“It’s all yours.” She handed the vacuum cleaner over to him.

“Are you ready?” she asked as she prepared to remove the towel from the crack between the bathroom door and the floor.

“You really aren’t taking any chances.”

“I definitely don’t want it in my bedroom.” She slowly opened the door, and she and Jake quickly slipped into the bathroom, shutting the bathroom door behind them. The bathroom was small, with not much room for the two of them and the vacuum cleaner. Biscuit whined at the door.

“Sorry, Biscuit, I don’t think you can fit in here too. Where is it?” he asked.

“It was up in the corner over there, above the cabinet. Let me see if it’s still there.” She stood on the inset tub wall again. “Yup, still there.”

“I can’t see it from here either. All right, you direct me and I’ll try to get it with the hose.”

“It’s straight back in the corner.”

“Going in!” He turned on the vacuum and pushed it quickly against the wall over the cabinet. He missed and it flew towards him, making him jump back and nearly hit her. “Fuck, it flies!”

“Sorry, forgot to mention it could fly.”

“I should’ve guessed, but you didn’t have a beekeeper hat on.”

“No, but I do have the headscarf.”

“At least I can see it now.” He lunged again with the nozzle. “Got it.”

“Let’s leave the vacuum cleaner running so it definitely dies. I’ll get some tinfoil to put over the nozzle.”

“Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

“There’s at least one every summer,” she said.

“Who usually kills them?”

“Pete. But he and Eve are on vacation. Unless they’re the slow-moving, crawling type—in which case, I can kill it myself.”

She went up the stairs to the kitchen, yelling down, “Would you also like a drink of water or something?”

“You really know how to treat a guy. Water would be great.”

“It is a school night. Do you want beer instead?

“Yes. You’re telling me. I’m still shattered from being up last night dealing with the throw-up crisis. I was just about to go to bed.”

“How is everybody?”

“All good by the morning. Just up all night. We all slept in.”

She grabbed two beers from her refrigerator and the tinfoil. She came back down and put the tinfoil over the nozzle, reinforcing it with a rubber band.

He suggested they drink the beers in the garden. A frisson of anticipation zipped through her. They walked outside and settled into the two lounge chairs. Biscuit followed and climbed onto the bottom of Jake’s chair to rest at his feet.

“It’s a pity we can’t see any stars,” he said. The night sky was cloudy.

“Just the lights of other lives in the windows—far more interesting than stars.”