plumber.”
“Phil?”
I blinked. Had I mentioned his name? Eli had incredible recall, so I must have. “Yeah.”
“You looked like someone stuck a lemon wedge in your mouth while you were texting. What’s wrong?”
“He said he told my dad to replace the water heater because the pipes were corroded and in danger of bursting. He also said the heater was showing the classic signs of exploding.”
He widened his eyes, a slice of apple hovering near his mouth.
“It doesn’t make sense. An exploding water heater is… it’s lethal. Not only would the unit have blown right through the roof like a missile, but the damage from the explosion would have been catastrophic.”
Eli dropped his hand.
“And the pipe burst, exactly like Phil said it would. We had ample time to replace the unit. Why wasn’t I told about any of this?”
“You didn’t see the report?”
“No. Everything gets sent directly to my father. I asked him what I should do about the water heater, and he said it was fixed and wasn’t a big deal.”
“I’d say the threat of an explosion that could potentially kill five of his student tenants is kind of a big deal.”
“I’m going to talk to him about this. Later. I need to deal with the cleanup first, and I’m not in the mood to be lectured about how this is my fault.”
“How can it be your fault? You didn’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s always my fault.”
“Do you think your dad would purposefully ignore a report like that?”
“Maybe. He’s arrogant as fuck, so I could see him thinking Phil was being overly cautious. But even then, he should have gotten a second opinion and not just ignored it.”
Eli hummed in agreement and shoved a slice of apple into his mouth.
I finished my cereal bar, barely tasting it, and chugged my water, my mind a million miles away.
“Will you be okay for a while?” I came around the island and picked up the dishes piled in front of Eli.
“Yeah. Of course. Do you need to go somewhere?”
“I’m meeting Phil at the house so we can clean up the water. I’ll deal with the rest of the cleanup later, but we need to get the standing water off the floors ASAP. I should check out the rest of the properties too and see if there are any problems or wind damage. The messaging service didn’t get any calls, but with cell service going in and out, it’s possible someone tried to call and couldn’t get through.”
“I checked the news sites, and they’re saying the power failures are the worst that happened. A few fender benders, some minor property damage, but nothing too bad.” He came to stand beside me as I put everything in the sink.
“That’s a relief. Did you hear from anyone?”
He nodded and pulled the sleeve of his sweater over his hand. “My mom texted to check in. Gray did too.”
“Does he still live in town?”
“He’s kind of between places right now,” he said evasively. “I texted my roommates about the flood and how we have no water. All but one of them are out of town. He’s staying with his boyfriend on the east side.” He picked at the material of his sleeve cuff. “They said I can stay with them until it’s fixed.”
“Do you want to go stay with them?”
He shrugged. “I’ve known Kai, his boyfriend, forever. We grew up together.”
My chest clenched. I’d gotten used to the idea of having Eli in my house for a few days.
“I can take you over there if you want. But if he’s on the east side, wouldn’t it be better for you to stay here? I’ll get my power back before him.”
He pursed his lips but didn’t look up at me. “Yeah. I know. I told him I was fine where I am.”
Relief washed over me, and I stepped back before I could do something impulsive like rub his back or give him a side hug.
“Make yourself at home while I’m out and help yourself to anything you want. I should be back after lunch.”
He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Call or text if you need anything.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “I will.”
Turning and walking away from him was harder than I wanted to admit. Something about the lost, sad look on his face and defeated body language gutted me.
I wanted to say “fuck it” and spend the day hovering and making sure he was okay, but I couldn’t. For one, I had a job to do. And I already knew he wouldn’t appreciate it and it would just piss him off more.
Feeling more conflicted than I ever had, I changed into some work clothes and got into the company truck. The sooner I left, the sooner I could come back.
