CHAPTER FOURTEEN — ONE MORE COLD NIGHT
A month later, fresh snow fell over Boston while Khloe worked the late shift at her new restaurant.
She watched the street through the windows between orders.
The last customer left shortly before closing.
A woman in a hospital uniform appeared outside and checked her phone beneath the awning.
She looked toward the bus stop, then toward the dark intersection beyond it.
Khloe remembered the highway ramp and the missing bench.
She walked outside and asked whether the woman needed directions.
The woman said her shuttle had been delayed by the weather.
She showed Khloe a message that included a revised arrival time and an active customer service number.
Khloe asked whether the number worked.
The woman called it, and a dispatcher answered within seconds.
The driver arrived four minutes later and stopped beside the curb.
The dispatcher confirmed the passenger had boarded before ending the call.
Khloe stood in the snow and watched the shuttle pull away.
Nothing dramatic happened.
That was the point.
Inside, her manager asked whether she had gone out to help somebody.
Khloe said she had checked that a passenger could get home.
The manager nodded and asked her to bring in the salt bucket before the pavement froze.
Khloe carried the bucket to the entrance and scattered salt along the slippery edge.
Her phone buzzed with a message from Savannah.
Savannah had been accepted into her first college course.
Khloe read it twice before replying that they would celebrate with breakfast.
When she put the phone away, she found a ten-dollar bill in her coat pocket.
Arthur had given it to her at the church table weeks before.
She had forgotten to spend it.
Khloe folded the bill once and tucked it safely into her wallet.
Then she returned to the warm restaurant, where the coffee was still brewing and tomorrow’s shift was already written on the board.
The End.
