Page 52 of The Jerk in Apartment 1B

“Cole.” I head over to him. “I’m having a problem with my shower. The water’s barely coming out. I think the shower head’s clogged.”

“Jenna was saying that too.” He looks over at Scott. “You want to take a look at it? I can’t right now. I’m heading to an appointment. Not sure when I’ll be back.”

“Yeah, I’ll check it out.”

Why would Scott look at my shower? He’s not the property manager.

“See you guys later,” Cole says, going out the door.

“You want me to look at it now or later?” Scott asks as I walk back to him.

“I don’t get it. Why would you look at my shower?”

“To figure out what’s wrong with it. I think you need a new shower head.”

“But you can’t decide that. Cole’s the property manager. He needs to look at it and then talk to whoever owns the building about fixing it.”

“Trust me. I can take care of this.” He heads to my apartment. “Let’s go check it out.”

I don’t know why he’s doing this. Maybe he has plumbing skills he hasn’t told me about?

We go into my apartment and Scott walks over to where my pool float used to be.

“How was the floor last night?” he asks. “You get any sleep?”

“A few hours.”

“You need more than a few hours.”

I know that, but it’s hard to sleep on the floor when you’re used to sleeping in a comfortable bed. And I was worried about rats attacking me in my sleep, which also kept me awake. I guess the rats could climb on a bed, but they’re more likely to get to me on the floor.

“Do you have rats?” I ask, thinking if he had them at his place, I’d have them at mine.

“Rats?” He laughs. “How’d we get on the topic of rats?”

“When you were saying I need to sleep. Part of the reason I can’t is because I’m worried about rats climbing on me.”

“You have a very interesting mind, Trina.”

“Just answer the question. Has your apartment ever had rats?”

“No, but the storage unit next to you has. It’s because it’s close to the door that goes to the alley.”

“But so is my apartment, which means rats could be getting in.” I search the floor for them, thinking they could be hiding in my piles of clothes. “Do I need to get traps?”

“Maybe, or I could just put a few in the hall and around the door.”

“Would you?” I race up to him. “Because I’d feel a lot better if you did. I’ll pay you for whatever the traps cost.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it. Let’s go look at the shower.”

We head to the bathroom, but only one of us will fit in it so I stay behind while Scott goes in. He turns the shower on and the water trickles out in a thin stream.

“Yeah, you need a new shower head,” he says. “It’s too clogged to try to clean it.” He comes out of the bathroom. “I’ll call Cole and have him pick one up. If he has time, maybe he could install it tonight.”

“Okay, what is going on here? Why would you call Cole about this? Are you both working for the guy who owns the building?”

He smiles. “You haven’t figured it out?”

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