Maybe they have the wrong apartment.
Elliott’s parents!
The woman frowns at me, then down at the notepad in her hand. “Loren Piper?”
Shit. They have the right apartment. “That’s me.”
She flips over the page. “Are you the owner of a silver Honda Civic, Maryland plates?” She rattles off a series of numbers and letters, and while I don’t know my license plate number by heart, how many other silver Civics have Maryland plates down here? “Yes?”
“I’m afraid there’s been an accident.”
How is that possible? My car is in the parking lot, and I have the only set of keys. Maybe someone hotwired it. Is that a real thing or just something they do in movies?
“You need to come with me,” she says.
I stuff my feet into my slippers and grab my keys, trailing her into the chilly night. Moths and bugs swarm the yellowed lights attached to the walls along the staircase. Blue and red lights flash in the parking lot, bouncing off the concrete walls.
The officer slips her notepad back into her breast pocket, leaving her hands free to hold the railing. “We have a suspect in custody, but your car’s in pretty bad shape. You’ll need to have it towed to a shop.”
Tow trucks are freaking expensive, and I won’t have my next paycheck till Friday.
Muddy skid marks streak across the grass, leading straight to my poor car.
The back bumper is completely torn off and the side looks like it’s been stomped by elephants. Whoever did this must’ve been traveling at crazy speeds to inflict that kind of damage to a parked vehicle.
Another officer snaps photographs of a black Toyota I’ve never seen before, turned on its side next to a tree. Thank goodness no one was walking around at this hour.
Even though I’m pissed at the driver of the other vehicle, I hope whoever it was is okay.
The longer I stare at the bits of my car still laying in the grass, the more dread fills my stomach. “I can’t afford to fix this.” And I can’t afford a new car right now.
The officer’s lips press flat, her dark eyes swimming with sympathy. “You’ll be able to claim the towing, damage, and rental car on the other man’s insurance.”
That’s something at least.
It takes the officers another thirty minutes to wrap things up and tell me that I can head back inside. My alarm will be going off in an hour, but there’s no hope of me getting any more sleep before work.
The closest rental car place isn’t open until nine, but I need to be in the office by eight thirty.
I could call in and explain what happened, but how would that look after yesterday’s disaster?
No. I have to go in.
I text Meg to see if she’s awake yet, but even after I’ve showered, she still hasn’t responded.
If I wait around and she doesn’t get back to me in time, I’ll be late.
I should just call a ride share, but…
Maybe this is a sign, the universe telling me to give up, pack up my stuff, and head home. That I was never meant to be here in the first place.
Normally, I pride myself on my positivity, but after what happened at work yesterday, it’s getting harder and harder to smile.
If I go back now and budget carefully, in a few years, I might have enough saved for a down payment on my own place. Yeah, I’ll have to live with Mom and Dad until then, but there are worse fates than that.
Like…
Huh.
