Page 34 of Scorched Hearts

Elle shook her head. “I heard her scream when she fell. Her name was Maria, and it’s so much worse that I knew her name.”

Maya nodded. “That sounds horrible.”

“It is horrible. She was twenty-two, or maybe even twenty-one.” Elle looked at Maya. “No one should die this young.”

“No, they shouldn’t.” Maya spread her arms. “Would you like to come closer?”

Elle nodded. She crawled toward Maya, resting her face against Maya’s chest, making herself comfortable in her embrace. Their breathing soon unified, a constant flowing up and down, up and down. Elle knew she wouldn’t sleep. Her body felt jittery and on edge.

“You can go to sleep,” she said to Maya. “Thank you for this.”

“Are you feeling better?”

A thousand thoughts flashed through Elle’s head, and she felt she was, indeed, regaining clarity of mind. Her thoughts were nothing pleasant, however. Elle felt as if there had been a clear way for her to prevent the accident. She also felt out of place in her grief, since she hadn’t known the firefighter. She decided to keep those thoughts to herself, not burdening Maya with them. She needed to get back on track and back to work.

“I need to get back to work.”

Maya’s embrace tightened around her.

“Elle, you don’t have to go to work right away.”

“But I do. That’s exactly what happens. She wasn’t even from my department, and they will all be working tomorrow.” Elle twisted her head to look up at Maya. “That’s what it means to have this job during a crisis.”

Maya brushed Elle’s hair from her face in a gentle gesture, and Elle felt herself melt into this newly established kindness. They remained silent for a while, simply appreciating their breaths mingling together.

“Can I tell you something serious?” Maya asked quietly after a while.

“What is it?”

“It wasn’t your fault the girl fell.”

Elle stirred on the couch, quickly rising from it. Her heartbeat quickened, and she was trying not to shout.

“Don’t tell me that,” she looked at Maya intensely. “I appreciate you driving me here and everything, but don’t pretend to know what happened.”

Maya sat quietly, her chest rising and falling in rhythm with her quick breaths. “I don’t want to argue with you,” she said after a moment.

“Then don’t lie,” Elle snapped, sitting down in the middle of the couch. “Don’t lie, because it was my fault. I saw that she wasn’t prepared, and I should’ve gotten her down before. Or I should’ve watched her more closely. But I told Hunter too late, and now she’s gone.”

She sighed deeply, adding, “But it doesn’t matter now, does it? She’s gone. I need to bear this guilt until the end, but it’s my own thing to deal with. I hope her family is all right.”

Maya sat still.

“That’s stupid. I know they aren’t,” Elle added, feeling her speech grow more erratic and nonsensical. She no longer knew what she had wanted to say. She only knew she didn’t want to scare Maya away. She really needed her close. “Maya,” she said in a whisper, because her throat had grown tight. “Could you come close again?”

And she did, embracing Elle again, uniting their breathing.

“Would you like to move to my bedroom?” Maya asked after a while.

Elle nodded. “But I can also sleep on the couch, if you’d prefer that.”

“Why would I prefer that?” Maya smiled.

“Well, I don’t know. I still don’t know what you think about me now.”

Maya looked at Elle, understanding. “I think that’s a conversation for another night.”

And Elle understood.

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