She looked around at the stacked chairs. "Can I at least help clean up? Make myself useful?"
"Sure. You can grab that side."
We collapsed the table together, carried it to the storage closet at the back of the gym. She was surprisingly strong for someone so small, didn't struggle with her end at all.
"How was the turnout?" she asked.
"Good. Ten people."
"That's great. When you started this I wasn't sure anyone would show."
"Honestly? Me neither."
We walked back across the gym, our footsteps echoing in the empty space.
"How's your grandmother doing?" I asked. Lucy had been coming since September, one of the first to show up after I'd posted flyers around town.
"About the same. Some days are better than others." She picked up a stray paper cup someone had left. "Mom's talking about moving her into a facility. Gran would hate it but…"
"It's hard."
"Yeah." She looked at me. "How's your mom?"
"Settled in. Still doesn't know who I am most days but she seems… content. That's something."
"It is."
We threw away the trash, turned off half the lights. The gym looked bigger in the semi-darkness.
"You're good at this, you know," Lucy said.
"At what? Stacking chairs?"
"Running the group. You don't try to fix everything. You just let people talk."
"Learned that the hard way."
She smiled. "Well. It works."
We headed for the door. I held it open for her, flipped off the last lights, locked up behind us.
Outside, the parking lot was empty except for my truck and her car. February had turned cold, our breath visible in the air.
"Thanks for helping," I said.
"Anytime." She pulled her keys from her bag, fumbled them, dropped them. "Shit."
We both bent down to grab them at the same time, nearly knocking heads. She laughed, and so did I. We straightened up and she had her keys and we were both just standing there smiling like idiots.
"Sorry," she said. "Long day. I'm a mess."
"You're fine."
"I'm definitely not fine. I'm exhausted and I smell like dog and I missed the meeting I was supposed to help with."
"You showed up anyway. That’s what matters."
She looked at me, something shifting in her expression. "Yeah?"
