Chapter 3
Devon hadn’t even had a moment to think about the disturbing events of last night and this morning until about two o’clock, when she finally stopped in the break room, grabbed a cup of coffee, and just leaned against the wall, holding the cup close to her face and letting the warm coffee smell rise up to her senses. She just took a moment to rest.
“You okay?” Dr. Milligan asked, frowning.
She opened her eyes to the dentist. She nodded and added, “Yeah, I just didn’t get much sleep last night.
The move is tons of work. We’re getting there, but we’re not quite settled in, you know?
” She shrugged. “I didn’t even pack a lunch.
Got to go shopping on my way home, but that’s after I deal with the flat tire I had this morning. ”
“Oh, ouch,” he replied, staring at her. “Really not a good morning.”
“No, not a good morning,” she admitted, “but that’s okay. We’re moved in, and everything else can happen in its own time.”
“And that’s really important too,” he agreed. “Everybody tries to get a move done so fast, and yet it takes time to unpack everything. Just don’t push it too hard or you’ll exhaust yourself.”
She looked over at him with a wry look. “I’m trying not to, but the twins are keeping me on my toes.”
He nodded. “Yeah, they’ll do that,” he noted, with a headshake. “Still can’t believe you’re really the legal guardian of those two fireballs.”
“And yet—”
“I know,” he interrupted her. “And yet nobody here holds it against you. We’re just … we’re concerned about you.”
She nodded. “I appreciate that. … Honestly, sometimes I’m a little concerned about me too. I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into in so many ways. I just know that there was no other reasonable outcome, so it is what it is.” She looked down at her watch and frowned.
“Problems?” he asked curiously.
“My neighbor took my tire in,” she shared, “and I haven’t heard back from him. He’s a cop, so I don’t know if he’s just forgotten or if he’s gotten busy. I have to figure out how to get home somehow, but I also need the tire changed. So, you know, fun stuff to work out.” She rolled her eyes.
He nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about your hours.”
“Will you have enough staff to handle this current schedule until I get something set up for the kids?”
“How old are they?”
“They’re ten, soon to be eleven.”
He frowned. “They could probably stay home alone, though I’m not sure what the law says on that.”
“They say they’re totally okay to stay home on their own,” she replied, with an eye roll.
“And, if that’s okay, I would do it at times, but I don’t really know that I can at the moment.
” She sighed. “Most of the week they’ll have after-school activities anyway and would then walk home, getting there very close to when I do,” she explained.
“So that part’s okay. I just don’t know how the rest of it will work out. ”
He smiled. “As long as you realize that it will work out and that you’re doing just fine.” With that, he awkwardly patted her on the shoulder and headed back to work. She followed a few minutes later, her coffee gone as she headed to her next patient.
As she stepped in, she smiled at the little old lady. “Hi, Joan.” She had bottle-blue hair, and it reminded her of Marge Simpson because she kept it in this tight bun atop her head.
Joan smiled at her and asked, “How are you doing, dearie?”
“I’m fine,” she replied, then shook her head. “It’s been a rough couple weeks, but, hey, I’m coming out on the other side.”
“That’s all that we can ask for,” Joan declared. “Goodness knows, there’s just so much stuff going on in this world out there,” she said, with a bright, cheerful smile. “However, if you can just get up every day and feel as if you’re doing something positive, you’ve got it beat.”
And, with that, Devon got started cleaning the older woman’s teeth.
She didn’t have all that many patients left, and Joan was a talker, which meant that every time Devon changed positions and got her tools out of Joan’s mouth, Devon was inundated with questions.
“How is that friend of yours, dear?”
“She passed away,” Devon shared.
“Oh my, oh no, I’m so sorry, dear.”
Devon nodded. “We’re all sorry. She worked here too,” she added, with a smile, “at least up until she wasn’t able to.”
“That’s right. She was hygienist too, wasn’t she?”
“She was,” Devon confirmed. “The two of us pretty much handled that part for the whole office. We switched off our days and managed to schedule a couple days together once in a while when we could.” She tried hard to focus on the task at hand.
“But sadly that time has come to an end.” There wasn’t a whole lot she could even say, and she wasn’t used to talking about it yet.
So she didn’t have an answer ready for when people asked.
Everybody in the office already knew what had happened, and they had been part of the journey to a certain extent, at least up until the end.
