I yank it back. “I’ve got it.”
“I’m going down anyway.” He leans around me for it.
I tuck the leaky bag behind my back, so he can’t get to it. “No. I said I’d do it.”
“It’s no big deal.” His tone is insistent.
We look at each other.
His lips twitch first. “Are we arguing over trash?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, suppressing my smile. “We are.”
“You look tired,” he says, his tone wistful and his eyes filled with more yearning than I thought he was capable of. So much so that I have to wonder if he knows I slept with Archer and Callum, but not with him. Not since the Haven Academy ball.
“Iamtired.” After I got home from work, I made myself pasta for dinner, napped for a bit, lazed around for a bit more, then went to the bathroom and promptly broke it. “My toilet isn’t working.”
“I can take a look.”
I blush, darting in front of him when he takes a step toward my apartment. “You can’t see where Ipee.”
He stares at me, forehead furrowed. “It’s a toilet. I have seen a toilet before.”
Blushing harder, I avoid his gaze. “But Ipeedin it.”
“If you have a plunger, I could?—”
“No.” I glare at him. “Why do you want to do all my gross jobs? Callum and Archer came to apologize, and you just avoid me.”
“I avoid you because I don’tdeserveyour forgiveness,” he hisses, angry now as he steps up to me.
I back up, bumping into the wall. Strangely, I’m not as intimidated as I was when he cornered me like this before. Maybe because I see beyond his anger to the pain he’s trying to hide from me.
“I took an experience that you will remember for the rest of your life, and I ruined it. I called you a whore. There is so much I did that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I don’t want your forgiveness because I don’tdeserveit. Callum and Archer can be what you need. I can’t. You deserve better than me.” He walks away before I can stop him, and I realize that while I was distracted, he took my trash. “I’ll let the super know about your broken toilet,” he says with his back to me, and disappears down the stairs.
Five minutes later, I’m still standing with my back to the wall, biting my lip as I debate what to do about Torin’s outburst when footsteps sound on the stairs. Jack pops into view, wearing navy overalls and carrying, to my surprise, a large black plunger.
I blink at him. “Jack? What are you doing here?”
He flashes me a grin as he approaches. “Stepping into the role of super for a bit.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m helping the new building manager hire a new full-time super, but until we find someone who won’t let the residents down as badly as the last one, I’m it. Mostly, I deal with the deliveries and the contractors. I heard you have a problem with your toilet?”
“Yeah.” I fish my key from my pocket, unlock my door and show him into my bathroom. “But what about your shop? Every time I walk past it, it’s closed.”
“And it’s going to stay closed for good.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I know how much you wanted to keep it going for your dad.”
“That shop has been dead in the water for years. Even my mom was gently suggesting I close it. She reminded me that Dad poured his love into it and couldn’t keep it going. My heart was never in it, so what chance did I have?” He points his chin at my toilet. “What’s the problem?”
“When I flush, nothing happens.”
He tests the flush on my toilet, and as expected, nothing happens. “You have a loose connection at the back. Let me see what I can do.”
He lifts the tank lid, reaching in to fiddle with something inside it, and the next time he flushes, the sound of running water is music to my ears.
