Pat coughs and if I didn’t know her, I would request the paramedics check her out. But she’s been a heavy smoker for years and coughs like this all the time.
“They think the toaster oven in the empty apartment was left plugged in.” She says with another cough.
A toaster. I almost laugh because it's ridiculous. Who knew one toaster could do so much damage?
“It will be okay, honey.” She pats my shoulder and toddles off, likely to check on someone else.
The fire is out, but the smoke sits heavy in the sky, the final remnant of destruction.
“Grant?” The voice is so soft, it’s almost like I dreamed it.
“Lennox?” I look up, but she’s staring at what's left of my apartment complex. “What are you doing here?”
“My dad wanted me to come check on you. He said you got hurt on the job. But…” Her voice trails off, and she drops to the curb beside me. “What happened here?”
All I want to do is pull her close, hold her until the pain of this day is nothing but a distant memory, but I focus on playing with the edge of the bandage around my thumb.
“A fire,” I say simply.
She says nothing. Just sits beside me, watching the firefighters finish the job. Her presence is all I need.
“I’m so sorry, Grant.” She whispers.
I nod. I know she is.
“You can stay at our house,” she says and gently touches my arm.
“I know, thank you. I'll figure it out.” I should accept her help. Her family has been nothing but kind to me. But right now I can’t think about anything except what I lost.
Her touch melts me enough that I drop my head. “My grandpa’s chest was in there.” Everything else was replaceable. Books and clothes were just that.
Lennox lets out a small gasp. “Oh no, Grant.”
Her tenderness breaks down my walls and pain hits me somewhere in my chest and spreads through my body. I don’t think, don’t react. A saw is coming for me again, but I can’t move.
Lennox pulls me into her and I fall against her like a child, hoping a mother’s kiss can fix everything. But it can’t. Nothing about this can be fixed. That was the one thing I had. The one thing I truly cared about.
“It will be okay,” Lennox whispers as she rubs my back.
I was wrong. There are two things I care about.
I sniff and pull away from her. “I know,” I say. I can’t sit here anymore. I stand up and she gets to her feet as well.
“Where are you going to stay?” Lennox asks.
“I’ve got a place,” I lie. I hate lying to her. I have no idea where I’m going tonight. To my aunt’s house, maybe? In my car probably. I have enough money saved up from the years I’ve been working with the Bentleys, but I was hoping to use my savings for a down payment on a house. I can rent a hotel room for a few days, but it’s not a realistic scenario long term. I need to find a new apartment.
“Are you going to be okay?” Lennox shifts from one foot to the other.
I know she’s aching to fix all my problems. She’s always been like that. She can’t even watch the commercials on television about the kids in Africa without pulling her credit card out to donate each time.
I love her tender heart. But she can’t fix everything.
I fake a smile for her like this hasn’t been the third-worst day of my life, beat only by the night my father came home raging drunk and admitted he’d never wanted me, and the day my grandfather passed away. “I’ll be okay.”
“But…” she pauses. “You just lost everything.”
I look into her liquid amber eyes. I lost everything I owned in that apartment, but there’s one thing that I could never live without.
