Free Burned by Unknown

tucked strands of hair behind her ear. “Anthony, I am not imagining anything and I don’t make snap decisions; you know that.  I’m sorry, but I will not lower my standards to be a side-chick for any man and that includes you.”
    Although, she loved him, she refused to allow him the privilege of bed-hopping between her and Melanie. Her mother raised her better than that. And with the little proof of infidelity she had on him, it was enough for her to call it quits. Anthony was too weak to stand up to Melanie and declare he was in love with her and Lincoln had to protect herself while she had her dignity intact.
    “I’m done with this conversation,” he said as he knelt down to dig under the bed for more of his things.
    Lincoln cringed as his heavenly body bent over to drag another duffel bag from underneath the bed. Through her hate, her heart wept knowing this would this be the last time she would see him or hear his laughter. She indeed would miss his corny jokes and the tender way he had with her when they made love. She wanted to scream from the pain shooting from the top of her head down to her toes.
    Lincoln’s legs felt too shaky to stand, and the timing could not be worse for Regan to be out of town. The volcano had erupted, and hot lava flowed far enough to engulf her. Unlike Anthony, she had no one outside of her sister to comfort her. She was on her own until Regan returned from Puerto Rico.
    “I’m out of here,” he said, shouldering past her with his arms full of his belongings.
    She rubbed her shoulder. The sting from where it hit against the doorjamb from his passing by her radiated down her left arm. She sighed at the way he left the bedroom. He didn’t bother to close the dresser drawers and left the closet door wide open.
    When she heard the front door slam, she flipped. In a crazed frenzy, she went through the whole apartment throwing away everything of his left behind. She wanted no remnants of Anthony Jenkins left anywhere in the apartment.
    Lincoln gathered the wire hangers from the bed and arranged them neatly to place back in the closet. She closed the drawers to the dresser and stripped the bedding from the bed to wash. In the bathroom, she searched the cabinets to make sure Anthony removed his toiletries then took the towels from the rack throwing them in the laundry basket. She had to wash everything he’d touched to get rid of his scent.
    After she was done stripping the apartment of Anthony, she poured a glass of wine and sat in the living room.  She made a mental note to call maintenance and have them change the lock on her door.
    She took a sip of wine. The television was off, and it was quiet. Only then, did she allow herself to cry. She felt she’d earned the right to grieve over the loss of the man she’d devoted her life to for two years.

Chapter Nine
    It was past five o’clock in the evening, and Nick decided to go home instead of staying at the firehouse to shower or take a brief nap.
    He dragged his tired body to the parking lot exhausted and in need of some serious sleep. It had been one of those shifts at Station 30. The crew battled two double alarm fires within hours of each other only to have to assist with a triple-three alarm warehouse fire that came in no sooner than they returned to base. By the time that fire was under control, they were late returning the trucks for the next shift.
    Nick stuck a piece of chewing gum in his mouth. His mouth tasted of the foul smoke that clogged his nostrils and traveled down the back of his throat with each swallow.
    He pulled the crucifix hanging around his neck from under his t-shirt and kissed it. He did that every time he walked away from a blaze unhurt. Firefighters had their differences with each other and with other firehouses, but once they were called to work together, those differences were put aside to become one team to get the job done.
    He felt a sneeze brewing and blew it into a wad of tissues. “Ugh!”