Summer Love

Getting Some Work Done

Max and Sophie stood in the hallway. The buckets of red paint were placed beside them, while the paintbrushes were placed on top of the buckets. They were contemplating which door to paint first. In the midst of their silent thinking, Max spoke up: "I think we should start with the door furthest from the storage room." Before Sophie could reply, he had already carried the buckets and paintbrushes towards the very first bedroom.

Sophie hurried to his side. He knelt down to prepare the buckets, but then stopped midway. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?" she asked, kneeling down beside him.

He had set the items down near the door, but realized that something was missing. "Well, we're messing with paint, but we don't seem to be wearing any protective gear." He answered with a slight grimace.

"Oh my gosh, Max! You're so right. Let's go see if there's something we can wear in storage," she exclaimed with a hint of sarcasm.

"A—Are you mocking me?" He questioned, very puzzled by her reaction.

"Well, what exactly is this protective gear you speak of?" She asked, standing up. "I never needed to wear anything to paint something before." She explained, her hands placed on her hips.

"You know... like gloves, aprons and goggles?" he said with an unsure tone.

She facepalmed, letting out a defeated sigh. "Alright, let's get you some protective gear." She said before going back to the storage room.

Max followed suit, making sure to keep a distance between them. "What's wrong with protective gear?" he thought to himself as he walked. Upon their return, they began their search for the items; gloves, aprons and goggles. Fortunately for them, they were on the same metal shelf that had the paint buckets. He hastily put them on, starting with the apron, then the goggles, and finally the gloves. He noticed Sophie was not equipping the gear, prompting him to ask, "Aren't you going to put them on?"

Sophie shook her head. "Well, as I've said before, I don't usually wear anything to paint. I feel that there's a certain childlike joy in getting paint all over yourself."

Max shrugged his shoulders. "Alright then, I'm keeping mine on though." He spoke firmly, patting the apron.

Sophie simply smiled and made her way back to the bedroom door. Max also made his way back, trying to outrun her in the process. Once they arrived, he knelt down to open one of the buckets. As he opened it, he observed his gloves, and he noticed there was a lack of paint on them. "Either they're good at washing them, or they've never been used before. Though the latter would only be true if dust had accumulated," he thought to himself, putting the bucket lid aside.

He grabbed a paintbrush and started swirling it inside the bucket, mixing the paint. He continued swirling it for a while, mesmerized by the sight inside the bucket. She knelt down beside him with a confused expression and a tilted head. "What is he doing now?" She thought to herself, looking at Max instead of the bucket. "So, what are we doing here?"

He snapped out of his trance, nearly dropping his paintbrush into the bucket. "Oh, I was just staring at the paint being swirled around. I really like how it looks." He answered with a pleasant smile.

She looked into the bucket to see the remainder of the paint's swirling motion before it stopped completely. "Huh, that does look visually pleasing." She admitted, nodding in agreement.

"Anyway, I think it's mixed enough, you can handle this one," he said, handing her the paintbrush. After she took it from his hands, Max carried the other bucket and another paintbrush to the next bedroom.

She held the paintbrush in her hand, and the paint dripped down onto the floor. She stared at him as he walked away, feeling rather betrayed. She turned towards the paintbrush, panicking when she saw the paint on the floor. "Oh no, we forgot to cover the floors!" She exclaimed, quickly putting the paintbrush on the bucket with the tip hanging over the paint inside.

Max overheard Sophie. "Oh yeah, I can't believe I remembered to protect myself and not my surroundings." He set down the paint bucket and paintbrush. "You stay there, I'll get some newspapers." He assured her before running to the storage room.

She continued to kneel down, trying to find something on her person to clean up the red paint. As she could not find anything, she muttered to herself, "Eh, we're going to scrub the floors later anyway," she thought and resumed the paint job.

Max eventually returned with a stacked roll of newspapers, but saw Sophie had already started without him. "Hey, don't you want the newspapers to avoid paint dripping all over the floor?" He asked, frantically running to her side.

Sophie shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I thought about it, and we can just scrub the paint off later when we scrub the floors." She explained, smiling innocently.

He nodded in understanding. "Alright, that makes sense, I'm still going to cover the doors that I'll be painting though," he said, returning to his workstation. Before he could make it back, he jerked backwards due to Sophie tugging on his jacket, and he fell onto the red paint that had dripped on the floor. He also dropped the stacked rolls of newspapers in the process. Since his apron only covered his front, his backside was left unprotected. He felt the wet paint seeping into his slacks, causing him to instantaneously stand back up. "What the... why'd you do that!?" Max shouted, moderately upset at the turn of events.

Sophie could simply grimace. She did not mean for such a thing to happen nor did she expect it. She looked down meekly, nervously tapping her index fingers against each other. "Um, I thought we could work on one door together." She answered while still avoiding eye contact.

He sighed and calmed down, taking a deep breath and letting it all out. "Alright, but I'd prefer a change of pants before we proceed, assuming there are any."

She held her hands behind her back, slowly shaking her head. She still kept silent, but found the courage to look back up at him.

"Hmm, I didn't want to have to do this, but it's better than working in these soiled pants." He said, giving her a wink and a sly grin.

Sophie stared at him with a tilted head, puzzled by his gesture. Her puzzled look turned into a look of embarrassment when she saw him reaching for the hem of his pants and lightly tugging them down. Her face turned bright red, frantically shaking her head and hands. "No, no, no, you don't have to do that!"

Max chuckled softly, letting go of his pants. "Yeah, I wasn't really planning to, but these pants are still soiled and uncomfortable."

"Um, are you at least wearing decent underwear?" She asked, still embarrassed by the ordeal. He shrugged his shoulders and immediately pulled his pants down. She let out a small squeal and covered her eyes with her hands. She took a quick peek through her fingers to see that he was wearing a pair of long johns. "Oh, that's not too bad, actually." She admitted, calming down from the whole ordeal. Though, a light pink still dusted her cheeks. "Yep, I think I can work with that." She said, nodding profusely.

He shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant look on his face. "Alright then. Still, I think we should work on different doors to get more work done, and to avoid bumping into each other while we work," he explained, heading back to his workstation.

She pouted her lips and crossed her arms before sighing in defeat. "Fine, but I still would've liked to paint a door with you." She said, grabbing the paintbrush.

Max kept silent, only nodding in understanding. "Does that mean she likes me?" He thought to himself as he opened the bucket lid and mixed the paint. "You know, the floors have a bigger surface area, we can scrub that together." He suggested, laying down some of the newspapers on the floor around the door.

"Okay, I'd like that." She spoke softly. After dipping their paintbrushes into the bucket, they both applied their first coat of red paint onto their respective doors at the same time.