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In his defense, Michele had only just moved in and he’d let Sara keep most of the tools. (The prosecutor in his head insisted on objecting – he let Sara keep most of the tools because she was the one who knew how to use them, not just because he was being nice to his sister.) Thanks, prosecutor, that made Michele feel so much better about staring at the sink in dismay because it was flooding his bathroom, and he couldn’t fix it.
He'd checked with the neighbors on either side of his house – neither were home, or at least weren’t answering knocks or doorbells. In desperation, he turned to his phone. When Sara downloaded Grindr for him, he’d sworn he would never use it, that he was perfectly capable of finding men when he wanted to and didn’t need an app. However, he’d seen the stories online about Grindr being full of helpful men who might be willing to step up in a pinch. It also showed locations, so he could just find the closest man and go from there.
As it turned out, the closest man was on the same street as him, on the other side of the cross street. Sk8tr Boi Cz.
Hi! I know this is a little odd, but I’m not actually looking to fuck. My bathroom sink is flooding and I only just moved in, haven’t met the neighbors or bought any tools yet. Any chance you can help me out?”
After five minutes without an answer, Michele was debating whether to move on to the next guy yet. It was a rather short time to have expected an answer, but this was rather an emergency.
The knock on the door snapped him out of it. Whoever it was, if they could help him with his conundrum, he’d take it. “Hell… oh.” Michele probably looked exactly as stupid as he felt, but knowing that didn’t help him stop staring at the man on his doorstep at all. Tall, scruffy, practically glowing with energy, tanned skin, amazing ass.
The guy grinned at him, and Michele started wondering why he was stealing the air from the room. “I got your message. I’m at your service!” He held up the toolbox he was carrying. “If you’ll kindly direct me to the leaking faucet?”
“Um. It’s.” Michele started to point and then had a crisis of faith in himself as he realized he was pointing the wrong way and corrected himself. “That way. There’s water. It’s hard to miss.”
The Grindr angel just smirked as he walked in the direction Michele had pointed. Once he’d gotten out of his field of vision, Michele finally snapped out of his daze and mentally kicked himself for his ridiculousness. Then the guy came back out. “Since you just moved in, I’m guessing you haven’t figured out where the water shutoff is yet?”
“Oh! No. No, I have not.” Which would have been a far more productive use of his time than staring at his phone waiting for a message from Grindr. “Where would it be?”
“Let’s look. Do you have paperwork from buying the house?” Michele nodded. “Check that. I’ll check your walls.” Michele headed for his bedroom, where he’d stashed the paperwork. He flipped through various reports until he found one that included what he was looking for.
Grindr Guy handled the leaky faucet easily enough, although he had to leave to get a part from the hardware store. When he came back, in addition to the part, he had a second toolbox. That he handed to Michele with a wink. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be your emergency repair hookup when I can, but I’m busy a lot of the time and won’t be able to drop everything and come like I did today. Happy housewarming!”
What Michele wanted to say was something to thank this guy for helping him out, or for the new tools, or at least something that wouldn’t make him sound like a complete idiot. To his great horror, what came out of his mouth was, “I appreciate the thought, but I don’t actually know how to use most of these things.”
“Well then. Looks like we may need to see more of each other, so I can come over and teach you how to use your tools.” Another wink, and he was gone into the bathroom again. Michele tried to follow, but he was having trouble staying upright, so he made his way over to a chair instead.
When the guy came back out and turned the water back on, Michele had taken himself firmly in hand. (Bad brain, that’s not what he meant.) “Thank you very much for the tools and for helping me out with this. Here.” He held out some cash.
The guy just waved him off. “Least I can do for such a cute neighbor! Listen, I know what you said about not looking for sex and I am in no way suggesting you change your mind as a form of payment, but I was serious about coming over sometime to teach you how to use your tools. Even if it doesn’t end up leading to anything else, I think it would be pretty handy for both of us to have a friend in the neighborhood. After all, maybe next time it’ll be me with the emergency!”
“Michele. Crispino. That’s my name. Mickey.” He stopped and reminded himself that he was a grown man who could handle a normal adult conversation. “It would be nice to know someone in the neighborhood, and I suspect if I ever recover from the earlier fluster, I would like to get to know you. On many levels.”
“Perfect! Emil Nekola. You have my Grindr, obviously, but here.” Emil dug out his phone and handed it over. “Easier way to communicate when parents or certain friends are around, right?”