She came to me as a friend. As the friend of a daughter of a friend, really.
I am a professor of economics at a second (or third) tier university in western Canada. I am divorced, my children are adults, and I traverse my middle age years alone (even living alone in a condominium row house). I am fit, despite my years, though not the athlete I once was. I shudder to think that I might be considered a "catch" by a woman of my own age.
Almost three years ago, half way through October, a friend (another professor, in a different department) told me that a friend of his daughter's was looking for a place to live. Apparently she had been living in a house with her boyfriend and another couple. As was entirely predictable, she had had a falling-out with the boyfriend, and now her living situation was rapidly becoming untenable. Would I (my friend wondered) be interested in having a tenant in my spare bedroom? My first instinct was to rule out this obvious folly. But my friend the professor assured me that her curriculum path included no economics courses, even any from any of my departmental colleagues. Well. Perhaps having another living soul under my roof would not be a terrible thing. Overcoming my doubts, I agreed to meet the friend of the daughter of the friend.
So a couple of days later I arrived (a bit late late) at a cafรฉ in a used book shop. I had been told who to look for, and her name. But no such person was there. I glanced at my watch, picked up a coffee and a croissant, and took a seat. Ten minutes, I thought. Any more than that and the friend of the daughter of a friend would be out of luck. As any academic will tell you, in a bookstore, time becomes non-linear. I suppose it was fifteen minutes later that I looked up from a book about the modernization of the Italian economy following World War II. The young woman standing before me was clearly Nica. A bit taller than average (but I was sitting down). She was wearing faded jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt from the school's bookstore, both tight enough to show off her curves. Brown hair, light enough to show highlights where the lights struck it.
"Hi, I'm Nica!" (Yes, I know.)
"You must be Professor O'Neil!" (Yes I am.)
"I'm supposed to move in to your spare room!" (Are you now?)
"Why don't you sit down Nica? Would you like a cup of coffee?"
"Oh, is there like, tea or something?
"Well I should think there would be." We went to the counter where Nica ordered some sort of organic herbal tea and a slice of zucchini loaf. She made no effort to pay, assuming it was to be my treat. That done, we returned to our table and sat down.
"Well Nica, tell me what's happening. Why do you need to move six weeks into the autumn term?"
"My boyfriend, I mean my ex-boyfriend is such a dick."
And then came the tale of woe, wherein her ex-boyfriend Tyler was the chief villain and her room-mates Jenn and Daniel as supporting cast. Nica herself was entirely blameless, of course. The four of them had come together in their summer jobs. They had all worked for the city parks and recreation department in various capacities; Jenn and Tyler as lifeguards at outdoor pools, Daniel in maintenance and Nica in groundskeeping. "I cut grass all day, every day." They had been low-stress jobs for each of them, putting in their time in the day and partying at night. Nica hesitated not at all before telling me that she had had sex first with Tyler, then with Jenn, then Jenn and Daniel, then with Daniel alone, with Tyler and Jenn, before finally "settling down" with Tyler. Daniel and Tyler had apparently never gotten together, she added. I suppose that would have been the only remaining permutation. And this had been their summer; sun, fun, bikini days, tequila nights and rough mornings. Sex every night. And every day as well, as she managed a tryst or two with one (or more) of her friends while on the clock. Too much information, I thought. But I pictured her in a bikini, despite myself.
But then came September. That they would all live together was understood. There was a general sense that Jenn & Daniel would share one room, Nica and Tyler the other.
