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Her sister shot straight up and screaer? What the fk?”

“My ceiling just caved in and there’s water everywhere I want to get you out of here in case it’s not just contained to the one room”

Willa gave a doubtful head tilt “Are you sure you’re not drea?”

“Look at me I’m soaked!”

“All right I’m up”

Cautiously, they entered the living roo with the spreading water above

“Oh, God,” Willa whispered “Ginger, your furniture”

She’d been avoiding that side of the room with her eyes, but looked over now to find the child’s hope chest she hadn’t yet lacquered sat directly under a strea with two unfinished decorative chairs and several hatboxes

She blinked back tears “It’s not important”

Willa searched her face for a moment before her eyes shot wide

“Dolly,” they breathed at the same time

Ginger barely had tiister the perfect synchronicity of their leaps over the waterlogged couch and coffee table They each grabbed an end of the five-foot-tall Dolly statue and lifted, groaning under its weight Ginger took the lead, wobbling backward through the wreckage, showing Willa where to step safely They needed tostain on the ceiling, standing underneath the wet plaster didn’t seem wise

“Ginger, lift! You’re going to knock off one of her boobs if it hits the table!”

Grunting over the strain in hertable “For once I wish Dolly had smaller tits,” she panted

Thankfully, they et the sleeping super, Lenny, on the phone and up to their apart roo rapidly ater Ginger and Willa aiting with their Dolly statue in the hallhen he ran up the stairs, still buttoning his jeans

Lenny took one look in their aparthbor’s apartain, presumably down to the base into their aparto back inside Instead, she stared through the doorway in silence at the new hoet used to

Lenny, looking incredibly stressed and apologetic, explained to the alone, had been suffering from the flu and thanks to her coldfor her bathtub to fill so had been noit downstairs to Ginger and Willa

It seeer’s call to Lenny, the fire depart out the water and also attend to their upstairs neighbor, whose illness appeared ht

As she and Willa pressed thehters by, she heard Derek’s door slaray sweatpants and a T-shirt, clearly having been woken by the co into her apartment, then landed squarely on her Until his eyes dipped and ran the length of her body, she’d forgotten her attire consisted solely of a sopping hite nightshirt She hastily crossed her arms over her brsts and stepped in front of Willa, ore a similar shirt In black, of course

Glaring at the passing men, Derek stomped back inside his apartiant fleece sweatshirts with police departht breast He tossed one to Willa, who gratefully pulled it over her head, then yanked one over Ginger’s head It fell to her knees

“What the fk is going on?” he finally asked

She and Willa were cold and homeless and this assle had the nerve to demand answers from her? Fuck that “Don’t bark at me!”

Derek pinched the bridge of his nose and turned to walk into her apart the story to Derek, the super’s harried voice fading in and out as they surveyed the dae

“Ginger?”