Page 82 of No Remedy for Love

“What the hell? What’s going on around here?” Remi asked when she and Blaze got closer to her house. They had emergency vehicles lining the street and they couldn’t even pass. She and Blaze parked on the corner and got out to see what was going on.

“The fuck! That’s by your house, baby!” Blaze grabbed Remi’s hand and power-walked towards the small crowd that had gathered.

“There she is! Thank God,” Rhonda, one of Remi’s neighbors said when she saw her.

Remi was wondering why she was looking for her but she didn’t have to wonder for long. She gasped loudly when she saw that her Beamer was engulfed in flames.

“Oh, my God!” Remi burst out in tears, and Blaze pulled her into a hug.

“It’s okay, baby. It’s just a car. You’re safe and that’s all that matters. We can replace that tomorrow if you want to.” Blaze rubbed her back in comfort.

“I’m so happy that you’re okay, Remi. I was knocking on your door and got scared when I didn’t get an answer.” Rhonda walked over to where they were standing.

“Who would do this and why? I don’t even wanna stay here tonight,” Remi sniffled.

“Whoever did it can just consider themselves caught. Every house on the block has cameras.”

Once the fire was contained, Remi spoke to the police along with a few of her neighbors. They lived in a calm, quiet area and nothing like that had ever happened around there before. They were all too willing to turn over camera footage from their properties to help them catch whoever was responsible. The police escorted them inside to gather some of their belongings before they left to go stay the night at Lollie’s house since it was empty.

The next day, Remi spent most of the morning on the phone with her insurance company. Her car was a total loss, so they were wasting their time sending an inspector out to access it. Marva told them to take their time getting back to the hospital, and they appreciated her. Blaze went to check on his grandmother and drop them off something to eat. Bertha barely had an appetite but he always made sure she ate something, even if it was just soup. She’d lost a lot of weight but that was too be expected. He came right back when he was done to make sure that Remi was straight.

“Hey, I didn’t know that y’all were here.” Lollie smiled when she walked into the house and saw her daughter and her boyfriend. “Where is Marva?”

“She’s at the hospital with Blaze’s grandmother, but you’ll never guess what happened?” Remi sighed.

“What happened, baby?”

Lollie dropped her overnight bag and gave her daughter her undivided attention. Her heart dropped when Remi told her what happened to her car. Lollie was grateful that they weren’t home and she was even more thankful that Remi wasn’t in her car at the time. That was a nice neighborhood but, obviously, it wasn’t nice enough.

“That’s somebody that we know, I guarantee it,” Blaze said. He didn’t put nothing pass Reanna but he doubted if she knew where Remi lived. Then again, when a person put their mind to it, they could find out whatever they needed to know. She could have followed them one day, so he wasn’t ruling anything out.

“It has to be. That’s why I said I didn’t want to sleep there,” Remi replied.

“I don’t even want you to go back there if we’re being honest. I have more than enough room here for y’all to be comfortable.” Lollie’s nerves were bad as hell. Remi was her only child and she wouldn’t even know what to do with herself if anything ever happened to her.

“Blaze takes care of his grandmother, Ma. He can’t just up and move like that.”

“My Nana still have her own house and she’s going back to it as soon as she’s released from the hospital. I only wanted things to cool off but I’m not running from nobody.” Blaze wasn’t even worried about his mother and her siblings. He wasdone playing nice. He was ready for whatever bullshit they came with.

“I know that’s right, son-in-law. Fucking with you is like messing with my baby and I’m coming with no questions asked.” Lollie grabbed her bag and walked away, as Blaze and Remi laughed at her cussing and fussing.

“What’s up, baby? You trying to go look for another car or what?” Blaze asked once they were alone.

“It hasn’t even been a full twenty-four hours yet, Blaze. The insurance company won’t be able to send anybody out until next week.”

Remi’s car, or what was left of it, was towed to wherever they towed that kind of stuff. They gave her the address of where it was and she gave it to her insurance company. She knew that it would take a while before they sent her a check so she would probably be in a rental until then.

“I’m not worried about no insurance and all that other shit. Am I your man or not?” Blaze threw her words right back at her, making her blush and smile.

“You damn sure are! Okay, I can start looking for something. What’s my price point?”

“Really?” Blaze gave her a look like she should already know what’s up.

“Oh yeah, I forgot, my man is rich rich on these hoes.”

“You better act like you know.” Blaze leaned over and kissed her right as her phone rang. He smiled when he saw her granny’s picture pop up.

“Hey granny,” Remi answered the phone with a smile.

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