Next time

Pete's eyes drift over to Nikki at Trey mentions her. On the inside, he bristles slightly, though his face doesn't show it. Instead, he grins and swings his gaze back to his table partner. "You think I'd wanna risk you taking a chunk outta a girl who's showed interest in me?" His eyes spark with humor. "I think you're more the fiery redhead type. You need a girl who likes those rules you like to make yourself."

"Here we go, gentlemen. Enjoy your meal." The waitress sets the plates down in front of both of them. "If you need anything else, let me know."

Pete watches her walk away and calls after her, but not loudly enough for her to hear. "My friend here could use a date..." When she doesn't turn around, he shrugs and picks up his fork. "Better luck next time."

Digging into his food, silence reigns for a while, other than the surrounding sounds of the restaurant. Every once in a while, Pete steals a glance in Nikki's direction, but he does so discretely, not drawing any attention to her or him and Trey.


Justin climbs the ladder, making it to the top but he doesn't venture onto the roof yet. "Mmm.... gutters," he muses in response to Beth.

Fishing around inside the gutter for a moment, out comes a handful of leaves, twigs and who knows what else. "Watch your head," he calls. Down it goes a ways away from Beth in a dirty heap, only to be joined by another handful.

"Few weeks ago I noticed this thing was clogged up and all the rain was just coming down over the edge in a nice curtain in front of the porch instead of draining. Just haven't gotten around to cleaning these out yet but it's definitely time."

After just a few minutes, he crawls up onto the roof, releasing Beth of her duty for now. It was hotter than he thought it would be and after a while, he's soaked with sweat. He works his way around the roof though, not quitting before the job is done. He tries to carry on a light conversation the best he can with Beth, and in between he just lets her play with the dogs who were enjoying the extra attention.

Finally, the gutters are all clear and Justin is exhausted and parched. Having Beth hold the ladder again, he slowly climbs down. With his feet on the ground again, he manages a grin as he wipes the sweat from his brow. He knew he was filthy and stinky and a bit of color shows in his face... or was it from the sun?

"Well... that's that. I'm not gonna rake all that up now though, it can wait. Right now, I need some water before I keel over."

Back inside and to the kitchen Justin fills a glass with water but forces himself not to drink too quickly. Leaning back against the kitchen counter, he takes a deep breath, trying to gain a second wind. "Ready to fish?"