Saturday morning Bryce was up with his alarm and was in the kitchen fussing with the coffee maker before he remembered that Karl had cancelled for the day. He muttered a few choice words under his breath and crawled back into bed.

He woke the second time around eleven and finished making coffee plus some toast to go with it. As he put the dishes in the dishwasher, he spotted the plate from last night just waiting for the machine to be full enough to warrant being turned on and he smiled. Things had gone better than he could have planned.

She didn’t slap me and she’s agreed to a real date. Definitely better than I thought it would go.

He showered and shaved and tossed on his grubby clothes. He didn’t have anything else planned so he was going to swing by the house, see if Karl was around, and then maybe head out to the park on the edge of town for a jog.

Traffic was light for a Saturday and considering that the radio was predicting some heavy rains in the next few hours, a forecast the sky appeared to agree with, he wasn’t surprised. Maybe I won’t go for that jog. Being caught in a New Orleans downpour is not my idea of a good time. Maybe Jane’ll be free later.

He parked in front of the reno-project. Getting out of the car, he could hear voices and he jogged along the side of the house to find a half dozen men in baggy jeans and loose shirts hauling packages out of the garage.

One man, the one wearing the black muscle shirt under an open button-down shirt, moved to intercept him. “Whoa. Who the hell are you?”

“Karl’s cousin,” he said, holding out a hand. “Bryce.” When no hand was offered in return, Bryce dropped his. “You must be the guys renting storage space in the garage.”

“What do you know about it?”

Another three guys had stopped what they were doing and were staring at Bryce.

“That’s all I know about it.” Bryce took a step back.

“Bryce! Shit man, didn’t you get my message?” The back screen door slammed as Karl came jogging across the lawn. He waved at the man in the button down shirt. “I got this.” He grabbed Bryce by the arm and led him into the house.

Bryce was tempted to lie, to blame a cellphone glitch, but he had called Jason so it wouldn’t take Karl long to call him out on the lie. “Yeah, I got the message. I had nothing else to do today so I came to see if there was anything I could do.”

“You can go home, that’s what you can do.”

“Who are those guys?”

“Renters.”

“Come on, you’ve been hounding me that this is a rush job to get this place back on the market and then you shut down work for a whole day for a bunch of guys who are just renting storage space? They can’t be paying you enough to make it worth your while.”

“That’s between me and them, okay?”

“Okay, okay, I’m dropping it. Is the outside ready for painting?”

“Why?”

“I think I might have some help lined up for that.”

“Who is he?”

“She. Jane. Friend of mine from work. I was telling her about working on the house and she seemed interested. I thought painting was a pretty harmless way to introduce her to the whole thing.”

“You sleeping with her yet?”

“No. We haven’t even had an official date yet.”

“So you’re not actually dating her yet and you want to drag her to a work site? No wonder you’re still single.” Karl was shaking his head.

“And what’s your excuse?”

“I’m perfectly happy bar hopping, I’m not ready to settle down.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. He didn’t even bother offering Bryce one.

“Should you be doing that inside?”

“Shut up.”

A car door slammed and they both looked out the window. All the guys in the backyard had loaded into a couple of cars and were driving off. Karl opened the nearest window and exhaled out it. “Thank god.” He made a bee line for the back door and went out, settling on the back step.

Bryce dropped down beside him. “Who are they, Karl? What kind of trouble are you in now?”

“It’s no trouble. I just wish you hadn’t come today is all. Look, you’re here and they’re not so why don’t we put a few hours in cleaning up junk and then I’ll treat you to dinner. Okay?”

“Sure. I’ve got nothing else to do.”

They worked until their backs were starting to ache and then Bryce tailed Karl’s truck through the rain down to the nearest burger place. Over dinner they talked about family and swapped insults. Out in the parking lot again Bryce said, “So we’re on for tomorrow?”

“Yeah. With a little luck you can paint the siding Tuesday or Wednesday after work.”

“I’ll aim for Wednesday and I’ll see if Jane’s free. Karl, stay out of trouble, okay?”

“Easy as pie.” Karl waved and lit another smoke.

---

They were working on separate floors Monday morning and had their lunch breaks at different times so it was almost two in the afternoon before Bryce caught up with Jane long enough to have a conversation. They were both emptying their laundry carts in the basement which meant it was also as private as work got.

