89 Water

I'm beyond livid. How in the hell did this happen in my house?

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!"

Footprints. Black, muddy, foot prints tracking through my front door to the kitchen and towards the downstairs bath where noises are coming from. 

My exclamation had the noises pause coming from the bathroom and an unknown face sticks out from the doorway.

"Hello, ma'am. You must be Ms. Xenos? Mr. Morgan hired us to fix this leak in your bathroom." He stops when he sees the muddy track marks on my pristine white carpet. He immediately raises his hands in the air, "I'm so sorry ma'am. We had to rush out and turn off the water to the place. My assistant must have not checked his shoes. We'll be happy to pay for the cleaning service."

I raise my hand to my head and take a deep breath, "Excuse me. I need to make a phone call. I ask that you both wear these inside my home though." I open the closet and pull out the blue booties that you slide on over your shoes. I slip out of my own shoes and hand them to the man before pulling out my phone.

Looking at the mud, seeing that it's still wet, I put my phone back up and quickly pull out my small wet/dry vacuum and started removing as much of the mud as possible. I then pull out my carpet shampooer and fill it with water and immediately start rinsing my carpet trying to make sure the carpet doesn't stain. 

I know I'm obsessive about my carpets, but they are my carpets. I have no doubt these two plumbers are thinking I'm about to flip out like an entitled, pretentious bitch on them about it too. However, I know they are just doing a job and once again, the part about informing others to not walk on my carpets with shoes or to put covers on was forgotten. I didn't want to put up a tacky sign, but at this point, I might have an aneurism from suppressing my frustration. 

I'm rinsing and rinsing each print, ensuring they stay wet and don't set into the carpet when Jackson makes his way through the front door. He stops and raises a quizzical brow before noticing the tracks that I'm working on.

He grits his teeth in an anxious 'oh shit' grimace, before sheepishly giving me a guilty, 'I fucked up' look. I return a pointed, 'yes you did' with my eyes narrowing in on his before returning to cleaning my carpets. The closer I got to the bathroom though, I noticed a bigger problem, my feet are wet. There was water, too much water soaking into my carpets from the bathroom.

Jackson walks over to me, the rustling of the blue bootie shoe covers noisy on the carpet. He pauses, hesitating, as I stop cleaning realizing my carpets were most likely ruined. I stand and walk towards the bathroom and see the men under the sink replacing a large section of the piping that was in the wall. The mirror was off the wall, wrapped in towels and the drywall was removed to replace more piping up top. 

I turn to Jackson as my jaw flops in wordless horror and shock. He pulls me away from the bathroom and leads me into the kitchen. 

 "After you left for your brunch with your mother, I went to use the bathroom while making my breakfast and discovered the water and called them. I'm sorry I didn't mention the shoe thing. It was the last thing on my mind, honestly. We may have to replace the carpet and underlying materials anyways. There's a lot of drywall that is soaked as well that will need replacing and the cabinetry seems to be ruined as well in there. It has been leaking for a little while, but because of it being under the sink and behind the mirror, it went unnoticed until the pipe gave and flooded." 

I stare at Jackson, trying to take this in and breathe. "Why didn't you call me?"

"I was not sure how your brunch with your mother was going and felt I should wait till you got here. I had to sign off on some things at the office and hurried back. I wasn't expecting to be gone as long as I was. I thought I would have been back in time before you got home." He sighs, "I'm sorry, Melita. I didn't know what to do other than call a plumber that could show up immediately." 

I pull another breath in, deeply and let it out slowly. "I wish you had called me, but nothing we can do about it now. The professionals are here to take care of the water issue. I guess I should call and see about someone to help out with the drywall and cabinetry. I guess I'm going to need someone to come do the floors too." I cover my face with the palms of my hands. 

My home. My first safe place that was my own and not an apartment or dorm room. My pride and joy. It now feels violated from the issues that have happened to it. Now, more people will be coming into it, making it dirty, not caring that this is my sanctuary. It's upsetting me, but I'm trying to remember to breathe and stay calm. Breathe in and breathe out. In deep, out slow. These things happen. I would have to call someone to come fix it anyways. I can not change these facts. Breathe in, breath out.

"I'll pay for all this, Melita. You don't need to feel stressed about it." 

He thinks I'm stressed about money? I have my own damn money. This is my house, I can take care of myself.

"I do not need nor require your assistance. I am capable of paying for it myself!" I snap at him. 

