‘It’s an old house,’ he quite reasonably pointed out, ‘and I never had the need to move it. What’s the problem with it being there?’
I hadn’t told him about my claustrophobia of course. Had I gone through the explanation I had given Finn, then I never would have plucked up the courage to pin back the door using practically everything within reach and step inside.
I squealed as a cobweb brushed the top of my head as I bobbed down. Thankfully the tap wasn’t too tight and it only took a couple of seconds to shut off. That said, I still kept one eye on the door, just in case it somehow mysteriously started to close.
‘Ow,’ I groaned as I rushed back out, banging my head on the frame. ‘What a perfect end to an already wet day.’
Standing on the watery threshold, I contemplated putting my wellies back on, but then decided it wasn’t worth the muddy footprints, or the damp jeans. I quickly stripped them off so I could kneel down and get a proper look under the sink without soaking them.
‘Crikey,’ I shivered as I made a recce of the situation.
There wasn’t actually all that much water, it had just spread a long way so it looked worse than it was, but that didn’t make it any warmer. From what I could make out the pipework had come loose, probably as a result of me knocking it when I filled the space with my cleaning products, and the seal around the plug looked as if it had seen better days too. Everything in the cupboard was well soaked so it must have been my morning washing-up water which had stealthily escaped into the room rather than down the plughole.
‘Damn,’ I muttered as I realised that I hadn’t needed to shut the water off or disturb my boss and his wife. In fact, neither of them had needed to know about it at all because this was something I could sort myself.
‘Freya?’
I screeched in shock and banged the back of my head hard on the cupboard, which set Nell barking.
‘For God’s sake,’ I cursed again, mortified that someone had just wandered in and found me on all fours, in my pants, with my head under the sink. ‘Ow,’ I groaned, rubbing the back of my head which now ached as much as the front.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Of course, I’m not all-bloody-right,’ I snapped, reversing out, while at the same time attempting to pull my jumper far enough down to cover my practically bare bottom.
I knew it was Finn standing in the doorway, no doubt smirking at the ridiculous sight, because why wouldn’t he be? It must have been an even more amusing spectacle than when I’d tripped on the lawn. I was dreading having to turn around, even though facing him would hide my arse.
I supposed I should have been grateful that it wasn’t Zak. I was pretty sure he would have captured the moment on his phone and zoomed in for good measure. Or maybe not, given that he’d supposedly turned over a new leaf?
‘What are you doing here, Finn?’ I demanded, resting on my haunches to avoid a further soaking.
‘Luke called and asked me to come over,’ he told me. ‘He was in a bit of a flap, said there was a flood.’
‘Well, as you can see,’ I told him, ‘it’s a bit of a leak, not a flood, and nothing I can’t handle.’
‘Evidently,’ he said, and there was definite amusement in his tone which further infuriated me.
I put one hand on the cupboard door to steady myself and rubbed the back of my head with the other. It hurt worse than the front and that was all his fault.
‘Here,’ he said, ‘let me help you up.’
I was just about to tell him I didn’t need his help and ask him to leave so I could recover my dignity in peace, but he stepped into the room before I had the chance. The second his foot touched the floor, it shot out from under him, sending him high into the air and then crashing back down in a spread-eagled heap, on to the wet floor.
‘Ow,’ he groaned, gingerly pushing himself upright. ‘Ow.’
At this rate there wouldn’t be anything left of the house by the end of the day because the place had literally shook on its foundations when he hit the deck.
‘As I said,’ I couldn’t resist commenting, ‘I can handle it myself.’