The Love Sucks Club(83)

Sam notices Rick and Karen moving toward the spare bedroom with Esmé. She waves at all of them. When they close themselves in the spare bedroom, Sam turns to me. “Is it me or is that a little weird?”

“I guess it makes sense. They do live really close to the water and I’d rather be here than one of the crowded and probably not too clean temporary shelters.”

“I meant Esmé being here.”

“It’s a little weird.”

“I’m sure she must have other friends than you.”

“What does it matter, Sam?” Roxanne is perplexed. “We have plenty of food and water. Why not offer a safe space to anyone who needs it?”

A loud pounding at the door makes me jump. “Seriously? What the fuck?”

Sam walks over to the door and opens it. My ex slides in with Mandy right behind her. They’re both soaking wet. Standing there dripping water all over my floor, my ex spreads her arms and shrugs. “We didn’t have anywhere else to go?”

“You could have gone to The Pit,” I snarl.

“They’re shut down,” Mandy pouts.

Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I see Roxanne smiling to herself. I’m so glad someone is getting a kick out of my misery.

The wind roars over the house, slamming what sounds like small branches and pebbles against the walls. “You still have time to make it down the hill before the storm starts.”

“Dana,” Jackie pleads. “Your road is already a mud pit. We almost went over the side of the hill twice on our way up here.”

“How is that my problem? I don’t recall inviting you here!”

Mandy sniffs. “Trust me. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here. Jackie insisted this would be the safest place for us to spend the storm.”

“Jackie was wrong.” Irritated as I am at their presence, I’m even more irritated by the fact that I won’t really send them out to die in the storm.

Roxanne puts her hand on my arm and looks into my eyes. “Dana, I know you’re upset and you have every right to be. But a compassionate person cannot send them back out into the storm. What if they drove off the road and died?”

“I’d send flowers to the funeral home,” I say, though I’m smiling.

“Dana.” Roxanne whispers. “I’d feel horrible for the rest of my life.”

Still smiling, I put my arms around her. “Even if the world would be better without either of them?”

“Even then,” she answers, grinning up at me.

“Fine,” I say, turning to Jackie and Mandy. “Dry off and then clean up the water you left all over my floor.”

Esmé comes into the kitchen, carrying another stack of towels. “I grabbed these from the laundry room.”

“Let’s run a load of towels while we still have power,” I say. “We’ve already gone through a lot.”

“Should I just put them in the dryer?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. Leave that stack here. There’s a few clean ones in the bathroom that we should try to save for use on people, rather than floors.”

Esmé gathers up a bunch of wet towels, nodding to Mandy and smiling at Jackie. Drying off as best they can, Jackie takes both of their towels and starts trying to mop up the floor with them. “Just go in the spare bedroom for dry clothes. Take a towel with you.”

“Thanks, Dana,” Jackie says. She sounds almost sincere. Mandy curls her lip at me as they walk past me to the hallway.

“What a douche,” I mutter just loud enough for her to hear me.

Turning her head, she glares at me over her shoulder before flouncing off down the hall. Looking at Roxanne, I whisper, “I’m pretty sure she won’t find anything of mine to fit over that rack.”

“Dana, be nice,” she says.

“Why do I have to be the bigger person?”

“Because you’re just so wonderful,” she smiles.

“Whatever.”

Walking through to the living room, I help Sam and Thomas move the last of the furniture. Everything is lifted from the floor of this room. If there’s going to be leakage, I’m pretty sure it will come from underneath the sliders. I sealed them as best as I could and have shoved towels into the tracks, so it’s as secure as it’s going to get. I’ll still have to check on it every so often to see if I need to bring in a mop.

Coming back into the kitchen and dining area, I slide the partition between the living room and the kitchen closed. I don’t want Frank running in there in terror. I’d rather have him sitting on my lap in terror. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about him, though. Roxanne is sitting cross-legged on one of the arm chairs and Frank is on her lap. He’s licking his lips and she’s finishing a cookie, so I can only assume they’ve been sharing. I give her a warning look, but she just smiles back at me.