“What?” I cried.
“It’s horrible.” My friend handed me a letter.
I skimmed it.
“They’re condemning the building and demolishing it? They can’t do that,” I said helplessly.
“The landlord is filing for bankruptcy,” McKenna said. “How are we going to survive? You can’t find a place for rent this cheap in the city.”
I looked around at all the neighbors huddled in shock in the small lobby.
“What are we going to do?”
“Think on the bright side, right, Lexi?” Grenadine said determinedly. “Here’s a baseball bat. I’m positive that the landlord will reconsider.”
“Grenadine, you were already thrown in the back of a police car once,” McKenna reminded her.
“Oh my gosh,” I whimpered as I slid down to the grimy floor. “He was right. I am delusional. I can’t believe I wasted so much time on Grayson when he didn’t even care.” I started sobbing. “He hates me—he said so—and now we lost the building. I’m so sorry,” I gasped out. “I’m sorry I was a bad friend and a bad neighbor. This is my fault.”
“You couldn’t have stopped this,” McKenna said gently.
“Yes, I could have,” I choked out. “If I hadn’t spent all the time I wasted on Grayson, trying to help him solve problems he didn’t even want me to be involved with, I could have. I could have saved the building.”
I sounded hysterical. My voice was coming out in a high-pitched squeak.
“This is my fault.”
“It’s that landlord.”
“Give her some brandy,” Martha said, pulling a bottle out of her purse.
McKenna fanned my face.
“You might want to go back to Grayson’s,” she said, sounding tired. “The letter says we have to all move in a week. Maybe you can sneak me in to let me shower.”
“I think he broke up with me,” I sobbed.
“I never believed you could keep that man,” Connie declared.
“At least she had a man,” Grenadine shot back and patted my head.
“You just wait until he’s had to provide his own orgasms,” the elderly woman assured me. “He’ll come crawling back. A man like that doesn’t even wash his own clothes. You think he wants to suck his own dick? He’ll be back, and we can all move in with him. Problem solved.”
I thought back to Grayson’s angry face, how he said he hated me, how he said I’d ruined his life.
“He’s done with me.” I let out a sob, succumbing to the hopelessness. “We’re all going to be homeless.”
Then I tipped back my head and joined in the wailing.
“At least you’re still employed,”McKenna whispered to me the next morning as we took our seats.
Grayson wasn’t in his office. I just needed a nice quiet day. Hopefully, Anthym would be busy and I could sneak down to the cycle showers.
Before I could even turn on my computer, Anthym was headed toward me on a war path.
I braced myself, expecting her to complain about Grayson’s mystery girlfriend.
Joke’s on you, Anthym, I thought bitterly.He’s broken up with her.