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to ask you something all day,” Bryce said.

“Ask away. Can’t promise I’ll answer.”

“Want to head to the diner for dinner tonight? Not a date. I just want to talk to you about this week and I don’t know how long I can stall on the laundry.”

“Okay. But I’m taking my own car so I can go from there to the grocery store.”

“Deal. See you after work.” He took his empty cart and headed for the service elevator while she dealt with the machines. Once she was sure she was alone, she let herself smile.

---

They arrived at the diner seconds apart and ordered quickly, both getting chicken burgers and fries. “So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?” she said.

“Are you free Wednesday?”

“This Wednesday, yes. Next week, no. Why? Are you asking me on another date?”

“No. I could use some help after work. Or rather Karl could use an extra set of hands and I thought of you. Feel like painting?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have much experience with that sort of thing.”

“I’m not asking you to rewire the house. Come on, it’ll be fun, and a little messy. Karl and the guys are great.”

“I thought you didn’t get along with them.”

“I wouldn’t want to go out to the movies with them, but for work buddies they’re fine. Whaddya say? I’ll pick you up after work, there’s not a lot of parking on the street, and we’ll go paint a house.”

“I dunno.”

“You’d be doing us a favor. Karl’s in a rush to get this house on the market, like yesterday. It pays in food.”

She laughed. “Oh no, you’ve found my weakness.”

“Seriously, we usually send someone out for subs. And I’ll marinate some kabobs for afterwards.”

“I don’t have a grill.”

He arched his eyebrows, not sure where that had come from.

“You wanted fish. I don’t have a grill. I can pick up the fixings today and we can have fish on Wednesday. If you don’t mind me using your grill.”

“No, I don’t mind at all.” The thought of her puttering around his kitchen pleased him greatly. “I didn’t expect dinner so soon.”

“Neither did I.”

The burgers and fries arrived and their conversation shifted to a news report on a bombing in Europe and then onto the history of the Syrian conflict and somehow ending up in a debate on the philosophical credibility of Buddhism. What that had to do with Syria, Bryce still wasn’t sure.

She was talking at great length about the universality of meditation while he struggled with the last of his fries. Her plate was already empty.

When he stopped her to ask if universality made something more or less credible, she took the opportunity to snag a few fries off his plate. When he stopped talking and stared at her, she just shrugged. “You look like you’re having trouble.”

“Maybe a little. Help yourself.”

“Two bills?” the waitress asked as she came by to collect Jane’s empty plate.

“Please,” Jane said. When they were alone again she added, “I’m impressed she remembers us.”

“I order something different every time I’m here just so she won’t say ‘Hi Bryce, the usual?’ when I walk in the door.” He grabbed a fry, looked at it, then tossed it back on his plate. “Nope. I’m done.”

“Do you mind?”

“No, go ahead. I’m impressed you know.”

She shrugged. “What do I need for Wednesday?”

“Clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty, something to cover your hair since the roller spits a lot, and comfortable shoes.”

“I think I can manage that. Anything else?”

“A water bottle and a sense of humor.”

“Here’s the bills. Hope everything was okay today.”

“Perfect,” said Jane. She grabbed the last few fries and then her bill. “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Bryce.”

“Sure.”

“Hey, you don’t have any allergies or anything, do you?” she asked, pausing at the next table and looking back at him.

“Nope.”

“Good. Then I’ll go get what I need for the fish.” She waved and headed out the door.

---

Jane left scribbled directions to her apartment in Bryce’s lunch kit before heading out the door. He was running late, finishing up some extra task for Carter, and she wanted to get a head start so she could change her clothes and eat before going to help with this house he was painting.

Head start or not, she barely had time to change and eat before Bryce was buzzing to come up. She let him in and hurried to clear her plate. She was just putting it in the dishwasher when Bryce knocked at the door. She swallowed the last mouthful and hollered, “It’s not locked.”

“Hey. Oh, hey, this is a nice place, roomy. I think your living room is bigger than mine.” He was peering around, nodding in appreciation and biting back what he wanted to ask, which was ‘why are there no pictures anywhere’. He’d be excited to see her place, to examine the family photos and vacation photos, or at least the artwork she’d chosen to hang, but there was nothing.

