His Cat Stole My Underwear, and He Kept Every Pair novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: The Rent Math
"Rent," said Magnus.
"Rent," Teddy agreed. "And the letter. And me being a jerk this morning. All three."
Magnus stood in his own doorway with both arms behind his back.
"It's one in the morning," he said.
"I can't sleep."
"I have surgery at eight."
"Five minutes. I brought a tarp."
He had.
It was a blue tarp from the shop, folded over his arm, with a thermos of cocoa hooked on one finger.
Magnus looked at the tarp.
He looked at the thermos.
Then he stepped back from the door and said, "Through the kitchen."
They strung the tarp together across both balconies, tied to the iron on the rail and the hook above Magnus's door.
The rain drummed on it.
Under it, two deck chairs, one iron table, one dripping cat, and a thermos steaming between them.
Teddy poured two cups and slid one across.
Magnus took it with his left hand, kept his right behind him, and sat down very carefully.
"I called you a wall," Teddy said.
"You were not wrong."
"I was totally wrong."
"I'm a quiet person."
"You're a careful person. There's a difference. Walls don't leave sticky notes about clothespins."
Magnus drank his cocoa and said nothing.
But his shoulders came down a quarter inch, and Teddy took it as the victory it was.
"I did the math," Teddy said, and put a spiral notebook on the table.
Rent for both units, side by side.
Margins at Understory in neat columns.
A drawing of a duplex with a very sad face.
"If neither of us applies," he said, "Spindler picks nobody, and we both get the whole winter. If we both apply, we lose to the one of us who is worse at fighting and better at paperwork."
"That is you."
"That's definitely you."
"I am not good at paperwork."
"You label things with a marker."
"That's not paperwork."
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