Nothing.
I must’ve left it downstairs, although I feel like I have a memory of using it up here last night. I guess not. What terrible timing to forget my phone downstairs—when I’m locked up here in this stupid attic and I’ve got to use the bathroom.
I settle back into the bed, trying not to think about my full bladder. I don’t know how I’m ever going to fall asleep though. When Andrew comes to find me here in the morning, I’m going to give him hell for accidentally locking me in here.
“Millie? Are you awake?”
My eyes fly open. I don’t know how I managed to fall asleep, but somehow I did. But it’s still early in the morning. The tiny room is dim, with only a few streaks of sunlight peeking in through my small window.
“Andrew.” I sit up in bed, the tug in my bladder now more than urgent. I scurry off the bed and stumble closer to the door. “You locked me in here last night!”
There’s a long silence on the other side of the door. I expect an apology, a jingle of keys while he tries to locate the one that will let me out. But I don’t hear any of that. He’s completely silent.
“Andrew,” I say. “You have the key, right?”
“Oh, I have the key,” he confirms.
And that’s when I get a sick feeling. Last night, I kept telling myself this was an accident. It had to be an accident. But suddenly, I’m not so sure. After all, how do you accidentally lock your girlfriend in a room and not even realize it until hours later? “Andrew, can you please open the door?”
“Millie.” His voice sounds strange. Unfamiliar. “Do you remember yesterday you were reading some of my books from the bookcase?”
“Yes…”
“Well, you took out a few books, and then you just left them on the coffee table. Those were my books, and you didn’t treat them very well, did you?”
I don’t know what he’s talking about. Yes, I did take a few books out of the bookcase. Three, at the most. And maybe I got distracted and never put them back. But is it really that big a deal? Why does he sound so upset?
“I… I’m sorry,” I say.
“Hmm.” His voice still sounds strange. “You say you’re sorry, but this is my house. You can’t just do anything you want without any consequences. I thought you would know better, since you’re a maid and all.”
I flinch at the disparaging way he says my job description, but I’ll say anything to get him to calm down. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make a mess. I’ll go clean it up.”
“I already cleaned it up. You’re too late.”
“Listen, can you open the door so we can talk about this?”
“I’ll open the door,” he says. “But you need to do something for me first.”
“What?”
“Do you see the three books I left you on the floor of the room?”
The textbooks he left in the middle of my room, the ones I almost tripped over last night, are still right where he left them. “Yes…”
“I want you to lie on the floor of your room and balance them on your stomach.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he says. “I want you to balance those books on your stomach. For three straight hours.”
I stare at the door, imagining the twisted expression on Andrew’s face. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not even a tiny bit.”
I have no idea why he’s doing this. This isn’t the Andrew I fell in love with. It’s like he’s playing some sort of bizarre game with me. I don’t know if he realizes quite how much he’s upsetting me. “Listen, Andrew, whatever you want to do, whatever game you want to play, just let me out of this room and let me go to the bathroom at least.”
“Can I make this any clearer?” He clucks his tongue. “You carelessly left my books in the living room, and I had to put them back for you. So now I want you to take these books and bear their weight.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate. Because you’re not getting out of this room until you do what I tell you to do.”
“Fine. I’m probably going to pee my pants then.”
“There’s a bucket in the closet if you need to relieve yourself.
When I first moved in here, I noticed that blue bucket in the corner of the closet. I just left it there, never giving it a second thought. I look over at the closet and it’s still sitting there. My bladder spasms and I cross my legs.