Page 27 of The Playboy's Most Unexpected Baby

“You don’t have to be an electrician to rewire a light switch. Youdoneed to use an electrical tester. Do you mind?”

Charlie moved over. To be honest, he was impressed by her. He hadn’t imagined that she would know what to do with the light switch, and though he didn’t consciously hold the opinion that women couldn’t do this, he had to admit that he had assumed he’d be the one to take charge. That was why he had looked the process up online, and he had come into this feeling confident that he knew all there was to know about what needed to be done. Now he could see that he had been wrong to assume that.

Olivia picked up the red wire and held it to a port on her electrical tester. Some numbers jumped around. Charlie didn’t know what it meant, but Olivia seemed to.

“Okay,” she said. “You were right. That was the live wire. But it might not have been. The red wire coating is a decent indicator, but not a foolproof one, especially in an older house like this. I’ve seen houses where all the wires were the same color. It’s always a good idea to make sure, because if you get this wrong… best-case scenario, the switch doesn't work. Worst case, the house catches fire.”

“Well, we don’t want that.”

“We do not! Can you hand me the screwdriver?”

Charlie could see that he had officially been demoted to assistant on this project. He picked up the driver and handed it to Olivia, and she began to loosen the screws on the light switch in her hand. Once they were ready, she wrapped the two wires around them and tightened them back up.

“Okay,” she said. “You can screw this back into the wall, if you want to.”

“Oh, don’t do me any favors,” Charlie laughed, but he accepted the screwdriver from her. “Where did you learn to do this?”

“I’ve done it dozens of times. When you’re fixing up a house to sell, one of the most important things you can do is get all the switches working.”

“Okay, but I mean, where did you learn to do it in the first place?”

“Well… truth be told, I looked it up online too.”

“Oh, you did, did you?”

“Don’t get all smug.AfterI did that, I talked to an electrician I know. I had him watch me the first time I did it to make sure I wasn’t messing anything up. That’s how I know I’m doing things right. If you try to do home repairs based solely on the information on the internet, you’re going to go wrong as often as you go right. That’s how a lot of the light switches in houses get wired wrong in the first place — people think they’re going to upgrade to a dimmer or something, they wire it in wrong, and then they either can’t figure out how to fix it or else they’re too afraid to try in case they make something even worse.”

“And they don’t call an electrician to fix it for them?”

“Not everyone has trust-fund money,” Olivia said. “For a lot of people, calling an electrician is an intimidating idea. Either they don’t know how much it’s going to cost, or else — if they do — they can’t get their hands on the money it would take.”

Charlie was quiet for a moment. “I didn’t even think of that,” he admitted. “You must think I’m a real jackass.”

“Oh, you’re not so bad,” Olivia said. “You can’t be expected to default to thinking about a lifestyle you’ve never experienced. I don’t always think about what it would be like not to know where your next meal is coming from, because my family doesn’t struggle to keep food on the table. You think about the life you’ve had.”

“Well, that’s not good enough,” Charlie said. “If I have that attitude, I’m not really any better than my siblings. I know most people don’t live the life I’ve lived. I know I’m not the norm. I don’t want to act like I think my life is what’s normal.”

Olivia gave him a genuine smile. “I get that about you,” she said. “You aren’t the rich playboy jackass I used to think you were.”

“No?”

“You’re just a regular rich playboy.”

“Thanks.” Charlie tightened the last screw. “I think this is good.”

“Let me go turn the breaker on, and then we’ll try it.”

Olivia hurried down the stairs to the basement where the circuit breaker was kept. “Go ahead,” she called up to Charlie.

He flipped the switch and the dining room flooded with light. “It’s working!” he yelled down to her.

A moment later, she appeared in the doorway, grinning broadly. “Awesome,” she said. “Now we can get rid of that terrible lamp.”

“What? I like that lamp.”

“Take it with you when you move out, then. That lamp is hopelessly outdated and you must know that.”

Charlie laughed. “I like it because it was Aunt Marge’s favorite,” he explained. “Every time I came over here, she’d have it in a different room, and it sort of became a game — figure out where the lamp is. I never saw it in the dining room while she was alive. I guess this was the last place she moved it.” He was quiet for a moment. “She never got to see me find it here.”

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