Then there was just the end, and nobody else could be party to that journey. It was just way too personal and just what it was. Devon didn’t have anything to say to anybody about it.
She continued working on Joan, and, being Joan, she shot off another question. “Where are you living now?”
“I bought a little house just a few blocks from where I was living before,” she replied. “Now that I have the twins, I needed a bigger place.”
“Oh my.” Then Joan wanted to know all about the kids, how old they were, what they were into at school. By the time Devon was done cleaning her teeth, Joan patted her hand, really happy. “You’ll do marvelously, and those kids will be such a joy to have around.”
Devon just smiled and nodded.
Even though she knew the kids quite well, she still expected there would be plenty of ups and downs. That’s just how life was, but she was hoping there would be more ups than downs, at least for this first stretch of time, while in their new residence.
It would be hard enough for all of them dealing with the loss they all faced. As Devon helped Joan out of the chair, the woman gave her a quick hug and declared, “I’ll come see you again.” And, with that, she was gone.
Devon smiled, realizing her day was almost done, but she still hadn’t heard anything about the tire and had no idea how she would get home.
She needed to check if there was a bus, something she hadn’t had to do in a very long time and really wasn’t looking forward to the idea.
As she stepped out into the main reception area, she heard a conversation and thought she heard her name mentioned. She turned, frowning.
Camden smiled at her and called out, “There you are.”
“Hi.” She was surprised to say the least.
“Are you ready to go home?” he asked, with a beaming smile. “I’ve got your tire for you.”
“You’re kidding,” she muttered, staring at him in delight. “Thank you. I was just trying to figure out how the buses work to see if I could catch a ride home.”
“No, no, no,” he countered, with a laugh.
“I wouldn’t leave you stranded. I just didn’t know if I would get off work at the right time.
Work being what it is and all, my days can be unpredictable,” he noted, his tone apologetic.
“I could have caught another case and been stuck working for the next twenty-four hours. And, honest to God, that could still happen. So, let me get you home and get that tire back on, so you have wheels again.”
What a great neighbor she had in Camden. She smiled in delighted relief, and, with a wave at the rest of the staff—who were all staring at her—Devon headed outside with Camden.
“Looks as if I caught you just at the right time,” he stated, glancing over at her.
“I literally just finished and was opening up my phone to figure out how to get home,” she replied, with a laugh. “I thought, if nothing else, I could probably walk.”
He looked at her, then shook his head. “It’s not that close.”
“Right,” she agreed, “but I didn’t think it would be all that far. Still, I was trying to figure out how to get on the bus.”
“Would the bus have worked?” he asked, a frown on his face.
“Maybe.” She knew an Uber was not an option.
“I don’t think any bus stops are close by here,” he pointed out. “However, with a couple transfers, you probably would have made it.”
She shrugged. “I would have made it,” she declared. “I just don’t know how long it would have been before I got home again.”
He nodded as they walked out to the car.
She felt eyes on her. As she glanced back at the office window, several of the staff stared out at her. She winced but gave them a steady wave.
He looked back too and added, “They do seem to be particularly interested, don’t they?”
“They do,” she conceded, with a sigh. “Nothing quite like working in an office for a long time. They know some of what I’ve been through in the last while, so I’m sure having you show up was a surprise for them.”
He laughed. “If nothing else, it gives them something to talk about.”
She winced and nodded. “Exactly. Unfortunately, that’s very true.” She got into Camden’s car and asked, “So, how much was the tire to fix?”
He frowned at her. “Things are really tight, aren’t they?”
She shrugged. “Until I can get a few paychecks under my belt after the move, yes.” Then she shook her head. “But tires are important. So, whatever it is, I’ll find the money. Just let me know.”
He shrugged. “Actually it was a friend of mine, and he fixed it for free.”
He mentioned it in such an offhand way that she stared at him in shock. “Seriously, or are you just saying that?”
He shrugged. “I’m not just saying that. It is a friend of mine. And when I told him what happened—”
“I don’t even know what happened,” she pointed out.
“And that’s what I told him too. That you just got up this morning and were trying to get to work and couldn’t because of this tire. So, he just popped it off the rim and checked it out. You needed a patch, so he put one on, then called me and told me to come pick it up. So, I did.”
“Wow, those are good friends to have.”