The Super Fixed My Sink, Then Everything I Hadn't Said Was Broken novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Boiler Room

Dolores had climbed every stairway in the building twice that week with her cane, and not one tenant would tell me what she said.

I stopped asking on Friday, because at nine Rafa's text came in: Boiler room. Midnight. Wear the long coat and nothing under it.

I wore the long coat and nothing under it.

I went down the back stairs barefoot in the dark, with the wool brushing my bare thighs and every step a small scandal.

I knocked on the iron door twice.

"It's open," he said. "You knock. I know."

I pushed it, and the heat came out to meet me.

The boiler room was lit by one work lamp clamped to the pegboard, and the burner window glowed orange in the middle of the floor.

The pipes ticked.

The air was thick and dry, with oil in it and hot metal, and by the time I had shut the door behind me my skin was damp.

Rafa stood beside the workbench in his undershirt and jeans with his arms crossed.

He did not smile.

"Hang the coat on the hook."

I unbuttoned it.

The buttons were big and black, and my hands were not entirely steady, and when the last one came free I shrugged it off my shoulders and let him see.

He looked at me for a long, quiet time in the orange light.

I hung the coat on the hook by the door.

"Come here."

I walked across the floor.

It was warm through my feet, and the concrete was gritty, and I stopped in front of him with my hands at my sides.

"Up."

He put both hands on my waist and lifted me onto the workbench.

The oak was scarred and smooth and warm from the room.

He had laid a folded moving blanket on it, and I sat on the edge with my legs hanging.

"I've wanted you here," he said, "since the day you stood where you're sitting and looked at it for ten minutes."

"I was thinking about the rope."

"I know what you were thinking about."

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