Friends with Benefits by Kathleen Hope

“She's a lovely, old lady, Christian. Really, she is. But she burned down my apartment!” Ella vented, tears brimming in her eyes. “She put the stove top stuffing on the stove—still in its box, and just walked away. “She told me the box said 'just heat and serve' and that's exactly what she did,” Ella choked out a panic-stricken laugh. “How can you argue with that?”

Ella had come home from a two-day workshop to find all of her belongings had been burnt to a crisp while she'd been away. Every photo and keepsake from her childhood, every book she'd ever read, every thank you letter she'd received since her start as a social worker four years ago; it was all there safe and sound before she'd left on Friday. And now it was gone.

“Almost everything I owned was in that apartment. I've got enough clothes to get me through two days and then I'm fresh out of clean underwear,” she continued, trying to focus on the more practical aspects of what she'd lost because the sentimental items destroyed in the fire made her heart ache.

“I even lost my vibrator.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized she was speaking aloud, and a light blush crept across her cheeks.

“It's OK, El. We'll get you back...