“Athena,” I call out, my voice strained as I push the foot of the bed frame with all my body weight. Once the frame hits the far wall, my suspicions are confirmed—it’s not far enough to escape the leak.

Now the drips are hitting the edge of the bed and the creaking sounds louder. There’s so much water. I bet it got through to the mattress. Maybe I should just pull the mattress off the bed and put the pot on the bedframe.

I pull at the mattress, but it’s about a foot thick and feels like it’s full of bricks. How is it this heavy? When I manage to move it down to one end, it gets stuck at the other. Maybe I can pull it from the other side? I clamber over the bed, my pants getting soaked from the pool in the middle of the blankets.

I get to the other side of the bed, but realize I can’t get down between the wall and the frame.

Shit, I’m bad at this. I need to pull the bed back to where it was, or at least a couple of feet from the wall so I can get on the other side and push. I climb over the bed again, getting even wetter.

Is it me, or is the leak getting worse? Is the ceiling likely to cave in?

I start to pull the bed, first the head and then the foot.

A pounding at the door makes me screech in surprise.

Maybe someone found Athena and has brought her back? For a second I wonder if it’s Frank, swooping in to rescue me. I suppose that’s what his role was meant to be in my life—a man rescuing me from a future I didn’t want. But he was just offering a different future. Not a better one.

As I make it out of the bedroom, the cabin door opens and Byron appears in the doorway. His hair is slick with rain and he’s breathing hard.

“Rosey,” he says. I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my life. I want to leap into his arms and bury my head in his chest.

“Byron!” I say. “I’ve lost Athena and it’s raining in the bedroom and I shouldn’t have left the Club. I don’t know⁠—”

He strides across the living space and holds me by the shoulders. “It’s going to be okay.”

I sigh with relief that he’s here. Thank god.

He releases me and stands tall. “Don’t leave my side,” he says, heading into my bedroom. I scurry in after him.

He moves quickly, pulling the bedding from the mattress, then pulling the mattress off the bedframe like it’s a pool float, rather than the heaviest thing I’ve ever had to move.

“Do you have a bucket?” he asks.