Something New

Chapter 3

Fred

"Fred."

I turn and see my colleague Joseph Fray, a big guy, as another big guy walks in with him. I size the man up, a perpetual scowl on my face, and grunt in response.

"Meet Lance Rodgers, he just moved to town with his wife, Grace Rodgers." A pang goes through my chest at the word wife. It's been 12 years now. Healing has been such a process, and it's still a continuous one. I'm better than I was then, but there are still rough days, that and lonely nights. I spend those nights with the Lord and His Word.

"Nice to meet you," I say, my voice gruff. I reach out a hand and he gives it a firm shake, a friendly smile on his face. He reminds me of Royce in a way. Sadness goes through me as I recall my former friend. He's passed as well. Killed on the job four years ago during a robbery gone wrong. That had me wanting to nurse a bottle in a way I hadn't for quite some time.

I have to admit, I'm more hesitant now to get close to others. Life and death seem intertwined in a way that I can't quite fathom as one could be here today and gone in the same night. No one knows when it's their last day.

"Nice to meet you as well, Fred." I nod silently. I thought Lance would be like the other guys at the station and would merely be a colleague and not someone I thought of as a true friend, but he and his family ended up worming their way into my heart. It also had me getting closer to Joseph and his wife Sherry.

Lance and Grace would invite us to their home and we'd have dinner there sometimes. Grace was already heavily pregnant by the time I met her and she gave birth within a few months to twins; Tyrese and Nova. It warmed my heart to see them grow up as the years went by. The couple were warm and inviting, just as warm as Joseph and Sherry. They felt like family and it eased a good deal of loneliness that I had.

But when you go home at night, you still have to deal with the silence you're faced with. I had no one to go home to, and it began to set in after some time that I didn't like that. But I was afraid to put myself out there again. I never thought of dating after Camila in a positive light–I didn't like the idea. But as I became more and more exposed to both couples, that became something I started to warm up to. I determined that if it was in the Lord's will, it would happen.