The Expansion of the Universe

Thirty | "Pretty girl."

"We have a problem!" Elijah declared as he stomped inside her condo the following day, as promised.

She didn't even look up from her book when she asked, "What kind of problem, Elijah?"

"Something extremely serious, Liza—the book needs to go!" it did go a second later, when he snatched it from her unsuspecting hands and set it on top of the bookshelf, where he knew perfectly well she couldn't reach without a stool.

She scowled, but it morphed into a confused frown when she took in his attire of a hoodie, sweatpants, bright red rain boots, and a backwards-facing baseball cap. "What's going on?" He was holding a whiteboard in one hand, and underneath his other arm he held a stand for the board, as well as a single marker.

"What's going on is that we have a problem!" he repeated, his back facing her as he shifted to set up the whiteboard in the middle of the living room.

"Elijah," she drawled, sharing a fond, exasperated glance with Milo, who sat beside her on the couch. "I can't help if I don't even know what's wrong."

"Right, right," he answered absently. "Here's what's wrong; I found the wasps, Liza! And it's worse than we could have ever expected!" Once he deemed the board's placement acceptable, his attention was back on her. "Multiple nests, just behind my back porch.

"Here's the issue," he continued, gesticulating wildly at the large whiteboard he'd set down in front of the couch. He'd drawn a crude blueprint of his yard, complete with stick figures representing her, him, and even Milo. "See, here?" He circled several triangles he'd drawn in the square which signified the backyard. "This is way too close to the back porch. But, if—"

"What are those?" she asked, pointing at the triangles but biting at her lip the moment she stopped speaking to stop herself from laughing. It was hard, though—he was positively adorable.

The look he shot her was entirely unimpressed. "The wasps' nests, doll, please keep up."

"Of course. My apologies."

He pointed at her with his bright pink Expo marker. "Don't get sassy, now. This is important."

"Right."

His eyes narrowed, but he continued, nonetheless. "Now, because of their distance to the porch, I'm not sure it's smart to hit them from the backdoor."

"How come?"

"Because they'll catch me, babe, and then they'll come inside and sting me all over, and you'll have to nurse me back to health, but if I don't make it, you'll be heartbroken, and Milo will never forgive you for letting me die." He delivered the entire sentence without even pausing to take a breath, and he appeared entirely serious, save for the bright twinkle in those dark eyes of his.

Liza's reply was droll. "How silly of me not to realize."

"Agreed. Now," he drew a line from his stick figure (she knew it was his thanks to the sloppy handwriting below it that read Handsome) to the triangles, then to a large rectangle just to the left of the backyard-box, "here's what I intend to do."

"Could you explain it further? I don't think Milo understands."

Elijah spun to face Liza and her dog, and she couldn't help the snort that escaped her at how crazed he looked, with his hair sticking in all directions, his chin sprouting stubble, and his hoodie crooked on his frame. "Milo, pay close attention, I'll need you—" he cut himself off abruptly, returning his attention to the board and tapping the marker against his chin, where it began to decorate his stubbled skin with bright pink marks.