It’s sort of what I expected, but bigger and better. As July becomes August (and the heat scorches and the desert reigns supreme), Felix lets us take over the house, even though the sale hasn’t been finalized.
After we’ve sent him a million thank-yous and the promise to have him over once it’s done, we begin to strip the house to its bare bones. We’re there every day, especially in the almost-cool evenings, tearing out the floors and stripping ugly wallpaper. We spend hours upon hours at Home Depot and Lowe’s, picking color schemes and tile flooring. We go to IKEA whenever it’s in our budget to buy new furniture. (Thing You Should Know About Me #7: I like playing house with Levi.)
My dad’s construction company sends in a few guys to work for free, helping us get things done within our time frame. We supply them with pizza and root beer, and they boss us around and take care of the hard stuff. Eventually, the new flooring is in and the furniture’s in boxes in the garage, which leaves us with one more thing on our to-do list: painting.
“We’re going to have to work together on this one,” Levi says to us, the day after we finish the floors. In the middle-of-August heat, it’s so disgusting outside that we’ve locked all the windows and doors and barricaded ourselves in the main room with three fans. (Mental checklist: Remind Elle to hire an AC company to get a unit in here immediately.) Most of us could make it tonight, except Clary-Jane and Nikita.
“I have all the paint,” Elle says, going over a list on her phone. “And it’s 3:00. We could get a lot done tonight.”
Levi looks at me. “What do you think?”
“Let’s do it. I can get paint shirts for everyone.”
Elle tsks. “Will you bring Tom with you, too? We need more muscly arms.”
I personally believe there’s another reason for her inviting him, but I say nothing. “Sure, if he’s free. Who’s on snack duty?”
Suhani raises her hand. “I’ll go.”
“Can there be glitter?” Albert asks.
Levi’s eyes bulge. “No. Absolutely no glitter.”
With that finality, we disband. Suhani heads to the store, and I go home. I dig through my dad’s old work clothes, coming up with a few torn, already-paint-splattered t-shirts. I also grab some old tank tops from my drawer.
When I get back to TCP, I have the clothes and three siblings in tow. “They all wanted to come,” I explain to whoever’s listening.
“Oh good!” Elle exclaims, grabbing Tom’s hand and dragging him into the house.
Levi accepts the shirt I give him. “Thanks.” His smile is strained, a stark contrast to his happiness earlier.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, warily.
“Just…” He waves his hand. “It’s whatever. My dad.” He shrugs and lets me kiss him on the cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I say. I almost ask him what’s going on, but he looks withdrawn, like he doesn’t want to talk about it, so I decide to wait until he does.
He puts one arm around my waist and as we walk into the main room. “If anyone wants a shirt, get it now before you ruin your clothes with paint.”
“Thank you,” Suhani says, snagging a shirt. “Mujhe tumhari shakal surat bohot pasand hai.”
Levi gives her the stink eye. “What does that mean?”
Suhani just giggles, but as soon as Levi turns around to pass out the rest of the shirts, she leans into me. “We only ever compliment him,” she whispers. “That first day we met? We’d actually only told him he has beautiful eyes. Today, I told him I love his face.”
I laugh.
“Don’t tell him,” she says. “I’m trusting you.”
Then she winks and me, I pretend to zip up my lips. “Not a word.”
I turn my attention back to the rest of the group just as Levi gives Missy a shirt. She holds it out between two fingers. “Do I have to?”
Levi shuts her up with a dirty look and turns to me. I reach for him, meeting him in the middle, where he kisses me quick. “Thanks, Bagheera.”
I cringe. “Excuse me? You can’t call me Bagheera! He’s a fictional panther.”
“Well, maybe that’s why you’re so freaked out about your name.”
“Do you think my mother would name me Bagheera?”
He thinks for a second. “No?”
“No.”
“I still think it was a good guess.”
“It was a terrible guess and you know it. You’re just grasping at straws.” I start to walk away. “Why don’t you stop and let me tell you when I’m ready?”
“When will you be ready?”
His voice stops me, as well as his words. I look at him with some difficulty, because I don’t know how to answer his question. “It’s not a big deal, Levi,” I non-answer.
His face changes then: eyebrows drawn, lips set in a line, the sharp contours of his face hard. But it’s only a split second, and we’re interrupted by Elle shouting for us across the room. We start, glancing at her, but when we look back at each other, his expression has changed again. It’s softer.
“You’re right,” he says, and takes my hand.
Elle waves frantically as we join the group. “You two, help! No one can agree on a pattern.”
“What’s up?” he asks, like he’s coming out of a daze. A small part of me wonders if I did something wrong.
Elle hands us a color wheel. “I want to paint stripes on this wall, horizontally, in four colors. Missy wants diagonal stripes, but that’s way too much stimulation for the front room. Suhani thinks we should paint polka-dots. Albert demands glitter.”
“No.” Levi puts his hand on the back of Albert’s neck in an almost threatening way. “I said no glitter.”
Elle sighs heavily. “What do you suggest?”
Smiling, Levi puts his hands in his pockets. “All of it.”
“What?” This comes from everyone at once as we all stare up at him in shock.
A few minutes later we disband, all of us assigned to different rooms and different patterns and color schemes. We lay out canvas in each room so the new floors aren’t ruined, and Levi sets up a music station that blasts too loudly from his portable speakers. After a few minutes of goofing off, and Levi running around getting everyone to hustle, we finally start to work.
In the front room, which has become the main office, Elle and Tom are in charge of painting the walls with blue and green and yellow and pink horizontal stripes, as per Elle’s request. She claims it will look fun and professional; all we can do is hope.
Suhani takes over the kitchen right away, painting all the cabinets white, letting them dry, and then getting to work on polka-dots every color of the rainbow. Attached to the kitchen is the dining room, which we have turned into our waiting room—Astrid’s room. Bless her for putting up with a very annoyed Missy (who is complaining about not wanting to take off her shoes for this). Their job: paint two walls light yellow, and the third wall with chalk paint. (This was also Elle’s idea, and she bought every color of chalk pen that she could within our budget to ensure we follow through.)