A few minutes after Jeremy leaves my mom calls me. It's a brief but urgent conversation—she had learned of my bookstore burning to the ground through the local news. I ask her if she's working today and she answers that she is not, so I ask her if I can come over for a few hours and she answers that absolutely I can. I tell her I love her and I'll be over after I shower; I spend a long time in the shower, feeling numb even though the water is only a degree shy of steaming me alive.
It's a sweatpants and baggy sweater kind of day. I stop at the liquor store and pick up a bottle of wine—a bottle of white since I inherited my love for white wine from my mom. I play the radio as I drive, tapping my finger on the steering wheel. It's bright so I put on my sunglasses, snickering to myself as I