“I think it only looks that way because I don’t have a table.”

He was wearing an old t-shirt with numerous smudges and stains on it in a variety of colors that suggested paint and plaster, but not food. His sweats were equally grubby and there was even paint on his shoes. It was certainly a big step down from their not-a-date the other day, and even a step down from scrubs, but there was something comfortable about it, like he was showing her something that was almost private. He wouldn’t dress this way on a date, or to have dinner with someone’s parents.

“Maybe that’s it,” he was saying. “Why don’t you have a table?”

“I don’t need one. And it leaves more room for the equipment.”

“Yes, I see that. Your own personal gym. Well, don’t worry about missing your workout today. Your shoulders are going to feel this.”

“Oh come on, painting can’t be that hard.”

“Famous last words. You ready?”

She grabbed her water bottle off the counter. “Yeah, I think so.”

The house was amazing, a two-story antique on a quiet, tree-lined street. The garden was a little overgrown and the siding looked weathered and faded but Jane could easily imagine what it would look like all cleaned up and painted. She hoped Bryce would give her a tour at some point this evening.

There were three guys all in stained clothes setting up scaffolding and pouring paint into roller trays. One of the tall, scruffy blonds walked over. “Bryce, didn’t think you were going to make it.”

“I said I’d be here. Karl, this is Jane from work. Jane, this is my younger cousin, Karl.”

Karl held out a dusty hand, “Pleasure.”

Jane shook without hesitation. “Like wise. So what are we doing here?”

“Primer today, one coat, the whole damn house if we can manage it. Are you okay with heights?”

“Sure, they don’t bother me.”

“Great!” Karl grinned. “At least someone’s got the balls to get this job done.”

As he walked back towards the house, Jane leaned over and said, “What was that about?”

Bryce shrugged, trying to play it cool. “I don’t do heights. Come on.”

Jane was quickly introduced to the other two. The second blond was Jason, who was Karl’s cousin, but not Bryce’s. The last one, Jeff, had dark hair and a short-cropped beard to match and he reminded her of pictures she’d seen of her father as a younger man.

“You have any experience?”

Jane shook her head. “None. I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since ninth grade art class.”

“Really? Not even to repaint your bedroom?”

“Oh, well, my foster father wasn’t the type to get his hands dirty so he hired people to do renovations and I was expected to stay out of the way. But I’m sure it can’t be that hard.”

“It’s not. You can head up the scaffold with Jeff and he’ll show you what to do. Bryce, grab a brush, you can start on the ground floor trim. Jason and I will finish setting up the scaffolding on the other side of the house. I’ll make a food run once it’s all up.”

Jane smiled at Bryce and then followed Jeff up the side of the scaffolding. She sometimes had to change lights at work so she was used to ladders but this was a whole different game. Instead of steps they were climbing bars, and it was straight up, not angled nicely. She felt a bit like a monkey, or at least like a kid on the monkey bars.

“Karl’s right, it’s not that hard. Watch. You dip the roller in the tray, roll it a few times to spread the paint out. If you have too much it’ll drip, if you don’t have enough you’ll be refilling all the time. It’ll take a little to get the hang of it. Then you just roll it on, side to side. You have to follow the direction of the siding.”

“Sounds easy enough.” She picked up her roller.

“So your foster parents were rich?”

“Just Dad, he wasn’t married. He was well-off but I wouldn’t say he was rich. And really, we lived a pretty normal life, all things considered.”

“Like what things?”

Jane shrugged. “How long you been working on houses?”

“Oh, Karl got into this almost ten years ago. We went through shops class together, and Jase did shops at his high school, too. Then Karl got a loan to buy this real junker and the three of us flipped it. Made enough to cover our costs, pay back the loan, and put a down payment on the next place. We’ve been rolling from project to project ever since.”

---

Bryce was working on the trim around the door and front windows, just around the corner from where Jeff and Jane were working. He could hear them talking but couldn’t really hear the words, not with Karl and Jase bitching at each other around the other corner and the clatter and rattle of the scaffolding they were putting up. He did clearly hear when she laughed though. His frown deepened and he focused on the work in front of him.

This was just the primer so it wasn’t important that he stay in all the lines, the siding and trim were all being done with the same primer. But he did have to keep the stuff off the windows and he had to go wide enough around each fixture to make a buffer zone for the rollers.

