Page 18 of Sorry

It’s all yours now. Talk to Jenny, she has all the paperwork from the lawyers. You have a home and you are safe. You have enough to renovate my floor, open your dream bakery and then some. Someone needs to feed Lantry proper food now that I am not here.

Son, I knew you wanted to come more often and I know your heart, don’t feel guilty of anything, Baka loves you more than anything in the world.

Promise me you will get rid of that no good, waste of a man and make Baka proud with your own bakery. I will be watching over you.

P.S. You better water my forget-me-nots in the yard.

Love, BAKA MILA

Clutching the letter to my chest, I let out all the pain through my sobs. I felt grateful and blown away by the woman that I had the privilege to call my Baka. She really meant what she said, “Don’t worry Baka got you.” But what was making my heart sing was that she wasn’t mad or disappointed that I couldn’t be here as much as I wanted, she even suspected why. She gave me a gift today. Not the house, not the money but she gave me the goodbye I thought I’d missed.

I showered and instead of feeling sad and empty, I felt better than I had in years. That sounded odd considering my life had been turned upside down. But Baka did that for me. I felt brave enough to take Jake and Matt up on the offer to go and hangout with them. So I dressed in casual, black, tracksuit pants and a black hoodie; that I accidentally ordered a size bigger so they were baggy on me, but I felt comfortable in it. I walked to their house and knocked. I heard commotion, a tumble and a bang when the door swung open and I flinched. Matt was panting and laughing.

He exclaimed, “Oh Sam, what a nice surprise! Come in.”

“Are you sure? I can come back later, you guys seem busy." I said, walking backwards towards the stairs.

“Oh that!” He pointed at the ground. Stepping closer to look where he was pointing at and saw Jake laying on the floor, pouting.

“He just ate my dust, in the race to get to the door first. I won.” He said smugly.

I chuckled.

“Is this a common occurrence?” I asked, still looking at poor Jake that was trying his best to play it cool.

“Oh yes, we compete in everything. From who will eat their cereal first. Who picks the movie, to who gets ready faster in the mornings. It’s gotten worse since we are jobless at the moment.” He told me, while leading me to the couch.

They made me tea and we settled in for a comfortable chat. The door opened, Alex walked in and our eyes met.

CHAPTER 22

ALEX

Everyone was quiet. It was unusual for me to just drop in without texting first, especially at 8pm. Jake got up and started walking over to me.

“Alex, man are you alright? Why didn’t you call? Matt could have come to get you, you are soaked!” Jake’s eyes scanned my body, looking perplexed.

I looked down at myself. I was wearing black tracksuit pants, sneakers and no shirt… I really was completely soaked. I never even noticed it was raining.

“Oh God Alex, you are shivering. Let's get you dry.” Sam was there next to me, looking concerned. He took a hold of my wrist and led me towards the hall. Taking charge. He seemed to be a little bit less skittish now.

“Guys, is the bathroom this way?” Sam asked.

“Yes, the first door on the left. Let me give you towels.” Matt said, following along.

“I am fine. I am fine.” I kept repeating, while my teeth were chattering. I was not fine and I was freezing.

“Yeah, ok man. Let's just warm you up.” Matt said, opening the bathroom door and turning the lights on.

“I’ll get you some of my clothes, but they might be a snug fit.” Jake said hurriedly, walking past us to his room.

Sam let go of my arm and went to turn the shower on, then stood in front of me. “You undress and get in under the hot water and warm up. I am going to run back home and bring some food for you to eat. Ok? Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah.” I croaked, voice a bit rough.

“Okay, good.” Giving me one last worried look Sam turned and left the bathroom, closing the door behind himself.

Towels were left out on the countertop beside the sink, and some clean clothes for me. I took my sneakers off, followed by my socks then my pants, it was all that I had on. I hadn’t worn anything underneath when I was at home; clothes were a nuisance. I stepped into the shower and under the warm water. It was scalding on my frozen skin. It was still spring but because it was late in the evening, and I barely had any clothes on in the rain. I turned into an ice cube.