Page 97 of Ashes of Us
I got out of bed, made coffee, stared at my phone some more.
The problem was Maya had blocked his number after the breakup, and I hadn’t bothered with unblocking it. I’d thought about it, of course, but Maya woudn’t have it. One of those self-preservation moves she had insisted on while I ugly-cried on her couch.You need to heal, Pipes. That means no drunk texting at 2 AM.
I pulled up my blocked contacts, found his name, then hesitated with my thumb over the unblock button.
This felt… significant. Like opening a door I'd deadbolted shut.
I unblocked him before I could overthink it, then stared at the empty text thread for another two minutes.
Finally, before I could lose my nerve:
Happy birthday!
I hit send. Immediately wanted to throw my phone into the ocean.
The response came faster than I expected.
Thanks. You're up early.
I glanced at the clock. 5:32 AM.
Could say the same about you. Swim day?
Nope. Busy day at the station. No rest for the wicked
Something about that made my chest hurt. I typed back before I could stop myself.
Any big plans today?
Three dots appeared, disappeared, then appeared again.
Working a double. Pretty low-key.
I read it twice. Working a double… and that was it. No dinner plans, no celebration with friends, just another shift at the station.
That's it? Just work?
Yeah. Beats sitting in my apartment staring at the walls.
The words landed heavy. He was spending his birthday alone, working because he had nothing better to do.
I set my phone down and kooked at my kitchen. At my stand mixer and the ingredients I kept stocked for exactly this kind of impulse.
I could bake him something. It’d just be a small gesture. Drop it off at the station when he wasn't there, leave it with whoever was on duty.
Nothing dramatic, and surely nothing that required conversation or explanations.
Just... something that said I remembered.
Maya walkedinto my apartment at 6:47 PM, took one look at what I was doing, and stopped dead.
"Is that chocolate-espresso?"
I didn't look up from sifting cocoa powder. "I gave you a key for emergencies."
"Thisisan emergency." She set her purse down with the kind of deliberate slowness that meant I was in trouble. "You're makinghiscake."
"It's just a cake."
