hopped on the subway, went home and showered.
I didn't feel any sense of relief that he hadn't met up with Tyler. I was pissed. I was angry that Brendon stole Tyler from my bed when he demanded they meet. I was livid that he was still interfering in my life even though we broke up so long ago. I was mostly upset that I couldn't find Tyler.
As Brendon went on about how I'll never make it without him, I turned toward the people standing next to me who were talking about Tyler and how hard it would be to rebuild the restaurant.
That's when I saw him. I dropped my phone in my bag, even as Brendon kept talking. I didn't give a shit about a word he was saying. None of it mattered.
The only thing that I cared about was the man I saw standing ten feet away from me. His hands were curled tightly over a wooden barricade, his left foot tapping non-stop. The pained look on his face said it all. His gaze was locked on the still burning remnants of the restaurant; his restaurant.
I pushed past everyone, not bothering to apologize when I stepped on toes or elbowed someone in the ribs.
Just as I reached Tyler, he shot a quick glance in my direction. He pulled me easily into his arms and I held him tightly as he watched his dream being destroyed right before our eyes.
We clung to each until a beautiful woman with long brown hair came running at us. When Tyler saw her, he left me. His arms circled her and they sobbed together. I didn't feel any rejection. I couldn't. She looked too much like him. It was his sister, Kayla Foster, and when she introduced herself after the fire captain came to talk to Tyler, I knew that he'd shared details about me with her.
It wasn't just that she knew my name. I expected that when she said she saw me on television with her brother. It was more than that. She knew about the Marglobe tomatoes and the halibut. She talked about the dress I'd worn to the VIP event at Nova. She mentioned, quietly, that he had told her I was special and that she was glad I was in his life.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Tyler?" I fill the silence between us. There may be people brushing past us as we stand together on the sidewalk across the street from where the restaurant used to be, but their presence doesn't change anything. Tyler's sole focus at this moment is the same as mine. It's the shell of Nova that's now surrounded by a chain link fence and at least a dozen yellow warning signs meant to keep people a safe distance away.
He straightens his back as he taps the brim of his ball cap with his fingers. I stare at the bandage wrapped around his hand. It's a lingering reminder of his attempt to get inside the restaurant that morning. He'd burned it on the door handle before the heat, and some people passing by, stopped him.
I heard him telling Kayla that he didn't know how bad the fire was until he looked in through the front windows to see flames blanketing the ceiling and trailing down the walls of the dining room. It was another few minutes before the first fire engine arrived. By then, there was nothing anyone could do to save Nova.
Darrell had given it a valiant effort when he tried to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher after smoke filled the back office where he was working on next week's schedule for the sous chefs. When he realized it was futile, he raced to fetch his and Tyler's knife sets before he rushed out the back door just as the fire consumed the kitchen and the overhead sprinklers finally kicked in.
Luckily, he was the only one in the restaurant when the fire started. When someone on the cleaning crew returned to get their forgotten phone they frantically told a policeman that Darrell was working inside when they had left an hour before. No one could have known that he was actually in a dry cleaning shop down the block trying to catch his breath. Miraculously, he only suffered minor smoke damage and everyone who lived above the restaurant was able to flee with time to spare.
"There's
I didn't feel any sense of relief that he hadn't met up with Tyler. I was pissed. I was angry that Brendon stole Tyler from my bed when he demanded they meet. I was livid that he was still interfering in my life even though we broke up so long ago. I was mostly upset that I couldn't find Tyler.
As Brendon went on about how I'll never make it without him, I turned toward the people standing next to me who were talking about Tyler and how hard it would be to rebuild the restaurant.
That's when I saw him. I dropped my phone in my bag, even as Brendon kept talking. I didn't give a shit about a word he was saying. None of it mattered.
The only thing that I cared about was the man I saw standing ten feet away from me. His hands were curled tightly over a wooden barricade, his left foot tapping non-stop. The pained look on his face said it all. His gaze was locked on the still burning remnants of the restaurant; his restaurant.
I pushed past everyone, not bothering to apologize when I stepped on toes or elbowed someone in the ribs.
Just as I reached Tyler, he shot a quick glance in my direction. He pulled me easily into his arms and I held him tightly as he watched his dream being destroyed right before our eyes.
We clung to each until a beautiful woman with long brown hair came running at us. When Tyler saw her, he left me. His arms circled her and they sobbed together. I didn't feel any rejection. I couldn't. She looked too much like him. It was his sister, Kayla Foster, and when she introduced herself after the fire captain came to talk to Tyler, I knew that he'd shared details about me with her.
It wasn't just that she knew my name. I expected that when she said she saw me on television with her brother. It was more than that. She knew about the Marglobe tomatoes and the halibut. She talked about the dress I'd worn to the VIP event at Nova. She mentioned, quietly, that he had told her I was special and that she was glad I was in his life.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Tyler?" I fill the silence between us. There may be people brushing past us as we stand together on the sidewalk across the street from where the restaurant used to be, but their presence doesn't change anything. Tyler's sole focus at this moment is the same as mine. It's the shell of Nova that's now surrounded by a chain link fence and at least a dozen yellow warning signs meant to keep people a safe distance away.
He straightens his back as he taps the brim of his ball cap with his fingers. I stare at the bandage wrapped around his hand. It's a lingering reminder of his attempt to get inside the restaurant that morning. He'd burned it on the door handle before the heat, and some people passing by, stopped him.
I heard him telling Kayla that he didn't know how bad the fire was until he looked in through the front windows to see flames blanketing the ceiling and trailing down the walls of the dining room. It was another few minutes before the first fire engine arrived. By then, there was nothing anyone could do to save Nova.
Darrell had given it a valiant effort when he tried to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher after smoke filled the back office where he was working on next week's schedule for the sous chefs. When he realized it was futile, he raced to fetch his and Tyler's knife sets before he rushed out the back door just as the fire consumed the kitchen and the overhead sprinklers finally kicked in.
Luckily, he was the only one in the restaurant when the fire started. When someone on the cleaning crew returned to get their forgotten phone they frantically told a policeman that Darrell was working inside when they had left an hour before. No one could have known that he was actually in a dry cleaning shop down the block trying to catch his breath. Miraculously, he only suffered minor smoke damage and everyone who lived above the restaurant was able to flee with time to spare.
"There's
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