I looked around at all of thestuffon the floor of the room. Yikes. “No thanks, I can handle it.” I sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I’m actually pretty tired. I didn’t sleep at all last night, so I might take a nap before I try to tackle anything else.”
“Yeah, of course. Take all the time you need. Just let me know if I can help you with anything,” Adam said, nudging me on the shoulder. “And hey, I’m glad you came here. Noah doesn’t deserve you. I never liked that guy, anyway.”
My heart swelled with love for my big brother. He was four years older than me and had always been there for me when shit hit the fan in my life. “Thanks. AndIpromise not to wear out my welcome. I’ll find a place as soon as I can,” I assured him.
“Don’t worry about it, take your time. You can stay here as long as you need.”
I threw my arms around him and squeezed. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” He squeezed me back before stepping toward the bedroom door. “By the way, would you find any comfort or satisfaction in me going over to beat Noah’s face to a pulp? Because honestly, just say the word,” he growled.
A light laugh escaped from my mouth. “As much as I’d love to give you that opportunity, it’s not worth it, Adam. You’re a surgeon now. You’re supposed to help people, not hurt them.”
“Hm,” was all he replied with before shutting the door behind him.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath of air into my lungs and let it sit in my expanded chest for a ten-second count before releasing it. The past twelve hours of my life had taken a serious left turn, and although I’d kept myself composed for the most part, I knew that my heart and mind were eventually going to catch up to the reality of the situation.
I’d been with Noah for almost three years, since meeting him at the agency that I worked at after college. When I first met him, he’d been a part of the business development team, focused on networking and bringing in more clients.
At the time, I was a part of the firm’s account services team that handled the majority of the work for the clients once they were signed. Because we handled different phases of each client’s journey, we rarely worked directly together. That didn’t stop him from finding excuses to meet with me, though.
Eventually, he’d started asking me out. It took a few tries before I finally relented, but after a couple of great dates, things really started to heat up. It wasn’t long before I was staying at his place more than my own.
After two good years, it had seemed like a no-brainer to move in together. Our lives were moving in the right direction—he’d been promoted to manage the development team at the agency, and my own company had started to take off. Our careers were in a good place, so we’d been thinking about logical next steps for ourselves and making plans for the future. Things like living together, marriage and maybe even a family.
Unfortunately for Noah, it would now seem, those plans didnotinclude infidelity.
The eight months I’d spent living with him had been solid, all things considered. But as I closed the shutters in Adam’s guest bedroom and crawled into the comfortable bed, shoving one of the decorative throw pillows between my knees for maximum comfort, I couldn’t help but feel a small spark of relief within the undeniable feelings of hurt.
Sure, Noah and I had made plans. But now as I lay here, forced to reflect on how I ended up with all of my belongings on the floor of my brother’s guest bedroom, I wondered if my heart was everreallyin it, or if it had all just come down to convenience? If I really allowed myself to be honest, I could confidently say that I’d never felt that gut-wrenching, all-consuming, falling-from-a-sky-scraper feeling with him.
No—thatfeeling—it had been years since I’d felt anything like that. Like I had been launched into the stratosphere without wings, eventually losing momentum and falling into the deep, black abyss. Down, down, down . . .
When I awoke,the room felt stuffy and my skin was damp. After a disorienting minute of hazy self-awareness, I threw the thick comforter off of my body and sat up, looking around and re-absorbing my current reality.
I was at Adam’s apartment. In his guest room. My things were laid in piles all over the floor. A total, disorganized mess.
I groaned. It wasn’t like I had a lot. A small part of my overall frustration at life right now was that moving in with Noah had meant that I’d sold most of my big things because he already had a fully furnished house. Now I’d have to start over with everything except for clothes, books, and a few boxes of sentimental items.
With the holidays fast approaching, I’d have plenty to focus on in the next few weeks to get me through any post-breakup despair. Although, I didn’t really feel any of that yet. I just needed to make sure that I kept focus on apartment hunting throughout the upcoming holiday festivities so that I didn’t end up at Adam’s for longer than necessary. I loved my brother, but living with him again—especially with his new girlfriend around—was not something that I wanted to do long-term.
Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I pressed my bare feet to the cool hardwood floor and blew out a breath. I needed to get started on organizing this chaos. I got up and moved toward the tall black dresser that stood in the corner of the room. It was modern in style with sharp edges and sleek metal handles, undoubtedly more expensive than anything I’d ever owned. Pulling out a few drawers, I saw that they were empty.Perfect.
Next, I moved to slide open the large, mirrored closet doors and saw a beautiful arrangement of built-in shelving next to an expansive clothing rack. All empty. So much space.Score.
For the next hour, I went through all of my haphazardly packed items and reorganized them with the use of the ample storage space that the bedroom provided. My clothes didn’t even fill a quarter of the closet, and the rest of the boxes stacked neatly within the shelving units. I was a small mouse moving into a mansion, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount of things that I would eventually need to shop for.
I made a mental note to look for averysmall apartment.
After finishing off my organizational efforts by placing the last box—my now decently repacked box of books—up on the top shelf of the closet, I’d decided to jump on my laptop to catch up on work emails and to check the internet for local rental opportunities. I clicked open my email window and read through the few emails that had come in from my newest client, Bite of Life Dental Office. My contact was the office manager, Debbie, and she wanted to meet with me before the long weekend to identify next steps for our contract.
Looking at the time, I saw that it was just past four—too late to organize something for today. I sent a quick reply offering availability in the morning for a call, and then read through a few marketing newsletters before closing down my email window and opening up the internet browser to begin my search for a new apartment.
I thought for a moment about what neighborhoods I wanted to live in. With the flexibility of remote work, I could really live anywhere I wanted to. Being near the city was preferred so that I could easily get to some occasional in-person client meetings, but there were a lot of charming suburban areas that surrounded the city limits.
I tried searching through a few neighborhoods near Adam’s place, but didn’t find many affordable options—Adam lived in an affluent area of the city. I made note of a couple smaller condos that were somewhat competitively priced, and then moved on to look at availability a little more outside of the city.
After reading through what felt like thirty rental advertisements, I’d built a decent-sized list of potential places. I would make it a priority to call them all soon to find out more about the leasing terms and opportunities for tours. For now, though, I needed a break. And I was hungry.
