“I know just the spot. And while we’re eating, you can tell me why when I got up to make myself some tea last night that I saw Colton Allyster standing on your doorstep.”
“I forgot I had his key, so he came to pick it up,” I explain, not wanting her to jump to any kind of conclusion.
“That’s it?” she prompts as we make it to her car and get in.
“Yeah.”
“Bummer,” she mutters, catching me off guard.
“Bummer?”
“Yeah, bummer. I thought you’d give me something juicy to tell the girls at book club. All of them think Colton is handsome, and since they saw you the other day, they thought you two would be perfect together. They were thrilled when I told them you started working at the Rusty Rose, which meant you’d be working with him, which also meant that maybe they’d get to experience a real life romance, like in the books we read.”
“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is nothing going on between us,” I laugh, picturing her book club friends, who are all older women, sitting around not talking about books at all, but gossiping.
“That’s why it’s a bummer, dear’.” She smiles, pulling out of the parking lot. “It’s an even bigger bummer, since his ex did what she did to him,” she adds as we drive through town.
“What she did?” I ask as we pull into a small parking lot with a brick building and pink awning over the door, with Afternoon Tea scrolled across the pink surface in swirly white writing.
“She broke up with him when he was in the hospital after he was shot,” she says, and my heart drops into my stomach. There was a lot there to digest, so much so that I still hadn’t had a chance to wrap my mind around it all when we were seated at a small round table inside the restaurant.
“She did that?” I ask, needing to know the answer to that question first before I ask anymore.
“She did, and they were engaged when she did it.”
“Holy cow,” I whisper.
“He was also fighting for our country when he was shot, so as you can imagine, not too many people around here are big fans of hers.”
“I bet not.” I clear my throat that has suddenly gone dry and tight. I can’t believe Colton went through that, and I can’t believe the bitch did that to him.
“Hi, ladies. Welcome to Afternoon Tea. Have you been here before?” the waitress asks, breaking into the moment, and I shake my head, because I know I need a second before I try to talk. “Well then, you are in for a real treat.” She smiles at me, then Grandma and Nina. “Are you ready to order?”
I start to say no, but Nina answers before I can. “We’ll take the full service.”
“Good, I’ll be right back with your drinks,” the waitress replies before leaving.
“We didn’t give her a drink order,” I point out, and Nina smiles.
“I promise you’ll enjoy what she brings,” she tells me.
I do enjoy it, all of it. And even though I want to ask Nina a million more questions about Colton, I don’t. Instead, I enjoy sitting there with Grandma and Nina drinking tea out of fancy teacups and eating small sandwiches and cakes.
~**~
Hearing an alarm going off somewhere in the distance, I pull my pillow over my head then shoot up, feeling my heart lodged in my throat when the sound registers as a smoke alarm. I roll off the bed then grab my sweater and move to the door as I put it on. As soon as I open the door, the alarm is so loud that it’s almost painful to hear. Seeing heavy dark smoke pooling out of the kitchen into the living room, I yell, “Grandma!” at the top of my lungs, coughing when I pull in a lungful of the smoke that is filling the room.
Covering my mouth with the sleeve of my sweater, I duck, trying to get under the dark smoke. I scan the kitchen, seeing fire has already engulfed half the room. Then I spot Grandma, lying in the middle of the kitchen on her back with dark liquid pooling around her head.
“Oh, God.” I stumble across the room toward her. “Grandma!” I lift her head, feeling wetness against my fingers. Hearing a hiss and cracking sound, I know I don’t have time to check her over; I need to get us out of here. With my hands under her arms, I drag her limp body with me. It seems to take forever to clear the doorway to the kitchen. My eyes burn, and every breath I take is painful, making me cough and grow lightheaded.
When I finally make it to the front door, I barely have the energy to open it but I do, and by some miracle, I get us both outside, down the steps, and on the grass that is wet and cold from the early morning dew that has settled on its surface. Torn between staying with Grandma and getting help, tears run down my cheeks.