Vows of Misfortune

18.

My words from last night were tested when I had gone out for a walk around the apartment building and came back to see Susanne, struggling with multiple grocery bags in her hands.

I hurried up beside her on the stairs and took them from her. "Let me help," I said.

"Oh, thank God," she mumbled. "I thought my arms were going to be ripped off the bone."

Lugging the bags up weren't as easy as I'd imagined, the bags were pretty heavy. I glanced at what she had in them; two bags of flour, a bag of coffee beans, loaves of bread and whatnot.

"How did you get all the way up here with these bags?" I asked, holding back the grunt as I stepped up the very top of the landing.

"Practice." She let out a sigh and cracked her neck as she headed to her door. "Thank you, sweetheart. It was nice of you to help."

My palms were burning from the bag handles digging into them. "It's fine. It looked like you were struggling."

"That I was."

She pushed open the door and I followed her inside. "Where would you like these placed?"

"Just put them on the floor near the dining table."

I waddled over to do exactly that when I spotted a body half into the cabinet under the sink. The cargo black pants and white tank top looked oddly like—

"Is the pipe giving you trouble, Romir?" asked Susanne as she walked past me and to the dining table.

Romir? What the heck was he doing here?

"Uh," I said. My voice must have been familiar because he pushed himself out and looked up. His face was vacant. "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't know?" Susanne asked. "We'd been having this issue with a leaky pipe for a while and apparently Romir used to be a plumber. So he offered to help fix it for us."

Great. I forced a smile. "How...thoughtful of him."

Romir didn't comment, he was back to focusing on smoothing sharp edges with a metal file. After Susanne moved away, I watched him work, completely in his own world. Or so I thought.

"Staring isn't nice," he deadpanned, chucking the file into his toolbox and grabbing a rag.

"Who said I was staring?" I placed the bags on the floor near the table. "I was thinking about something."

"Mhm."

"Why are you such a jerk?"

"I wonder why."

I bristled. "Is Jose uncle alone?"

He stopped tightening the clamps. "If I'm here and you're here, what does that mean?"

"I was only asking a question." He hummed under his breath uncaringly, like he could care less about what I asked and what I was doing there.

"Do you want to stay here for lunch, you two?" Susanne emerged from the bathroom, fixing her hair.

"Oh, I can't," I said, "Jose uncle's alone so I should probably get back to him."

"What about you, Romir?"

"Got work after this."

"You must have squeezed in time during hours, huh?" Susanne sighed and dejectedly clapped her hands. "Well, thanks for both your help. You two make a great team."

We didn't even do anything together, I thought, but didn't say anything. "Thanks, Susanne. Bye."

I waited until Susanne was looking at her phone so she wouldn't question our lack of...affection, to leave so that I wouldn't have to say bye to Romir—who didn't bother saying it either.