Page 33 of Secret Desire
“She and Grace and I had a besties night last night. We did a lot of talking, and I told Maeve what I’ll tell you… if y’all make each other happy, you have my blessing.”
“We don’t need your blessing,” I reminded her.
“I know, but I’d like to give it to you anyway,” Ariel said quickly. “I know what I did was inexcusable, but I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Tell me what you want, I’ll do anything. Anything.”
“You can’t buy your way out of this,” I said, even as I enjoyed making her squirm. We both knew I was going to forgive her eventually.
My sister gave me a wry smile. “All I had to do was give Theo a Porche to get back on his good side.”
“What did you give Maeve?” I asked.
“I promised her I’d talk to you. Try to get you to give her another chance.”
“You can do that while cleaning the bathroom.”
My sister’s jaw dropped open. “What?”
I picked up the scrub brush I’d dropped on the counter when we walked in. “I was just about to scrub the grout in the bathroom. You want to show me that you’re sorry for all those terrible things you said to me? Get scrubbing.”
Ariel stared at me, probably waiting for me to tell her I was joking, but when she realized I wasn’t she said, “Fine, but I’m going to need gloves. These are not the hands of someone used to doing manual labor.”
She paused. “Also I’m going to need you to show me how to clean grout. I’m not even sure I know what that is.”
I was sitting on the couch relaxing about ninety minutes later when there was another knock on the door. Goodness, I was popular this morning. This time when I looked out the peephole it was Maeve standing in the hallway.
I pulled open the door, drinking her in. Even though I’d seen her yesterday at work, I hadn’t seen the real Maeve, the one wholiked to wear comfortable clothes and ponytails, since the last time we spent the night together.
It seemed like a lifetime ago.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Maeve gave me a hopeful look. “Have you talked to Ariel?”
I nodded. “She’s scrubbing my grout.”
Maeve tilted her head like she thought she hadn’t heard me correctly. “I’m sorry? It sounded like you said Ariel was scrubbing your grout?”
“She is. She tried to buy me a Porsche, but I told her I needed her to do something more personal.”
Our eyes met and we both smiled.
“I really want to talk to you, but I’m not going to be able to concentrate until I see this.”
“Come on in.”
Maeve followed me to the one bathroom in my apartment, stepping past me to look inside. My sister was on her hands and knees, her designer pants completely trashed, her dark hair matted to her head as she worked the scrub brush into the grooves between tiles under the sink.
Without looking up, she held up one gloved hand and said, “I’m just finishing here. I think it turned out pretty good. Much better than when I started.”
She sounded proud of herself.
Then she looked over her shoulder and saw Maeve. Her cheeks were already red from exertion, but I could still see her embarrassed flush.
“Oh. Hey.”
Maeve whipped out her phone, taking a series of pictures.
“Hold up your hands so I can get a better shot of the gloves,” she instructed. “Ooh, and the dirt on your shirt.”