Jane’s laugh drifted down to him again and Bryce caved to the urge to check on them. He peeked around the corner of the house but the scaffolding blocked most of his view at this angle. At least he could hear them now.

“… looked like a wish troll but with shorter hair and clothes, thank god.”

“But why were you using pink?”

“Oh, Karl thought the house would have more sell-ability if the rooms were painted for kids, you know? And shops class didn’t really prepare us for the mess painting indoors could make. The rollers mist, you can see it on your arms already. Well when you’re indoors the wind doesn’t take any of it away and Karl’s hair’s so light …”

“Did he have any idea?”

“Nope. We let him go for food looking like that.”

Jane laughed again.

Bryce ducked back around to his work station before Karl could catch him hovering. You tell all the embarrassing stories about Karl you want, just don’t start in with stories about me, he thought.

He powered through the trim but it was a tedious job. Window trim, siding around the window trim, door trim, siding around the door, next window’s trim, more siding, careful not to drip, careful not to get it on the glass, make sure you don’t miss anything.

Karl came around, wiping dust from his hands. “Subs okay?”

“Yeah.”

“The usual?”

“Yeah. You put banana peppers on mine I’ll toss you from the scaffolding.”

“You’d have to get up there first,” Karl said with cheeky grin. He disappeared around the corner.

When Karl returned with the food, they washed up and sprawled on the back deck to eat.

“What do you think?” Karl said to Jane.

“My shoulders are going to be sore,” Jane laughed. “But this is kind of fun.”

“You’re welcome to come by again tomorrow. We’ll be finishing the primer in the morning and then starting on the actual paint in the evening. With a little luck, we should be done by the weekend.”

“Sure, I could come by again tomorrow.”

“I can give you a ride again,” Bryce offered.

“Thanks.”

They worked past sunset until full dark and then dragged everything except the scaffolding inside. As they were washing up the brushes and rollers, Karl’s phone rang.

“Sorry, gotta take this.” He wandered down the hallway.

“What color are you painting the siding?” Jane asked.

“Just a light grey,” Jason said. “Neutral works best and it’ll suit both the house and the neighborhood. Have you seen the rest of the house?”

“No, too busy painting.”

Bryce was suddenly at her elbow. “I’ll give you a quick tour and then we can head back to my place for dinner.”

“You’re eating again?” Jeff said.

“Grilled salmon,” Jane said. “I owe him.”

“Come on, I’ll show you upstairs.” He wanted her away from the guys, surprised by his sudden possessiveness.

From the foot of the stairs they could hear Karl in the front room. “Come on, you were just here. That’s great for you but we’re painting. I have to work around the weather. The guys won’t like it. I know that’s not your problem. Fine. But be out of here by eleven, that’s the best I can do.”

Bryce ushered Jane up the stairs.

“What was that about?” Jane asked softly so her voice wouldn’t carry down to the other guys.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t like it.”

---

They stopped off at Jane’s so she could grab the food from the fridge so it was late by the time they reached Bryce’s apartment. “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’ll grill up quick.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Do you know how to make rice?”

“Uh, equal parts rice and water and microwave?”

“That’s one way but it won’t work for this rice. It’s easy. There’s directions on the package. Just add an extra half cup of water and a half cup of the frozen vegetables.”

“Sure. No problem.”

He tried to focus on the job he’d been given but watching her prepare the fish was far more interesting. She hadn’t taken the time to change and she looked like she was completely at home, mixing seasoning and humming in her painting clothes in his kitchen. He managed not to burn the rice but the pot was going to require some scrubbing to get the layer of stuck on white gunk off the bottom. She glanced in the pot and laughed. “Nearly perfect,” she said.

He smiled.

The rice was dished out onto plates and the salmon set on top. “And there you go. Grilled salmon as promised.”

They ate at the table since the rice was too messy to eat at the couch and filled the space between bites with idle conversation. She tidied up while he scrubbed the pot and gathered up her leftover cooking supplies.

“I think that’s everything,” she said.

“Well, let me get you home then. We have work in the morning.”

“Oh joy.”

“You’ll come again tomorrow?”

“Yeah. This was fun.”

When he pulled up in front of her building, she unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Bryce. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He smiled the whole way home.