We say our goodbyes, and I start walking back toward my apartment. I can feel my stomach twisting up, knowing what I’m going to have to do. What Iwantto do but otherwise would’ve found a multitude of reasonsnotto do.
I’m so in my head I barely hear a familiar smoking-scratched voice call out to me. “Nora, sweetheart!”
I turn around and see Meryl sitting at an outdoor table at the local coffee-and-bagel place. Today’s skirt looks like a billowy quilt come to life, and her usual glasses sit on top of her head in favor of some rhinestone-encrusted cat-eye reading ones. Although I imagine she’s not doing much reading if she’s noticing her neighbors walking by.
“Hey, Meryl,” I say with a smile.
She immediately puts her water cup on the ground for George (who would never touch water he deemed to be stale or used, but it’s a nice thought) and pats the seat next to her. “I have an extra coffee to bring back to Tom, but I’m happy to throw him overboard and give it to you if you keep me company for a little.” She grins slyly, and it’s easy to imagine her as a small child wreaking havoc.
I’ve got a client in less than an hour, but the lure of coffee when I’m this tired is too strong. “Is ten minutes enough to scam Tom out of his coffee?”
She snorts with happiness. “Oh heck yeah.”
I sit down and tie George to the table. He looks up nonplussed but then lies down to take a nap and ignore me. Meryl slides the coffee over, and I sigh with my first sip. I’m not sure why coffee wasn’t my first move of the morning.
“Haven’t seen your hot brother in a while,” Meryl says casually, and I almost choke on my coffee. “What? He’s got that gangly look I like.”
I shake my head. “First I’m taking Tom’s coffee; now I’m listening to his wife objectify other men?”
She shrugs. “I don’t think your brother is leaving anyone for an old bag in her eighties.”
“But if he would?” I tease.
“Then sayonara, Tom. At least for a night.” She winks at me, and I pretend (and sort of not pretend) to gag.
“He’s fine,” I say casually. “I haven’t seen him for a bit, because whenever he starts avoiding my parents, he avoids me too.”
Meryl’s mouth goes taut, as she clearly doesn’t like my answer. “That entire family of yours takes you for granted,” she says, pulling a hard candy from some fold in her skirt and popping it into her mouth.
I roll my eyes, because even though I do get pulled into Meryl’s coffee vortex a fair amount, I don’t exactly overshare when it comes to my family.
But maybe I’m hiding my weariness worse than I thought.
“They are who they are,” I respond, my typical attempt to underplay.
“Please.” She gives an exaggerated sigh and pats my hand. “Paying our super to go look at a leak in their sink because they didn’t want to ‘bother’ theirs and then realizing it’s because they tried to install an illegal garbage disposal themselves should not be on you.”
I shouldn’t be surprised that Vardan, our building super and all-around handyman, let that little tidbit slip to Meryl. I think he loves gossip just as much as she does, despite being a bearish-looking man who you’d never expect it from.
I give her a shrug, not really sure what to say. But that never deters her. “And what do you think about that Eli, huh?” she asks.
“What about him?” I reply cautiously, wary to get into this conversation with Meryl of all people.
“Well, I heard he wants to do something on the roof. It’s funny that none of us ever thought about that before!”
I know if I ever had an opening to sway someone (and someone who might repeat their viewpoint to everyone else in the building), then this is it. But I need to pretend to be casual about it so I don’t look as desperate as I feel internally.
“Oh yeah, I heard that too. It’s a nice idea as long as he comes up with a really solid plan to not keep people awake at night or wreck any common spaces.”
“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that!” she says, and I try to hide my smile. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.
“Yeah, I wonder if the roof is thick enough to cover noise for the people on the top floor if someone’s walking around above them. Or like ... since there’s no trash or restroom up there, we wouldn’t want people tramping dirty feet back and forth up the stairwell, since the elevator doesn’t go there. Or plants! We wouldn’t want to cause a leak watering plants.”
I stop myself there, because I’m starting to get the sense that I’m ceasing to appearcasualon this topic.
“Those are such good points. We should ask some of the board members what they think about it,” Meryl says.
“Tom’s on the board. Why don’t you just ask him?”
