Downfall | Austin Butler

Chapter 18

"Years?" His voice raised an unexpected octave.

I bit my tongue and squinted at the ceiling to look like I was thinking it over when I was really trying to stop myself from laughing. "Yep," I affirmed. "Pretty sure it broke down before we moved in, and they just never fixed it."

"Never fixed it." He repeated what I said as if he couldn't get it through his skull that this was actually real life. It honestly wasn't that deep, but suddenly it was becoming a real drama scene when he took his cap off and swiped his hair back for the second time today before dropping it back on his head.

"It's fine though," I assured him. "Syd always says it's like the broken elevator from the Big Bang Theory."

I paid close attention to the way his face transformed, eyes crinkling and dimples carving into the planes of his cheeks as a smile took over. "Like the one Leonard blew up?"

"Exactly!" I chirped. "I think it gives it some real character. Makes it – ah!" I almost fell over when my grip loosened on one of the crutches as I was trying to advance him. I was so strung up in our current conversation, I momentarily forgot my ankle was situated in a whole ugly ass boot.

"Careful," he warned, wrapping an arm around my waist to steady me once again. "And , it's not fine." He challenged. "They should really fix that."

So we were back to square one: in his hold with his serious mode switched back on.

Lovely.

Could this get any worse?

"Unfortunately, our landlords don't really give a shit." This time I was careful when detaching myself from the left crutch, nudging my shoulder at Austin. I figured it was best to switch the topic at hand. Besides , I was in no mood when it came to standing here forever. The show needed to get on the road. "Here, can you take this one so I can try to get up the stairs with this bad boy?" I attempted to wiggle my bad leg for emphasis, but it didn't really move much considering my current circumstances.

"Yeah." He took it from me without hesitation, and I quickly grasped the railing so I could anchor myself. I swore he said something behind me, but I couldn't be sure. It definitely was a mumble of sorts, but I let it go. He was probably still all worked up over the elevator thing.

The next – what I figured were a few minutes – were simply tortuous. Here I thought Austin being hot on my heel before was bad, but now it proved to be ten times worse with him practically up my ass at this rate.

Not literally, but you get the point.

Hey! Don't be dirty now.

"Dude!" I hissed when I finally got fed the fuck up. I literally could feel him hovering like a teacher watching their student intently do an assignment. Seriously, his breath was fanning against my back and it was driving me insane. There was no shot in hell I could focus on my footing with him all up in the bizz.

"What?" His deep voice softened out behind me, oh-so innocently it pulled at my heart strings for just a moment until my brain got the memo and knew not to buy it.

Bracing my left hand on the railing to support myself, I twisted my body as best as I could with this damn crutch practically stabbing me in the armpit to look at him. "Whatever this is." I huffed in pure stress.