Maid for My Nemesis novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Last Bus

On Wednesday night, the rain started at eight and did not stop.

I finished the last of the upstairs hall at a quarter to nine, with water running down every window.

Julian met me at the bottom of the stairs with an umbrella.

"The last bus is at nine twenty," he said. "I'll walk you to the stop."

"It's a long driveway."

"It's raining."

"I noticed."

"Then you'll want an umbrella," he said, and handed it to me, and took nothing for himself.

I looked at him.

"That is a really bad plan."

"It's the only one I have."

We argued about it all the way down the front steps.

In the end I held the umbrella over both of us, because it was big enough and he was getting soaked.

The gravel crunched under our shoes.

We passed the garage, a stone building with three tall doors.

One door was open a crack, and the dark inside was empty.

"Where's your car?" I asked.

"I sold it."

"Why?"

"I didn't like driving."

I did not believe him, but I let it sit.

The rain drummed on the umbrella.

He was close enough that his sleeve kept touching mine, wet wool against wet wool, and neither of us moved away.

The bus shelter stood at the end of the drive, a glass box with a bench and a bulb that flickered.

We sat down.

The next bus was twenty minutes away.

I shook the water off the umbrella, and my curls dripped on my knees.

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