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coffee
without choking, or more importantly, spilling. 
    Gwen passed her a steaming mug and climbed in beside
her.  “Heath got the kids?”
    Gabbi took a long sip of her coffee, keeping her eyes
closed, clearly relishing the experience.  “You know I never get to enjoy
my coffee?  I never get to savor that first taste.”  She took another
long drink.  “I’m always running around fighting with the girls while they
cry and throw shit and take their clothes off two seconds before we have to
walk out the door.”
    “Those girls are angels.  You’ll never convince me
otherwise.”  Gwen’s nieces might be her two favorite people, with her
sister and Heath close on their heels.  They were beautiful and smart and
funny. 
    And hell on wheels.
    “You’re their Auntie.  It’s your job to think they’re
perfect.  I’m their mom.  It’s my job to feed them and bathe them and
wait till they’re in bed to talk about what assholes they’ve been to me all
day.”  Gabbi pulled the duvet up higher and savored another gulp of
coffee.
    The women sat quietly, watching some cooking show Gabbi
picked out, drinking their coffee.  Gwen polished hers off and set the
empty cup on the table trading it out for her phone.  She was scrolling
through e-mails when she remembered why Gabbi was here in the first
place. 
    “What were you calling me for this morning?”
    “Oh, yeah.  I’m making dinner for Heath’s birthday
Wednesday.  I figured you’d have to work but I wanted to let you know.”
    Gwen’s ears perked up against her will and before she had a
chance to stop her mouth, she heard herself saying, “I’ll be there.”

Three
    Joe carefully eased the toilet down onto the fresh wax
ring.  He was just finishing tightening the bolts when he heard footsteps
shuffle up behind him.
    “How’s it going?”
    He snapped the cap over the secured bolt and stood up. 
    “Just finished.” 
    He’d spent the day replacing every faucet and toilet in the
huge house.  He pulled a clean cloth out of his kit and wiped the bowl of
the commode free of any fingerprints he may have left.  “Are you ready to
do a walk thru?”
    “Sure thing.”  The new owner of the house was a round
man in his mid-fifties.  He and his wife just bought the place and she
didn’t want to use toilets anyone else had used before.  Not sure what she
did when she wasn’t home, but that wasn’t his business.  They also wanted
to switch out all the brushed nickel faucets for brass.  No accounting for
taste. 
    When he got there this morning, they added even more to the
list, having him check the water heater and anything else he could think of for
leaks or problems.  It was a lot to cram in to one day, but the house was
in a nice neighborhood and if they were happy with his work, he would almost
certainly get referrals.
    Joe took the owner through the house, turning on each of the
new gaudy faucets and pointing out any fittings he tightened or replaced. 
He flushed every toilet and ran every shower and tub. 
    “I’m so grateful you were able to get it all done
today.  The movers are coming tomorrow and my wife wanted to be in by the
weekend.  She’ll be thrilled.”
     She wasn’t the only one.  Joe didn’t have the
time to spare either.  Another job had to be started tomorrow, running all
the plumbing in a new build, and it would eat up the rest of his week. 
    “Happy to help.  Call if you have any questions or
there’s anything else I can help with.”  The men shook hands and Joe left
with a check and a van full of perfectly good toilets and fixtures. 
    It was after six when he finally headed out.  As he got
on the highway, the sun was still bright in the sky, the air still swelteringly
hot.  Between the long day and the heat, he was exhausted and it was only
going to get worse.
    It was a forty-minute drive to get home and he hoped to get
another coat of mud on the drywall he and Heath hung in his bathroom over