Burn Our Relationship to a Crisp

Sophie? Joshua's first love, Sophie Walker?

Hearing her name hit me hard, but I couldn't afford to get into it with him at that moment.

"Wait. Margaret—" I began, but the line went dead.

I was heartsick over Margaret and infuriated by Joshua's attitude.

Mrs. Zeller saw how upset I was and came over, asking, "What's going on? Is Joshua dealing with something? Did he get another fire call? Otherwise… how could he ignore his mom?"

Exactly! His mother's life was at risk!

I clenched my jaw and kept calling him. Finally, he answered again. I didn't let him say a word.

"Margaret's apartment is on fire, Joshua! Get back here, now!" I blurted out.

But instead, a soft, weak voice came through, "Rue, I get that you're upset about Joshua helping me, but you can't go around wishing harm on Mrs. Scott like that. He'll check on her once he's done with my pipes."

I was so mad that I shouted into the phone, "Sophie Walker, why the hell would I joke about something like this? Put Joshua on!"

A second later, I heard Joshua's voice. "She's on speaker—I've been hearing everything. Are you done, Ruby? You're actually wishing harm on my mom just to get me to come home? She's always been nothing but good to you. You're insane!

"Sophie, just ignore her."

Then, he hung up on me again.

It was the middle of summer, but it felt like someone had just drenched me with ice-cold water.

Ever since Sophie came back, I had had this nagging feeling that Joshua might leave me for her someday. But I never expected it to turn out this way, of all times.

Sophie was Joshua's first love. They started dating in college and kept it going while they got into their careers, but eventually, life's stress took its toll, and things fell apart.

By the time Joshua and I got together, I already knew about their long relationship that fizzled out. He'd promised me he wasn't the type to stay hung up on an ex.

But, like they said, promises were only as good as the person making them.

Once Sophie returned to our town after her divorce, Joshua somehow forgot all his vows. He often claimed he was busy with work but ran off to help Sophie instead.

His feelings were clearly drifting away from me, but he wouldn't own up to it. He kept insisting they were just old friends and that he was simply doing her favors because of their past.

He acted so righteous about it that I—his wife—was left looking like the unreasonable one.

I clenched my fists, watching the scene at the building with worry. The wind was picking up fast, and without the fire department here, the fire just kept getting worse.

Margaret was getting up there in age, and even if she wasn't getting burned, all that smoke could seriously harm her lungs.

I started pacing back and forth, waiting another ten minutes, but there was still no sign of a fire truck. Even the neighbors were starting to get that something wasn't right.

"The fire's huge by now. Why hasn't anyone from the fire department shown up yet? We gave them the right address, didn't we?"

"Oh, gosh, this is ridiculous! What's going to happen to Margaret?"

I was on edge, and this weird, unsettling feeling just wouldn't leave me. I pulled out my phone and called the fire department again.

This time, a different dispatcher answered. It wasn't the lady from before, but someone whose voice I actually knew.

"Ruby, is that you for real?"

The second I heard his voice, I knew it was Louis Foster—Joshua's coworker and best friend from the fire department.

I tried to steady my shaky voice and said, "The 17th floor of Apartment 1, Building 3 at Rosewood Apartments is on fire. Can you send someone immediately?"

But Louis laughed on the other end of the line.