Rule Four of the Lease Said No Overnight Guests novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Confession

I broke the sink on Monday morning with a wrench I borrowed from Lena's own toolbox.

It was easier than I expected.

The pipe under the kitchen sink had a plastic nut.

It turned left with one hard twist.

A little water dripped into the bucket I had set below it.

Not a flood.

Just a steady, honest leak.

I looked at it with great satisfaction.

Then I washed my hands, brushed my hair, put on my best cardigan, and went down four flights to Unit 1.

It was ten to eight.

I knocked.

Lena opened the door with a coffee in her hand and a pencil behind her ear.

She was already dressed for work, in her flannel and her tool belt.

She looked at me, and her mouth went very flat.

"Mina."

"Good morning."

"You're dressed up."

"I have something to report."

"Do you."

"Rule Nine." I clasped my hands in front of me like a schoolgirl. "I broke the sink."

Lena's eyebrows rose by about a millimeter.

"How did you break it?"

"I was careless."

"Careless how?"

"I used a wrench."

"Whose wrench?"

I hesitated.

"Yours."

"From my toolbox. In my hall closet. Which you entered without permission."

"The door was open."

"It was not." She sipped her coffee. "It was unlocked."

"That's different?"

"That's the whole difference." She stepped back from the door. "Come in. I'll take the full statement."

I walked into her kitchen, where I had once knelt on the tile, and I stood by the counter.

She shut the door.

She set down the coffee.

She took the pencil from behind her ear and put it on the counter, very precisely, parallel to the edge.

"Rule Nine says you confess," Lena said. "It doesn't say you're allowed to be proud of it."

"I'm not proud."

"You are glowing."

"I'm sorry about the sink."

"You are not sorry about the sink."

"No."

"Say it properly, then."

My heart began to pound.

"I broke the sink on purpose," I said. "Because I wanted to confess it to you."

"And?"

"And because I wanted to be punished."

Her eyes darkened.

She walked around the counter, slowly, and stopped in front of me.

She was a head and a half taller, and she smelled of coffee and sawdust.

"Bend over the table," she said.

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