“I don’t know that either. I’m hoping to.”
“Where’s your apartment complex?”
Sadie only asked questions on a need-to-know basis, and that had me momentarily confused as to why she’d want to know this.
I told her the cross streets and she nodded, looking thoughtful. “What’s it called?”
“Um, Waterman’s Apartments.”
“Ok.” The elevator opened on her floor, and she got out, giving me a small wave before marching off without looking back or explaining why she’d asked.
I thought about it the rest of the way up to my floor and came up with nothing. Sometimes Sadie was harder to read than any guy I’d ever talked to, Noah included. Maybe it had just been her attempt at making conversation. That I could understand. When in doubt, ask a question that makes the other person have to do the talking.
I punched in Clarissa’s cell number on the way to my desk and hit the call button after making sure no one was nearby to overhear.
“What did I do last night?” she asked in greeting, sounding contrite.
The knot of dread that had been forming inside me released a little bit. For some reason, I’d expected her to be mad.
“You came into my room while I was in the bathroom. And I couldn’t get you out. So, I just went to a friend’s house to sleep.”
There was a long silence while I waited for her to ask for more details or to apologize. But she didn’t do either of those things.
“You want me to move out, don’t you?” she finally said.
“Yeah.” It felt so freeing to say it out loud.
“I can afford to live there without a roommate.”
That was not what I expected her to say, and it took me a minute to absorb what she meant by it. She wanted to steal my apartment, the one that rarely had vacancies because it was in a coveted area of Phoenix. And she could, because I couldn’t kick her out. Only the landlord could do that. I could live with her as-is, orIcould move out. That’s what she was saying.
“I’m going to talk to the landlord this afternoon.” There was no way after he heard what happened that he’d want to keep her there.
“Go ahead.”
“Okay. And I’m going to check on my stuff before I do.” I’d been so tired and overwhelmed that I hadn’t given much thought to abandoning all my belongings to a stranger. And the fact was, Clarissa was a stranger. The longer I knew her, the less I felt like I did.
“I haven’t done anything to your stuff.”
“Okay, thanks.” I looked up and saw Britta walking towards my cubicle. I needed to end this call, and I was glad. I wasn’t sure why I was thanking Clarissa for not stealing from me. I didn’t even really think she would. Well, except for stealing the entire apartment. I rubbed my head. “Okay, bye.”
“Bye.”
I took in a deep breath and blew it out. That only made me feel slightly better so I did it again. I had to let this go for the next few hours or I’d never get any work done.
“Hey, are you okay?” Britta asked, dropping into the extra chair at the end of my desk and adjusting her pencil skirt. Her blonde hair looked perfect, even with her dark eyebrows and tan coloring. She was obviously not a natural blonde. I’d once tried to go blonde. It didn’t go well.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Mm hmm. Is it work related?”
“No.”
She smiled. “I didn’t think so. But you look like you don’t want to talk about it, so do you want to discuss the contents of May’s gift basket instead?”
“Yes. Talk away.” I was glad Britta was being so understanding, especially when I’d be such an easy target this morning. It was bad enough that she’d caught me at such an unprofessional moment.
Not wanting anyone else to notice something was off with me, I buried myself in work until lunch, and then I stayed behind and gnawed on my emergency granola bar, even though it had raisins in it, and raisins were wrinkled pieces of sadness. I had to call my landlord, and I couldn’t screw this up. I didn’t want to wait until after work. I didn’t want to see Clarissa first and check on my belongings. I just wanted to get this over with.
