Sighing, Jo stepped inside, forcing her roommate backward. If there was trouble in paradise…
I just can’t.
Closing the door behind her, she tossed her keys on the half-moon table and shrugged out of her jacket. The sooner she let them get back to whatever was going on, the sooner she could wallow. “What’s up?”
“Didn’t you read my texts?” Brooke asked, taking her jacket from her and hanging it up.
“No, sorry. Stuff…happened.” Jo dropped her bag on the floor, then glanced from Brooke to Aaron. “What?”
“We had a break in.” Brooke’s voice rose a notch with every syllable.
“What do you mean?” Jo asked again. Her brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “In the complex? One of our neighbors? Who?”
“Us—we’ve been robbed.” Brooke grabbed Jo’s arm, charged forward, shooing Aaron out of the way, and dragged her into the compact living room/kitchen.
At first glance, everything seemed normal, then the blank wall where the sixty-inch TV hung stood out like a blank canvas.
Jo didn’t watch television—no time for it—and wouldn’t miss the monstrosity. Aaron had said he bought it for Brooke so she could stream her favorite shows, but the only thing ever playing on the screen was the big game. “Sorry about the TV.”
“It’s not just the TV.” Chewing the corner of her lip, Brooke darted a glance toward the kitchen. “I’m so sorry.”
Jo’s gaze followed Brooke’s, and defeat slammed into her like a fist in the gut. A whimper clawed its way out of her throat. “No. No. No, no, no.”
The brand new, stainless-steel, commercial-grade mixer she’d been so excited to finally order was gone. She’d spent a month’s salary on it, waited for weeks for it to get here, and only used it once.
A vase of red roses sat on the counter where she’d left her laptop—also gone. It stored her entire marketing plan for her someday shop. Thank god for the cloud. But the replacement for both would put a huge dent in her savings.
Numb, she blinked at the bare wall adjacent to the refrigerator, the one that should have showcased her grandma’s decorative pans. Why? Why take those? Their only worth was sentimental.
She didn’t bother checking her bedroom. Nothing of value in there, sentimental or otherwise.
“Fuck.” Like a zombie, Jo staggered to the couch and plopped onto it, letting her head fall back. She closed her eyes. “Worst fucking day ever.”
But hey, it can’t get any worse.
Except it could. They had no renters insurance. She and Brooke had talked about it but couldn’t afford it. They’d neverneed it since they had nothing worth stealing or that couldn’t be replaced.
Guess the jokes on us…on me, anyway.
Images of the night’s events rolled like a bad movie on the back of her eyelids. Avery Preston’s pursuit and asinine proposal, getting fired, and now this—it was all so comically tragic.
A giggle burst past her lips, spilling out into the dead silence, inappropriate but unstoppable.Bad luck comes in threes.That was what her grandma used to say, but all in one night?
“You think this is funny?” Aaron asked incredulously.
That just made Jo laugh harder. It was either that or cry, and there was no crying allowed.
“Sorry, sorry.” She rocked forward, holding her stomach, vaguely aware of Brooke mumbling something and pushing Aaron toward the front entry.
“Aaron, babe, don’t you know a meltdown when you see one?”
A meltdown. Yeah, she was having a meltdown. Since her grandma died, her life had been one streak of bad luck after another. Normally, she held it together. Grandma had taught her to be strong and to face her troubles head-on.
“I’m not leaving you here. They could come back.” He cupped Brooke’s face with both hands and rested his forehead on hers. “Come home with me.”
Brooke swept an arm wide to encompass the room. “They got everything they wanted. There’s no reason for them to come back. We’ll be fine. I just…”
Something about the tenderness of their conversation and the silence they left behind as they disappeared into the entryway sobered Jo and heaped on the guilt.
