It took Mary five straight days to get her shop back in order. And John was there five nights in a row, after work, Monday through Friday, to help. It relieved him to see that though she hadn’t initially called any of her friends to come be with her the day after the break-in, they all showed up in spades to help with the reno of her shop. Sebastian and Tyler spent the most time, followed closely by Via and Fin. Kylie and Matty did their fair share as well.

But there was only so much that people who weren’t Mary could really do. The actual cleanup of the shop wasn’t going to take nearly as long as the paperwork that came with it all. John watched as Mary slowly got buried in the particulars of her insurance company. It was all made even more complicated by the fact that so much of what had been destroyed had been original pieces of artwork. Insurance would cover a lot of the damages, but not all. Mary was going to take a financial hit for this act of random cruelty.

It was the following Sunday night when John and Mary found themselves sitting at her kitchen table, wading through booklets of paperwork she’d printed out, John working from her laptop as well.

He figured that he probably had the highest tolerance for desk jockeying out of all of her friends, so he’d been the one to take on this particular aspect of aid. Meanwhile, down below, her shop was generally put back together. Just that morning Sebastian had overseen the installation of her new plate glass window in the front and Mary had started fresh with her late summer window display that afternoon. She’d reopen the store on Monday morning. Only a week and a half after the break-in. She’d be on quite a limited inventory for some time, but she’d be back to work at the very least.

John took another forkful of the room-temperature spaghetti and vegan meatballs in a glass casserole dish that sat on the table between them. A gift from Via, it had been heated up an hour ago, and he and Mary hadn’t even bothered with dishes, just him eating from his end and her eating from hers.

John studied Mary for a long moment, her sunny head bent toward her phone as she looked something up on the insurance company’s website, her face in repose. She’d worn a sundress again today. John wondered what she wore come wintertime. He hoped he’d be around to see it.

“Beer?” he asked her, knowing that Tyler had fully stocked her fridge that afternoon.

“Hmm? Oh, sure. I think I need a break, to be honest.”

He’d been hoping she’d say that. John cleared the paperwork to one side and grabbed two beers from her fridge.