“Still water everywhere, but it looks calm now.” He glanced at me. “Wanna try to get out of here?”
“I sure do.”
We went downstairs—without our stuff for now—to see what was going on. The wooden door was still wide open and pressed against the wall, held there by a thick layer of dirt the flood had washed inside. The park was still submerged as far as we could see, but the water now looked more like a lake than a river. At the far end of the park, a red dinghy floated through the playground, and two men in safety vests craned their heads in all directions, assessing the damage.
“Hey,” Theo yelled, waving his arms to get their attention.
The guy in the front, with a beard long enough to play Santa on Christmas, waved back at us.
Two minutes later, they had paddled over and offered to get us out of there. We hurried upstairs and packed everything into my backpack, including Theo’s dirty clothes. Before we made our way back down, I cast one last glance at the clockwork, still moving as sedately and quietly as ever. This room had provided us with a sense of safety—both as shelter from the storm and as a space to open up about our feelings—that I couldn’t have been more grateful for. I waved one last goodbye to it and closed the door behind me.
We climbed onto the rescue boat and set off, gliding through the park. Floodwater stretched across the meadow to the street on the other side of the creek. The bridge that usually led to the houses now sat right on the water’s surface. The surrounding trees still sagged under the weight of the storm; many of their newly grown leaves had been torn away. One tree had even lost half of its crown.
The two men, who introduced themselves as part of the fire department, kindly gave us a ride to the far end of the park, where it met Main Street—only a few hundred feet from my car.
“Do you know if there’s a way to get to the other side?” Theo asked the guys. “I parked my car over there.”
“You could try Second Street, but it's unlikely you’ll make it. The whole area is flooded,” Santa replied, his brows knitting together. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it might be underwater too. I’d wait for the water to go down. If your car got caught in it, the city will probably reach out to you soon anyway.”
“Thanks,” Theo said, turning toward me. “Can I ask you for a ride, then?”
“As if that’s even a question.”
Besides a few leaveson the windshield, my car was unharmed. Unlocking it and getting inside felt strangely ordinary, as if we hadn’t just spent the entire night trapped by the storm. I checked the Maps app on my phone for the fastest route to Theo’s place. It shouldn’t have taken more than ten minutes. However, once we started driving, we kept running into one police car after another, blocking every road the app told us to take. We had to drive all the way out of town and around it, extending the quick trip to over an hour. By the time we finally parked in front of the apartment complex where he lived, I could barely keep my eyes open. The weight of the sleepless night was taking its toll.
“This might sound like I mean something else, but… can I come inside and take a nap? I don’t think I’ll make it home like this.”
“Do you even have to ask?” Theo said, nodding toward the house to invite me in. He yanked the door open, walked aroundto the trunk, and retrieved my backpack without me having to remind him that I still had all his clothes in it.
“I can carry it,” I said, climbing out of the car. My muscles suddenly ached as if I had aged another ten years in an instant.
“You’ve carried enough already,” he said, shutting the trunk and heading around the car to lead the way to the entrance.
I followed him, blinking my eyes against the cloudy sky.
The four-story building had three separate entrances, though everything seemed connected on the inside. Trees lined the front of the complex, shielding the ground-level apartments from prying eyes.
He led me to the first door on the right, entered a code into the keypad mounted beside it, and buzzed us in. He held the door open for me, but once I stepped inside, I let him take the lead again because I had no idea where to go. He walked straight toward the elevator, then turned left when he reached it, guiding us down the hallway to the third door on the right. He unlocked it with yet another code and held it open for me once more.
“Thank you,” I said and stepped inside.
To the left was an open kitchen with an island and two barstools, directly connected to the living room. A couch framed the TV, and behind it stood a desk with a large monitor and a shelf displaying several cameras, from modern professional models to antiques. Photographs covered the walls, turning his apartment into a gallery. I couldn’t wait to check it out once I had rested.
“Did you sleep at all last night?” Theo asked as he closed the door behind him.
“Not really. I wanted to stay awake in case things got worse.”
He shook his head and pointed toward the two doors between the kitchen and the living room. “Bathroom’s straight ahead, and the bedroom is next to it. Make yourself at home.”
“A short nap on the couch is fine, really.”
“No, you need to get some proper rest. You can have the bed. Who knows, maybe I’ll climb in there with you if you behave.”
“That sounds both invitingandlike a terrible idea. Do you know how dirty I feel—and probably am?”
“Take a shower, then.” Theo pointed to the bathroom. “Bath towels are in the closet on the left. I’ll make us breakfast in the meantime, and then you can take that nap.”
Twenty minutes later,I was sitting at his kitchen island, freshly showered, with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of me, wearing his sweatpants and a green shirt that read, “This guy has a PhD,” which, in his case, I could only assume meantpretty huge dick. My stomach demanded the food, and the shower had given me enough energy to finish the plate without falling asleep. Once it was empty, though, Theo basically dragged me into his bedroom and onto the comfy mattress. I lay down on the green-striped sheets and watched him pull off his shirt as he headed to the bathroom. I told myself I would stay awake until he was done and join me, as he had promised, but I drifted off shortly after hearing the shower turn on.
