She smiled and picked up the flashlight. Her landlord had thought about it. Figuring it might have been smart to trade first names, Poppy decided she’d ask his name the next time she saw him. They’d have to cross paths eventually. For the next three days, she’d be working until nine PM, but then she’d be off for three days. Would he expect her to go out whenever she wasn’t working so he could get on with fixing up the apartment?
With the flashlight focused on the floor, she went through the front door. The light from the room on the left wasn’t even noticeable until the glow of the flashlight moved beyond it.
Pausing, she turned off the flashlight. Drawn toward the source of the other illumination, Poppy pushed the only slightly ajar door further open to creep inside. She’d only gone a few steps when she found out where it was coming from. Candles. There were candles on the floor around the perimeter of the room. Dozens of them. It was beautiful.
The metal framed bed in the middle of the room was dressed with dark linens. Fabric was pinned to the wall over the presumed window. Some kind of free-standing heater stood in the corner too. She hadn’t seen that room the previous day, but she guessed he’d gone to some effort. Unless… maybe she’d taken over where he’d been staying. Was that possible?
“Okay.” The boom of his voice behind her startled Poppy into spinning around. “Your sink and toilet work,” he said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. One of the two doors she’d passed on entering the bedroom was open a little. “You’ve got a choice for what’s next, either I finish the floors in here and give you your outlets or I’ll keep going with the trim then get started on the kitchen. I did all the baseboards in here, the bathroom, and closet last night. Though there isn’t actually a closet in the closet yet… The tub won’t come until next week either and I can’t finish the walls in the bathroom until I get the last of the shower fittings… not if we want a decent finish.” Her mouth was open a little, but she didn’t actually say anything. “Do you cook?”
At home and in the hotel, there was no need for her to cook. “Maybe,” she said for lack of something better to say.
He frowned then rubbed his fingers back and forth across his forehead. “I’ve had like two hours sleep since I saw you last,” he grumbled. “My patience is thin. What’s more important? The kitchen or the bathroom? I can get fittings tomorrow, finish the walls… though they’ll need time to dry… a couple of days ideally. That would give me time to do the floors in here and get your outlets done… But that pushes the kitchen back by at least a week, maybe two.”
“I don’t want you to…” She could sense his exhaustion. Even if he hadn’t confessed it to her, Poppy would’ve seen the weight behind his heavy eyes. “Don’t do anything differently. Just do whatever you would usually do, in whatever order you would usually do it… You don’t have to work faster just because of me.”
He didn’t seem to get it, either that or he was suspicious of her. “Charley said you work together.”
“You talked to her? She wasn’t at work.”
“Vacation days,” he said, still peering down at her. “Charley’s a good soul… too good. She’d give you the shirt off her back.”
“I don’t want her shirt,” Poppy said, opening her arms, the wine in one hand, flashlight in the other. “I have everything I need right here.”
Without actually moving his eyes from hers, he tipped his chin toward the wine. “Blow out the candles and use the flashlight before you tear into that.”
She laughed and inhaled while admiring the wine. “It’s art.” The twitch of his eye betrayed that he didn’t understand. Poppy raised the bottle higher. “I don’t have a corkscrew. I couldn’t drink it even if I wanted to.”
“Geez,” he exhaled and extended an arm her way. “Give it to me.”
Poppy couldn’t do anything with it, so she crossed to put it in his hand, then took her purse over to the bed. “I appreciate the flashlight… and everything, I guess. I appreciate everything. You didn’t have to do that. I know.” Going into her purse, she carefully opened the wallet of her bills and counted off what