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“Excuse me,” I said to the browsers, who were now just standing in the middle of the store and talking about their dinner plans. “There’s coffee or tea if you’d like,” I added, gesturing to the little drink station I’d set up to reward anyone who came in when the weather got colder.
“Any injuries?” I asked as I pushed the door between the studio and the shop almost all the way closed so I could watch the browsers and run out if anyone else walked in.
Mom looked up at me. She’d been staring down at the mug that was now in pieces on the floor.
“Just a mug today? We’re doing good,” I said. Mom sighed.
“They just jump out of my hands sometimes,” she said, blinking at me from behind her glasses. She always got into a sort of meditative state when she worked, and sometimes she was a little dreamy for a while. I got the broom and swept up as I did every day. Just part of the job.
“Have you thought any more about what I said about hiring someone part time?” I asked. Right now, it was just the two of us and Mom wouldn’t let me work more than forty hours a week, so she was alone on the weekends a lot and I always came back to chaos on Mondays. The shop was doing well enough to hire someone to help on my days off, and to help with shipping. We could only ship mugs and ornaments because there just wasn’t time to do anything else, and we were missing out on so much potential business.
“Mmm,” Mom said, the sound non-committal. I heard the shop door open, so I couldn’t continue this conversation with Mom.
“We’ve got to hire someone. We’re drowning,” I said, for what felt like the thousandth time.
“Uh huh,” Mom said, going back to her clay. As usual.
* * *
While I triedto keep everything together at work, I couldn’t stop thinking about Lark, so I sent Layne a message to give to her that if she needed something to let me know.
She’s pretty shaken up right now. Took her back home and put her to bed on the pullout and I’m making her some dinnershe replied.
I should have known Layne was already cooking for her. Layne pretty much thought every problem in life could be served by a decent dinner and some baked goods.
Well, I do have an extra bedroom, if she decides she wants to go somewhere else. Joy left her bed and most of her stuff here, so all it needs is some new sheetsI sent.
I’d thought about my extra room immediately when Joy had told me about the fire. It seemed like such an obvious solution. Lark had only been renting the chicken house, so it wasn’t like she could just rebuild it. She needed a new place to live, fast.
And I needed a roommate. I absolutely didn’t believe in any kind of fate, but this seemed like a problem with a solution already available.
If Lark considered staying, even for a little while, I hoped she didn’t think that things would be awkward between us. I wasn’t used to seeing my hookups ever again, but it could work. We were both adults.
I’ll let her know. That’s really generous, thanks Sydshe responded.
It didn’t seem that generous to me. I’d be a complete asshole not to offer. I mean, I could be an asshole about a lot of things, but not about this.
No problemI sent.
Mom and I closed up the shop for the day and I swung by Mainely Books to see Joy again and get any update on Lark.
“Hey,” she said. “I know it’s not the most important thing, but I grabbed some books for Lark.” Of course she had. Joy was such a sweetheart.
“What do you think?” She showed me a small stack that she’d set aside along with some t-shirts and sweatshirts with the bookstore logo and various silly reading quotes and jokes on them. “Kendra said to take whatever I needed. Layne told me she had insurance, but that might take a while to process and she needs a lot of things immediately, so she’s going to put up a fundraiser online.” I could just picture Layne organizing that while Honor dealt with the insurance company.
“What about a toothbrush and soap and that kind of thing? Do you think Layne has that covered?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s a good idea. I feel like she was just dealing with more immediate stuff. Do you want to go to the grocery store and grab some things and we can drop them off with the books?” Joy asked. I should have said no. I shouldn’t get involved. There were plenty of other people who were probably handling it.
“I’ll drive,” I said.
* * *
Because the localgrocery store was small and didn’t have a lot of variety, I drove out to the fancier store outside of Arrowbridge that had a better cosmetics department. I had no idea if Lark needed sheet masks, but I tossed some in the cart and kept moving.
I also didn’t know if she had sensitive skin, so I made sure to get anything that seemed super gentle.
“Floss, mouthwash, toothpaste, toothbrush,” Joy said, listing off what we’d already gotten on the list she’d made while we drove over.
