Page 26 of Love It or List It
The hardware went in a small paper bag he taped to the headboard with painter’s tape, and they carried the bedframe down the stairs in pieces.
Up and down and up and down and up and down they went, until the sun was kissing the horizon and Alex and Gavin waved goodbye to go home to their families for dinner.
“Almost done?”Joe asked.
“Couple mattresses left,” Austin said.He hadn’t wanted to ask Alex to help with those; they seemed pretty strong, but the stairs were narrow and steep and one of the mattresses had a rusted spring poking out.“And a surprise.”
Joe looked exhausted, but he nodded grimly.“Mattresses first.”
They trudged back up the stairs.
The first mattress was full-size.It barely squeezed down, the top just brushing the ceiling at the narrowest part of the staircase.
Maybe that lulled them into a false sense of security, because the second one didn’t go nearly as smoothly.
“You’re gonna have to push,” Austin called from the bottom.They’d pulled down on the queen-size mattress to compress it enough to get it this far, but they couldn’t reach it now, and it was stuck.“I knew we should’ve used the ratchet straps.”
“You and your goddamn ratchet straps,” Joe grumbled.Austin could hear the forced huffs of his breath as he put his shoulder into trying to unjam the mattress.“Okay, pull on three.Ready?One.”Austin adjusted his grip.“Two.”He braced his shoulder against the wall.“Three!”
Joe pushed.Austin pulled.
The mattress gave not at all, and then all at once.Or so Austin thought—until he heard the crack and his foot went out from under him.“Ohshit—”
“Austin?”
He flailed out one-handed and latched on to the railing, which steadied him for a moment before it pulled free of the plaster with a lurch.
His foot sank lower.
“Austin!Are you—”
Austin looked down.His left leg was bent at the knee in a squat, his left arm stretched out grasping the useless railing.
His right leg was dangling below him, having fallen victim to a sudden hole in the staircase.
“I’m stuck,” Austin said succinctly.
“Jesus Christ,” Joe said.“Again?”Perhaps he hoped Austin was joking, or maybe he had already seen the problem.Joe couldn’t do shit to help.He was stuck upstairs so long as the mattress was blocking the way down.
Austin dropped his forehead to the mattress—then jerked back when he thought about putting his face on that gross thing.“Yes.Stuck.”
“What happened?”Joe sounded like he didn’t actually want to know.
“Well, I can’t see my right foot.It went right through.”
“Right through the step?”
If Austin weren’t currently wondering if he was going to be stuck here for the rest of his life, Joe’s tone would have been hilarious.He almost wished he hadn’t left his phone downstairs so that he could record it.“Yes.The step.I’m up to my knee.”
“Oh.Fuck.”
“Yup.”
“Can you get unstuck?”
“Without you?”
“Yeah.”
