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Justin shrugged. “I can’t tell you without looking at it.”
“Can you... can you at least suggest something for me to try?”
“Not without looking at it myself.”
Carly bit her lip. “Can you look at the pipes in the basement and fix it from there?”
“Nope.”
Carly was on the verge of telling him to forget it, but then she thought about not being able to flush her toilet. “All right,” she said. “I’ll be right down.”
She left the apartment door slightly ajar and walked downstairs to the lobby. Justin was waiting by the door. She hesitated for only a moment and then pushed it open for him. He strolled inside and started up the stairs as if he knew right where he was going. With a small frown of concern, Carly hurried to catch up to him.
She opened the door to the third floor hallway, and Justin blurted out, “Jesus Christ!” He grabbed Carly by the waist and thrust her behind him.
Startled, she peeked around his side to see what had alarmed him so much. “Oh, that’s Sam. He must have pushed the door open.”
“Carly, where did you get him?” Justin asked, speaking slowly, never taking his eyes from Sam. Sam, for his part, simply stood there and eyed Justin with curiosity, his head tilted to the side.
“I found him outside, trying to eat out of the trash. He’s still just a puppy.”
“That’s no puppy,” Justin said. “That’s a wolf.”
“Oh, don’t be silly.” Carly pushed past him, darting around the arm that tried to block her path, and went to rub Sam’s head between his fuzzy, triangular ears. “See? He’s gentle and friendly.”
“A wolf isn’t a dog, Carly. They’re not pets.” His tone was gentle, but firm, as though he were trying to get her to see reason.
Carly’s eyes flashed with anger. What did he think she was going to do? Say to Sam, Oh, sorry, you’re the wrong species, and toss him out to fend for himself? “I’ve had him since he was a baby. He wouldn’t survive out there alone.”
“Carly—”
She knelt and hugged Sam. “It’s none of your business! Go away! I don’t care about the water now.”
“All right,” Justin said, trying to sound soothing. “Calm down. I won’t take him away from you, okay? Now, let me see your pipes.”
Carly hesitated. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.
Justin spread his hands, as if to show he was unarmed, harmless. “Carly, if I was going to hurt you, I would have done it by now, don’t you think?”
She’d had a similar thought earlier. But it was another long moment before Carly led him into her apartment and pointed at the kitchen. He went inside and opened the cupboard doors under the sink. “Hmm. Interesting.”
“What?”
“I’ve never seen anyone put their cleaning products in alphabetical order.”
Carly sighed. She wanted to know how to fix her plumbing, not his opinion on her organizational skills. “Can you tell anything about the water?”
Justin unhooked the fat white pipe shaped like the letter J. He showed her the interior. “See? No water. Your pipes are empty, Carly. You used it all. The water is gone, and it won’t come back because there’s no electricity to run the pumps.”
“What am I going to do?” Carly wasn’t really asking him. She rubbed her forehead. Water had always been something that was just there at the turn of a tap. She had no idea what to do, and a sensation of dull panic churned in her gut.
“You can’t stay here.”
She had been thinking the same thing earlier, but hearing Justin voice it upset her. “This is my home,” she said. “I can’t just leave it!”
He was quiet for a moment. “What were you planning to do this winter? You don’t have a fireplace and the temperature is usually around freezing or just above. It’s not as cold here as most people think it gets in Alaska, but you could still freeze to death.”
She looked at him in confusion. It made little sense to her that Justin was worrying about winter when everything would surely be back to normal by then. Order would be restored, and the lights would be back on. Carly would be back to managing the souvenir shop, and the stores would be full of groceries.
