2024-11-07 “Maybe She Can Paint” for Kent (born 1998)

Kent looked up from his iPhone and at the electrical panel he was working on. The man he had hired to work for him while he was busy volunteering for Habitat Housing had done a great job. Kent needed only to connect the last circuit and the job would be done.

He had just received a text from Shay Ryder with the list of volunteers he’d be organizing on Saturday for a Habitat Housing project. He wasn’t surprised to see Merritt, Devon, and Hannah’s names. There was another guy he’d worked with before, plus a new one.

Tia Thomas, it said, was a corporate project manager joining Habitat Housing for the first time. Kent prided himself in not being prejudiced, but the idea of a corporate project manager didn’t connect easily with the idea of remodeling a rundown house in queens.

Looking at the punch list for the job, it looked like the work was in the final stages. He figured Hannah and Merritt could put in the light switches and electrical outlets. Devon and the other guy could tackle hanging sheetrock in the last, back bedroom. Kent figured, perhaps, the project manager could start painting in the front living room that the notes said was otherwise finished.

He thought about the site and figured if she started painting up front while the guys knocked out the sheetrock in the back while Hannah and Merritt finished the switches and outlets, the whole project would be done weekend after next and Shay could schedule in the carpet and flooring people after that.

He fired off a text to her with his plan as a heads-up and told her he’d update her after the work ended on Saturday. Then, as an afterthought, he added that he was looking forward to seeing her and everyone at the potluck Addison had suggested Saturday night.

Kent really liked Shay, and sort of wished he had felt some kind of romantic vibe with her. It just wasn’t there, but he didn’t want her to feel like he didn’t like her. He’d picked up on the fact she didn’t have the greatest self-regard, so he thought an extra text to be nice would be a good gesture.