Right Next Door

Chapter 8

Brandon

It had been a long week and by Wednesday night Brandon decided a night to unwind was in order. After a round of drinks with the guys from the job site and a quick trip to the convenience store, Brandon made his way home. As he pulled into his driveway he saw a figure dart across Maggie's front yard. Slowly, he exited his truck, carrying his plastic bags, and continued to stare into the shadows of her yard on high alert. After hearing what sounded like clinking metal and muffled curses, he walked to the other side of his truck towards her house.

"Move, dammit!"

Maggie.

Brandon dropped his bags in her yard and sprinted towards the shadows covering the far side of her lawn until he could finally make out her figure. She was soaking wet from head-to-toe and her hair was a ratted mess. She was desperately trying to turn off the water valve in her yard.

"Maggie! Let me help you." He came to a stop and started rolling up his shirt sleeves.

"Oh my God, Brandon! There's a water leak in my kitchen and I can't get this damned thing to turn off."

He didn't ask, he just took command and gently pushed her aside, taking the rod out of her hands in order to try his luck turning the valve. Within a matter of seconds, he turned it off and looked over at her.

"Yea, you could've made that look a little harder," she huffed, swatting hair out of her eyes and putting her hands on her hips.

He smiled. She really looked cute, despite the current mess she was in. "Let's get inside so I can see what happened." He followed her but took a quick detour to grab his grocery bags and entered her house.

"So what do we have here?" The kitchen was in complete disarray. As soon as he crossed the threshold into the room he splashed into a puddle of water.

"I was doing dishes and all of a sudden I heard screeching metal. After a second or two it stopped, but then I felt water on my feet."

"Have you noticed any water leaks before tonight?" He peered into the cabinet under the sink and discovered a crack in the main pipe.

"No, but I'm really bad at stuff like this. What's the damage?"

Brandon asked for a flashlight, which she quickly found for him from a drawer on the other side of the room.

"There's definitely a crack in the main pipe here. It looks like it just burst. Grab some old towels and I'll help you get this cleaned up." He began emptying out the contents of the cabinet and when Maggie returned with the towels they both got on their hands and knees to sop up the water.

"I think your cabinet's OK. We just need to let it dry out. I don't see or smell any mold under here, which is a positive sign. These pipes look pretty old, so I'm sure it just gave out."

"Thank you so much for helping me, Brandon." She stood and gathered up the most sodden towels to place in a laundry basket. "Give me one sec to take these into the garage."

"No problem, I'm going to look at a few more things under here."

About ten minutes later, Maggie appeared in the kitchen. Brandon had dried the rest of the floors with the extra towels Maggie had set out and he had put all of the cleaning supplies on top of her counter so Aaron couldn't reach them.

She had clearly dried herself off and put on a change of clothes, pulled her hair into a knot on the top of her head and donned thick wool socks. She looked simply irresistible to Brandon.

"You didn't have to do all this. Sorry it took me so long, I had to get out of those wet clothes."

"It's no problem, really. I'll have to get a new part for the sink tomorrow, but we will need to keep your water turned off, unfortunately. I know that's incredibly inconvenient but I can get this fixed first thing in the morning."