Page 105 of Cheap Shot

“Ahh fuck. Yeah, it has been really cold, hasn’t it?”

“Exactly.” Brie sniffled.

“Is the water still running?”

“No, Dad talked me through going out to the sidewalk and finding the access cover so I could shut off all the water coming into the house. But now that means we have no water at all in the house and I just … everything is a fuckingmessand I don’t know how tofixit.”

“Did you try calling a plumber?”

“Of course I fucking called,” she snapped. “But they’re all busy because apparently this is happening all over the damn city.”

“Ahh shit. Yeah, that makes sense. What’s the earliest you can get someone there?”

“Tuesday?” she said with a hitch in her breath. “And the guy issuperexpensive. The others that are sort of affordable can’t make it until late Wednesday.”

“You can’t go without water for two or threedays,” Sebastian said, appalled.

“Well, I don’t fucking know what else to do.”

Crawford stepped closer, mouthing,Put her on speaker.

Sebastian gave him a confused look, but he gestured impatiently and mouthed,Just do it.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “Uhh, Brie, I’m, uh, hanging out with a—a friend and he wants me to put you on speaker. Is that okay?”

There was silence on the other end before she said, “Uhh, I guess so?”

Sebastian pulled the phone away from his ear and set it to speaker mode. “Okay, can you hear me?”

“Yeah,” she said, still sounding as confused as Sebastian felt.

“Hey, Brie?” Crawford said.

There was silence for a moment before she said, “Whoisthis?”

“Luke Crawford.”

“What the fuck are you doing at my brother’s place?” she asked.

“He’s at my place. We’ve been watching hockey.”

“Since when do you two get along?”

“Since … look, it doesn’t fucking matter. I’m trying to be sure I got this right from what I heard from his half of the conversation. You had a pipe burst because of the cold?”

“Yeah. I called our dad and he said that the pipe probably wasn’t insulated properly and burst because of the extreme cold we’ve had lately.”

“Yeah, sounds about right. There was some flooding?”

“Yeah. Everything is a fuckingwreck.”

“Is the water off or still running?”

“Off. I called my dad and he helped me figure out how to turn off the water to the house.” She sniffled.

“And you can’t get a plumber for a few days?”

“Right. They’re all booked.”