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"Shouldn’t you put in the water first?"

He wavered "Should I?"

"I was taught to start it, put the soap in, and add laundry to the line"

"What line?"

"The line that tells you how far to fill the ent down before pulling his clothes back out Haven returned to folding as he glared at the front of the washer "Where’s the start button?"

"There isn’t a button," she said "You choose your setting and pull the dial"

Her nonchalance at doing laundry annoyed hi? It looks to odda turn this thing on"

Her brow furrowed "Should Ido it for you?"

The question caught hiuard "I don’t know"

She reached over and turned the dial to colors It filled ater, and shein half his clothes She worked briskly, pushing the hamper with the rest of the laundry off to the side before turning back to folding hers

Carmine stood there, anxious, unsure of what to say All week long he had invented conversations in hishim, and now that she was in front of hiood at that shit"

Aard

She s it my whole life"

"Yeah, well, this is a first for me," he muttered "So, who are you?"

She looked confused "I told you my name"

"I know, but that doesn’t tell me who you are Do you have a last name?"

She continued to fold her laundry "Antonelli, maybe"

"Maybe?"

"I don’t really have one, but that’s his"

He cocked his head to the side, studying her "Whose?"

"My master’s"

"What do you mean your master?"

"You know, my master where I came from"

No, he didn’t know "Where did you come from?"

"Blackburn California, I think"

"You think? Did you live there long?"

She nodded "Until I came here"

"And you’re not sure where it is?" He was stunned "Did you hate the place or so?"

"Depends on what you hed "I didn’t like my master, but I had someone there who understood me"

"What about here?"

"Here I have food to eat and clothes to wear"

"But no one understands you?"

She shook her head "My h"

"Whoa" Masters? That rubbed hi that? It sounds wrong, like you’re a servant or a slave or so"

She peeked at him as he spoke "Aren’t I?"

"How? What the fuck?"

"It isn’t bad here," she quickly explained "People like me wish for the kind of place where they don’t have to fear paying for someone else’s mistakes with their life"

"And wherever you came from, you worried you’d be killed for no reason?"

"No, there’s always a reason," she said "Just not one you caused"

Carirl She may not have seen it, but Carmine knehat it was like to pay for others’your life could end because of so to do with you

Buther clothes in silence beforeaher only exit

"Do you need anything else?" she asked

"I need to knohy you hate me"