Chapter 1
Alina’s POV
This is has been my favourite shift from the beginning and it has helped me stick to Avery’s routine. I start at 8am and end at 4pm in the afternoon. I get to be here for school drop off, dinner, bath time, homework and bedtime. There’s another shift which is the night shift running from 4pm to midnight.
“Avery, we need to leave in a few minutes.” I call to her and she comes marching out of her room with her school bag. I hand her lunch bag to her and get all of my things before locking up and heading to the car.
On the way to school we chat about the art she has been making and planning some play dates with friends as well as the time she’ll be spending at her dads place.
Avery’s dad and I parted ways before she was born. We were good as a young couple but in the time of my pregnancy we quickly learnt that we would be better at co-parenting than being together. One year after Avery was born he moved on and married Bethany. She was a bit apprehensive about me in the beginning but loved Avery immensely. Bethany could not have kids so Avery was a blessing for her. The fact that she was with Brandon when Avery was still young made it all the better.
It took a while for me to adapt to her as well and soon we had what I now call common ground. There has never been a day for the last 6 years that we argued or spoke to one another in a disrespectful way. There were disagreements but never disrespect. We usually divide and conquer and all Avery’s teachers, friends parents and our friends know our situation and it works well for us. We have respect and parent Avery together. I hope that it stays that way.
“Mamma, Bella’s birthday party is on Saturday and we all want to go. It’s a pool party and she said her mom would send you the invite.” Avery says as we reach the school.
“Yes baby, she sent me the invite last night and we need to get Bella a gift and you’ll definitely go.” I say and she smiles brightly missing a tooth or two on the bottom.
She gets out and I kiss her goodbye while waving at her teacher as she walks into the school and meets her friends on the way in. Before turning the corner she looks back at me and I blow a few animated kisses at her and watch her pretend to catch it and giggle.
I drive the short distance to work and make it in time for some coffee before going to my office. The shift change is liquid smooth and within 3 minutes my shift gets busy as we go along.
I started here as an intern when I found out I was pregnant with Avery. As the years progressed I made it to senior emergency operator this year. To oversee a shift never sounded like much work but it became a lot when I realised it was more than walking around. It meant that I need to jump in on the difficult calls, the admin was always a mountain no matter how much you work. The pressures of placing the proper people on the proper rosters. The constant emergency training we needed to do. The threat of being hacked and only discovering after 20 minutes of radio silence.
Those 20 minutes in the field of emergency can be really dangerous. This buidling houses 8 floors, top floor has our boardrooms, ground floor is our reception and security area, second floor has all the senior offices and the rest of the floor houses all 750 emergency operators. This job brings a sense of peace to me, knowing myself and others could be the reason someone gets the help they require on a daily basis. At times it gets too much, not being able to help, being too late. This all has an effecr on your mental health and the important part is that you manage it and help the next person.
The day passes by with meetings and teambuilding plans, then at lunch I meet with my best friend Abigail. She works at the mayors office as a messenger. The officers are close to each other so she’ll pop in as much as she can to catch up. With her work and mine taking up most of our lives we choose to still prioritise each other.
She orders a chicken salad and I take a chicken wrap. We sit down and she complains about the traffic to her place tonight as some roads are blocked off. I tell her about an intense call we had earlier today that was a fire at the old age home on that route. The firefighters managed to get out all the elderly and staff, risking their lives while going in blindly.
A few of our operators navigated the firefighters through the building by looking at the blueprints. That was definitely a team effort and I am proud of my team.
“That was an intense call, I’m sure the reason the roads are still closed are due to investigation and the possible structure colapse with the foundation being weak.” I tell her.
“I was thinking of ways to pass time just to miss the traffic on that route.” She says defeated.
“Well, you could always join Avery and I for dinner. We need to get a friend of hers a gift for her birthday this weekend, you’re more than welcome to join.” I say.
“Yes, that would be great.” She says immediately and I know how much she appreciates that as she was dreading sitting at the office. She loves her job but they have been so busy with rallying for elections that she hardly ever went home. So any gap or break she gets she will take before the actual elections start.
We talk for a little while before going our seperate ways and returning to work. I finish off the rest of my shift and go collect Avery at my parents place. They pick her up from school every day and spend at least 3 hours with her before I collect her.
We go to the mall and meet up with Abigail. Walking to about 5 stores and then finally settling on the perfect gift leaves us exhausted. We get home and Avery goes straight to the bath, I run her bath and let her play for a while.
I take out a frozen mac and cheese and pop it in the oven before washing her and pouring drinks for myself and Abigail. We talk about the rest of our day and Abigail gets a work call. She walks off and that leaves me to check on the dish in the oven and comb out Avery’s hair.
“Can aunt Abigail please stay the night mamma? She is always busy and never wants to stay over.” Avery whines a little and the looks at me with those eyes you cannot refuse.
“Let’s ask her baby, you know just like mommy, aunt Abigail does important work for important people and that is why she’s busy.” I explain to her.
Abigail walks into the room and plops down next to Avery, “Hey baby girl, how has school bee?” She asks Avery, and my little girl yaps on and on about her days, her friends, plans with her dad and everything else in between. I leave them to it and plate up the mac and cheese and add some chicken strips from the airfryer.
We eat and talk some more about our plans for the weekend. On Sunday evening Avery goes to her dad and spends a week with him. We work out that Abigail would stay over on Friday and then she drops Avery at the party on her way home.
At 8pm Avery goes to bed and Abigail helps me to clear up before she goes home.
“That call from earlier was the mayor, he has an award ceremony for recognition of Firehouse 68 for their bravery and hardwork for the fire today. Would you please be my plus one. Oliver is out of town that weekend like he is now and I wouldn’t want to sit there alone.” She says and I give it some thought.
“You need to give me a date and time, in case I need to arrange something for Avery.” I say.
“Well, it’s in two weeks time which means Avery will be with Brandon.” She says.
“Okay, send me the dress code and let me know the plans like how you’ll get there and where we’ll get ready.” I say knowing the mayor only does black tie events that require ball gowns and suits. This will be a welcomed break and it would give me a reason to dress up.