His brows furrow in confusion while his eyes pinch like I've hurt him. "Okay." He says slowly. "I didn't mean to imply you were not capable of paying for it, Melita. I was just trying to be helpful."

I groan, knowing that I'm letting my emotions control me at the moment. I take another breath before letting it out slowly.

"I'm sorry for snapping. I'm just... this is MY HOME." It's all I can say before I have to take some deeper breaths and keep my eyes closed to try and prevent the tears from coming out. 

Jacksons arms are suddenly wrapped around me, gently, so if I want to pull away I can. I rest my head on his chest and breathe in his scent that helps calm me. I let him calm me, but have to push away when I feel I need some space. I pull out my phone and begin looking up contractors to call to come and fix the rest of the issues. 

After writing down a few numbers and checking reviews, I decide to wait to make a call until the plumbers are done. Jackson sits at the table working on his laptop while the plumbers are still working in the bathroom. I decide to make some tea and try to fill up the kettle.

"Shit. That's right." I murmur to myself. They had turned the water off to fix the issues. I open the pantry to pull out a bottled water to fill the kettle and see I'm out. I walk over to the fridge and open it to find none in the fridge as well. I sigh and grip my forehead in irritation. 

I grab my phone and am about to send Dave a message when Jackson inquires, "When you finish that tea, may I have a cup?" He doesn't even look up from his screen.

I don't know why, but it raises my ire again. Bristling I growl out, "No. There's no water. I need to go to the store and buy some stuff. I'll be back later." I grab my cloth bags for groceries and call Dave to come pick me up to head to the store.

I'm still irritated as I walk around the aisles of the market, grabbing random items that sound good and the items I know I need. 

Today started out alright, but it's been downhill ever since I got back to the house. I can not understand how, or why, the pipes broke. How long had they been leaking? One would think, even if the mirror was in the way, that I would have noticed something? It's not like the bathroom was never used.

I'm picking up the heavy case of water to place on my cart, my thoughts heavy on my mind when someone bumps into me and I lose my balance.

"Hey!" I cry out, having to drop the case back down to catch myself so I do not fall over. 

"Oh! I am so sorry!" A familiar male voice cries out behind me.

I stand up and turn, only to pause when I realize who it is.

"Derek?!" 

"Melita?! Hi! I am so sorry. I didn't mean to knock into you like that. I just rounded the corner and wasn't paying attention looking at the display. Are you alright? I didn't hurt you, did I?" Derek's gorgeous green eyes scan me with concern, assessing my person for any signs of injury.

Sighing, I shake my head and let my shoulders relax, "No, I'm not hurt. You almost got me though. I was about to put that case of water in my cart when you got me."

"Oh! Let me help you with that." Derek sets his basket down and picks up the case of water and places it on the bottom of my cart for me. His muscles become visible through his button up shirt as he moves, making him look scrumptious.

"Thank you, Derek. I appreciate your help." 

"Not a problem, Melita." He gives me a panty dropping grin that makes my breath stutter in my chest as I exhale.

"So anything exciting happening in your life lately?" Derek inquires as he picks his basket back up.

I groan, "I would not refer to it as exciting but stuff has been happening."

He quirks an inquisitive brow, "Oh? Care to elaborate?"

Shrugging, I push my cart slowly as we walk down the aisle. "My downstairs bathroom had a pipe in the wall leaking for a while and didn't know about it till today." I give him a strained smile. 

He lets out a long breath in the form of a low whistle. "I have to agree, that is not an exciting happening, but an event none the less."

"So while they are doing the work on the pipes, I have no water at my place." 

"Ah... explains why you have so much water in your cart. Will you be without water at your place for long?" Derek asks, eyeing the three gallon containers and the case of bottled water. 

"Not sure. I like to have extra on hand though and did not enjoy being surprised earlier that I was out. Anyways, enough about my complaints. How have you been?" I ask, steering the conversation away from my frustrations. 

He informs me that his fathers health had further declined, so he had been spending more time with him. He goes on about some of his business deals going on that he was hoping to have Jackson take some interest in.

"Here." Derek hands me his business card, "Give me a call. I'd love to invite you both over for dinner tomorrow. I'm serious about discussing things with Jackson and I'd really appreciate him at least humoring me with his presence."

"I'll give you a call and inform you what he decides. It was nice catching up with you Derek." 

"You too, Melita. I hope to see you both tomorrow." Derek flashes me a warm smile that gets my stomach fluttering. 

Holy hell. Why is this man so damn attractive?