In His Arms

Chapter 4

'Cleansed'

Preface: A shift in P.O.V. is indicated by a line of asterisks.

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1:40 P.M.

".....Well, we've got our work cut out for us. Certainly smells like the walls are drenched in something musky." I'm standing inside the main bathroom with Gramma dressed in only a sports bra and a pair of waterproof pants, clothes I can afford to get wet in, while I had my eyes slightly narrowed from the odd stench filling the room.

I guess this is where Jace's refusal to bathe in here comes in.

"I've had the vent cleaned this morning, so the smell should start dissipating soon. Don't tell Jace I've been using his toilet for the past two days, by the way."

"Err, yeah, whatever you say, Gramma."

"Jace! Hurry up and come in here, or are you going to make Issa clean this bathroom all on her own?"

"Alright, alright. The heat was killing me, so I had to change into these."

Jace comes into sight shirtless, holding a white towel over his shoulders, and wearing a pair of black boxers that looked more like swimming trunks. This guy's surprisingly toned and well-built, with tan lines on his naked, somewhat sweaty torso in the shape of a tank top.

Trying to keep my gaze away from him was admittedly hard, and I hope he didn't see me stealing a few glances at him here and there or I'd never hear the end of it the second Gramma leaves us alone together.

"Alright, I'm gonna leave you two right here. The roof still needs some cleaning, too. Franchesca's probably up there with a rake by now. Jace, take good care of Issa now."

"Yessss, Ma!" As soon as Gramma moves out of the bathroom and out of sight, Jace turns to me with a smug little smile on his face.

"Don't even bloody think about it."

"Relaaaax, I'm not up to anything. Last thing I want to do is...." Jace inhales deeply while looking around the spacious bathroom, likely more spacious than our shared bedroom's, too. ".....get hot and heavy in this room. At least not when it's in this state."

"Well, in that case...."

I toss him his own pair of rubber gloves after I put on mine, then grabbed a coarse sponge and a spray bottle full of soapy water.

"These walls aren't gonna clean themselves. Let's get started."

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2:10 P.M.

Thirty whole minutes of grueling work removing the stains off the walls and floor later and they're near spotless, with Jace in charge of spraying detergent all over every single stain he can lay his eyes on while I'm in charge of scrubbing them off with the sponge and water.

"Did we......get all of it? Ah, I need to take a breather...." I ask while sat on the closed toilet seat, wet and sweaty all over and more than a little spent as each stain felt harder to scrub off than the last. It was like trying to remove chunks of dried cement from the walls.

My shoulders, my upper back, hell maybe the entirety of it, felt like I had been lifting solid gold dumbbells over my head.

Jace walked around spraying the walls using the showerhead, washing off the soapy, bubbly water.

"Pretty much, though Ma mentioned something about replacing the pipe of the sink cabinet too, there's should be a spare in the kitchen drawers."

"Agghh, shouldn't we let a plumber take care of that?? Anyway, that one's yours for now, my arms feel like bacon strips." I leaned back on the toilet's water tank as I watch Jace approach said sink cabinet, two-door and quite the old one, if all the chipping on its white paint is any indication.