Page 112 of Degradation
She smiles and gives me a wink. ‘I am awesome. When are you meeting the bohemian knockoff?’
‘A few minutes,’ I chuckle.
She snorts. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’
I finish my coffee slowly while I’m waiting for Bennet to show up. I message the guys on the chat that Shade added me to and showed me how to use, telling them where I am.
While they haven’t specifically asked me to let them know that stuff, I’ve noticed that they all give me a general run-down of their plans so that I know where they are. It seems fair to do the same back, and I don’t mind them knowing. I keep the field trip to my mom’s death spot vague, though, only mentioning that I’ll be hanging out with Lu. I don’t want questions I’m not sure I can answer just yet.
I’m just getting my notes out in preparation for Bennet when I hear a commotion, and multiple shrieks. Water begins spraying from the ceiling, all over the counter and some of the tables close by.
‘Everyone out!’ Lu yells. ‘We’re closed! FuckingBill. I told him it was leaking last week. He said it was fixed.’
‘What do we do?’ Janet, one of the other employees shrieks as she tries to catch the water in two cups.
‘Turn off the damn water, Janet!’
‘Where?’
‘Find the red twisty thing and TURN IT, genius!’ Lu screams, trying to keep the water away from the electronics with multiple dish towels.
I know where that is!
I see it in the bathroom every time I’m in there. I jump up, making sure my coat issafe, and run to the back, sliding in the puddles of water already collecting on the floor. I find the ‘red twisty thing’, and turn it to the right, hoping it’s the same in the USA as it is in England.
‘Righty tighty, lefty loosy,’ Douglas at The Heath used to say.
I hear the rushing of the water start to ease and poke my head out. ‘Is it stopping?’
‘Yeah,’ Lu calls, sounding relieved. ‘Daisy Duke to the rescue. Shit, Janet, could you be more of a dumbass? What did you think the cups were gonna do?’
‘Hey!’ the other girl puts her hands on her hips, staring at Lu. ‘It’s not my fault I didn’t know where the twisty thing was!’
‘Okay, I know. I’m sorry.’ She pats Janet’s sopping wet hair. ‘It’s not your fault you’re incompetent.’
I take a towel from the back and dry myself off. I’m not actually too wet as most of the water was spraying over the front where the hatch is.
‘Well, no shifts for a while,’ Lu tells me, wringing out her dark hair with a sigh. ‘Bill’s gonna have to get that pipe fixed and get this place dried out before we can reopen.’
Guess that means no more work for me this week.Bad luck.
‘Do you still want to go this afternoon?’ I ask. ‘We can do it another day.’
‘No, we have plans. We’re going. Bill can get his ass down here for once.I’mnot waiting around all day for the contractor.’
‘Okay.’ I give Lu a mock salute and leave the cafe, but realize I’ll have to stay and wait for Bennet since I don’t have his number.
I stand outside for about twenty minutes before he appears with his token horn-rimmed glasses and polished, black, lace-up boots.
‘Hey,’ he greets, putting his arm around me. ‘Ready to get into it?’
Into what?
I shrug his arm off and point to Grinder. ‘They had a leak, so we won’t be able to work in there.’
‘Aw, man! And I just came from the library. All the tables are taken.’
‘Oh,’ I frown. ‘What about your dorm?’
