for a while. I didn’t even care what sucking my thumb would do to my teeth. Biting my lip, I retrieved my phone, took a picture of the disaster waiting to happen, and dared to step closer to investigate.
Everything went well until I reached the stove. The floor squished, and before I could adjust my weight, my foot punched through the cheap linoleum. I yelped, went down like a ton of bricks, and somehow kept my cell from taking flight at the cost of my knees and ankle, which twisted as the hole refused to release me.
Margaret spewed curses that’d make a pastor faint, dropped her briefcase, crouched beside me, and went for my ankle, grabbing my leg to hold it still while surveying the damage. “Your foot’s caught on the flooring. Give me a sec, and I’ll get you out of there.”
“It’s wet, Margaret.”
“It looks like their creative bathroom scheme has sprung a rather unfortunate leak.”
Gross. “I’m looking at the bright side. I didn’t break my phone.” I braced my weight on one palm and a throbbing knee, holding the device out to her. “Please take photographs of this monstrosity.”
She obeyed. “I’m taking a few pictures, too. I’ll call the front desk and have them document their shitty maintenance. I’m going to hold these jackasses liable for this bullshit.”
With her help, I freed my foot and stood. My ankle made its unhappiness known, but I’d sprained my ankle enough over the years to recognize how I’d managed to hurt myself. Sighing, I took a picture of my foot near the hole, and as I felt sorry for myself, I texted it to Rick with a notice a New Yorker headline would be in the works.
Within moments, my phone rang. Blinking, I answered, “Hello?”
“What happened?” Rick demanded.
“Wait, you’re awake?”
“I’m at your brother’s place, Hope. He’s glaring at me, as I told him I was talking to you, just as you requested. He looks like he wants to try to take the phone, but Annabel Lee growls whenever he approaches. I’m not in the mood to correct her about it. I’m not in Japan anymore, although if I were, it’d be nine in the morning there.”
Oh, right. He had been crashing out on my brother’s couch with his dog. “I forgot. This may have triggered memory loss. Sorry. I’m about to send you another picture. You can help me figure out the headline for this one. I’m apartment searching.” Careful to keep from hanging up on him, I sent him the pictures of the bathroom-kitchen horror show. “There. I just sent it.”
“Don’t rent that apartment would be my first recommendation. What am I looking at?”
“The future electrocution of a tenant, who won’t be me. The floor ate my foot.”
“So I saw. Are you all right?”
“A mild sprain probably. I’ll survive.” I regarded the hole with a scowl. “You can show my brother the pictures, and you can tell him if he hadn’t been an asshole, I wouldn’t have put my foot through the floor of some dingy apartment building. As my brother is there, is his wife there, too?”
“She’s off visiting some of her uncles north of my current location. I’ll show him the pictures. Anything else you’d like to get off your chest?”
“Give me a second. Hey, Margaret? What’s the rent on this place?”
“Just under three thousand a month,” she reported. “It has higher than normal square footage for this area.”
“It also has a bathroom in the kitchen,” I muttered. “That’s just highway robbery.”
She nodded. “It really is.”
“Sorry about that, Rick. Apparently, this wonderful place costs just under three thousand a month. A cockroach flew in my face when we got here. I’m going to the nearest pharmacy, buying a gallon of hand sanitizer and a cheap pair of shoes, and disinfecting my foot. Give me a good headline for that. I’ll call you back in a few hours, assuming I survive my apartment search.”
Before Rick could get a word in edgewise, I hung up, silenced my phone, and shoved it into my purse. Rick’s warning that Amy was north of his location bothered me. “Where is the nearest pharmacy?”
“Right down the street not far from where I’m parked. Will your ankle be all right?”
“If not, I know exactly who I’m sending the bill to.”
“Should it come to that, I’ll be happy to stand as a witness and provide all documentation from our scheduled appointment.” Margaret huffed and glared at the rotten hole in the floor. “Would you prefer to