Worthy Opponents(29)
“The fire is almost out. We’re waiting to assess the damage, but they won’t let us go in yet. It started in the kitchen of the restaurant. It was burning for hours before it burst through the roof. Thank God it did, instead of going down to the lower floors. But the smoke and water damage may be bad. We don’t know yet. And what are you doing here, by the way?” She smiled gratefully at him.
“I wanted to be sure you were okay, and I don’t have your number.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, and introduced him to her associates, who looked shocked once they knew who he was. They would have questioned her about it, but they couldn’t with him standing there. “Mike invited me to the Met party tonight. I didn’t know before I got there,” she explained to them.
“Or she wouldn’t have come,” he added, and Beau and Marcy laughed, since they knew the situation and that Spencer had been refusing to meet him. “Hopefully, the damage won’t be too bad,” he said, and they all nodded. It was two in the morning by then, and he stayed with them until three, when they finally left. They couldn’t go in until morning. It was still too hot and dangerous. Mike had stayed with them, and took Spencer home in a cab.
“Do you want to come in for a cup of coffee?” she asked him when they got there. She looked exhausted, and they both had soot on their faces from ash floating in the air.
“You need to lie down and get some rest,” he said gently.
“Thank you for coming. I was terrified till I got there. They already had it under control. But the damage could be pretty bad. I don’t know how much merchandise we lost. We had a leak in the warehouse last week, now this.” She looked beaten for a moment, and he gave her a hug.
“Sleep. It’ll look better in the morning. And your insurance will take care of it,” he reminded her, and she nodded. Marcy had already called and left a message. “I’ll call you,” he said, and then remembered that he didn’t have her number. She gave it to him willingly, and he gave her his. He had been so kind and compassionate all night. It was amazing how life worked out at times. Only a day ago she had considered him a potential enemy, and overnight he had become a friend. His showing up at the fire had demonstrated that he was a decent human being and a good person. As he left in a cab to go home, she realized that she hadn’t heard from Bill all night. He hadn’t called to check on her after the party, to see how things had worked out. And Mike had come there to see what he could do to help. Bill hadn’t given any sign of life. It was a big statement about how little he cared about her, and it wasn’t lost on her.
She went back to the store that morning after she’d slept for a few hours. There was burnt wood and charred furniture piled up in the street. Marcy had called a cleaning crew to take the debris away. They were already working. There were two firefighters on the scene who escorted Spencer and Marcy into the building to survey the damage. The top floor was frightening. The other floors had been untouched by the fire. But there was noticeable smoke damage, and some water had gotten to the lower floors. The store would probably have to be closed while they made repairs. The insurance adjuster was coming on Monday morning to assess the damage.
Beau Vincent and Paul Trask came that afternoon, but there wasn’t much they could do on their own. They all went to a nearby coffee shop after they had toured the store and surveyed the damage. It could have been much worse, and Spencer was grateful it wasn’t. They had just ordered coffee when Beau looked at Spencer with a quizzical eye.
“Excuse me, Ms. Brooke, would you like to explain how Mike Weston happened to show up here last night, acting like your best friend?” She looked embarrassed for a minute and smiled at them. Paul looked like he was about to keel over when he heard it.
“The Mike Weston you’ve been refusing to meet?”
“The very same,” she admitted. “He invited me to the event at the Met last night. He was the Honorary Chair. He sent me two tickets I didn’t know were from him and he had me seated next to him. I told him that if he said a word of business, I’d leave. So he didn’t, and he was very nice to talk to. He was sitting next to me when I got the call about the fire, and he showed up on his own.”
“Are you willing to talk to him now?” Paul asked her.
“Maybe. I haven’t decided yet. I’ll concede that he seems to be a nice person, but that doesn’t mean I want to be in business with him. I’ll think about if I want a meeting with him.”
“Well, let me know,” Paul said, still stunned by the latest development.
They left after that. There wasn’t much they could do. She had a text from Mike that afternoon when she got home, just asking how she was, and offering anything he could do to help her. He had been nothing but kind since they met. He wasn’t at all like what she had expected.
She didn’t hear from Bill until ten o’clock that night, and she was profoundly shocked by that. He called her while she was lying on her bed, watching TV, trying not to worry about the store. It had been a deeply upsetting twenty-four hours, with no word from him.
“So, how’d it go last night?” he asked blithely, as though inquiring about another party she’d gone to after the Met.
“How’d it go? My store was on fire and we lost most of the top floor and the roof, with water and smoke damage on the other floors. How do you think it went? It didn’t occur to you to call a little sooner? Mike Weston showed up to help us, and I only met him last night. We’ve been dating for two years and you couldn’t give me a call?” She was angry at him.