Page 54

Serena
We get home late with no more incidents, the proud owner of a wine and cheese gift basket Archer has no recollection of bidding on.
“Are you going to bed?” I ask, setting the basket on the kitchen counter.
He loosens his tie, rolling those big shoulders back. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay, goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
There’s a pause as neither of us move to leave, staring at each other.
“I’m not really tired,” I say eventually.
He scratches at the back of his neck. “Me either.”
“We could watch another episode of The IT Crowd.”
He gives me a half smile, one side of his mouth quirking up adorably. “All right.”
I suppress the urge to do a happy dance and head toward my room, an odd smell filling my nose the closer I get. Maybe Lori forgot to take out the trash?
As I open my door, there’s the faint sound of water from the bathroom and my foot squishes on the carpet.
“What the hell?” Archer mutters, squeezing past me in the doorway to enter the en-suite bathroom. “Oh, fuck.”
I gasp as I look over his shoulder to find the room flooded, water trickling from a busted pipe in the shower.
He holds an arm in front of me, blocking my way. “Don’t go in.”
I try to push past him anyway, but he’s too bulky. “We need to turn the shower off.”
“The shower’s not on. It’s coming from the wall.”
What? But that shower shares a wall with my closet.
I cross the bedroom, discovering a spreading stain on the closet wall, right behind my hanging dresses. The carpet’s also saturated where I keep all my shoes.
No, no, no. Is everything ruined? Can I dry clean the dirty water smell out of them or something?
I step back into the bedroom, Archer on his phone already with what sounds like the building superintendent asking him to shut the water off and get someone out here.
I sit on the bed and take off my heels, the bottom of them along with the hem of my dress soaked. I barely have anything, and now this?
Archer hangs up a minute later and holds a hand out to me, signaling to me to get up. “Come on. They’re coming by soon to inspect the damage and clean up what they can. They’ll start repairs in the morning.”
I take his hand and let him guide me into the hallway. “Where are we going?”
“My room.”
His room? “Until the plumber leaves tonight?”
He turns to me, eyes narrowing slightly. “You’re not going back in there. We don’t know what kind of damage there is, if your things are contaminated, if it’s even safe. That wall could completely bust out anytime.”
Okay, that sounds a little far-fetched. “But all my stuff-”
“We’ll check it out after the super clears it. And I’ll replace everything. But you’re sleeping with me tonight.”