Another Wednesday night, another after dark walk of shame to the recycling bins beside the condo complex to get rid of a load of empty liquor bottles, beer cans and frozen pizza boxes. I flipped back the cover and was about to pick up my box, when the door I had just come through opened. Dominique, the lady who lives directly under me stepped out with a garbage bag in one hand and a small bin whose contents looked eerily similar to mine, just on a smaller scale.
I must have scared her, dropping her bin as she gasped, then exhaling when she realized I wasn't a street person raiding for cans.
"Jesus Jason, you scared the living daylights out of me!" she said, regaining her composure.
I bent down and started collecting the bottles and cardboard from the ground. "Sorry, Dominique, I didn't mean to frighten you."
She joined me in the cleanup. "I've told you before, call me Dom. I thought I was the only one trying to hide her evidence of Covid drinking in the shadows. Looks like you guys have been hitting the sauce too. Now I don't feel as bad," she said, nodding towards my bin.
I froze up and bowed my head a bit embarrassed. "Actually, worse, this is all me. Natalie left me a couple of months ago."
Dominique stood up. "Oh no, Jason. I'm sorry. I knew she went to look after her Mom at Christmas, but what happened?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but this was the first time I would be relating the tale to someone other than my family, and trying a couple of times, couldn't settle on a way to start and just exhaled. Dominique stepped in, and put her arms around my shoulders and pulled my head into her sweater. I'm 6'2" and Dom Is around 4'8", so with me still squatting, it was a comfortable fit. I realized it was the first time somebody had touched me in months.
"It's okay Jay. Don't. Let's get this cleaned up and get back inside." I nodded. We dumped he bins and headed inside. On the stairs she turned to me, "You are working from home right?" I had my own Online Content Consulting business, so while there was technically an office, it was just me and two employees who had been primarily remote even before the pandemic. With the way the economy was tanking, it wouldn't make much sense to hang onto a physical address much longer. I had room to redo the extra bedroom as a full office now that Natalie had cleared out all her things.
"Yeah. Trying to 9 to 5 it, but sometimes having work to do makes the evenings pass quicker" I replied.
"Mmhh. I'm remote too. After the first lock down, the lady who was the main purchaser for the Library retired early. I just go in on Thursday afternoons, for a team meeting and to do some faxing." Silence spread between us, like a picnic blanket floating to the ground after being shaken out. I was really out of shape as far as having in person conversations go. "Listen, Jason, I know I've only met you a few times, I knew Natalie better, but do you want to come up for a coffee or a tea and tell me what happened? It might feel good to talk it out. My place is more comfortable than on the ground in the alley." Dom raised one eyebrow as a physical question mark.
I thought it over and concluded that when Covid and the lock downs were finally over, it was a story that I was bound to have to repeat a few times. I might as well start close to home. "Sure, that would be nice. But I don't want to impose if you were headed off to bed soon..."
"Nope. I'm usually up for a couple of more hours. To be honest, I'm kind of jonesing for social interaction. But I promise to be a good listener." With that, she turned and started back up the stairs. I kept my head down, not wanting to get caught checking out her ass.
I had met Dom a few days after we moved into the building in the spring of 2018, so about two and a half years ago. Before that, I had only seen her from behind and mistook her for a teenager. Tiny, huge backpack, oversized beanie. She was actually in her mid-thirties, a Librarian and had an androgynous quality to her that her sense of style only reinforced. She had hazel/green eyes, jet black hair cut very short and never styled, small thin lips and a nose that was just a little too big in the tip and nostrils, looking out of place with the rest of her slight features. She had a habit of smiling closed lip while listening to you, and that could come off as annoying if you didn't pay attention to the fact that those green eyes were smiling too. Her dress code tended towards grunge/ goth. Lots of short black skirts with black tights or nylons, flannel shirts over t shirts, eye and lip make up always just enough to remind you she put in the effort, but not enough to make her look like she was on the hunt.
We have always greeted each other warmly and made small talk, but never got into anything resembling a conversation. Once in a while, Natalie would be a bit later getting home from work and would say she had bumped into Dom in the hallway and talked for a bit. They always talked comfortably with each other, just that Natalie wasn't really the type to make friends easily. Acquaintances yes, friends not really. She never had that gang of girls that she went out with, or the bff to go to dinners with. She just didn't forge relationships like that.
As we entered her apartment, I was surprised by the decor of her living space. I guess, in my mind I had been expecting band posters, maybe a gaming system, maybe a cat habitat. Instead, from the kitchen and into the main living area, everything tastefully decorated in earth tones, different shades of brown to accentuate the shelving units containing many plants and of course, more books. No cheap Ikea stuff here. Even all the shelving units were real wood, stained and varnished. There was no formal dining area, I assumed she just used the breakfast bar stools. The sofas were big and brown, of an older style, but looked to not be too worn, and also comfy as hell. They faced each other, about six feet apart with four end tables flanking them, and a coffee table almost as long as the sofas between them.
"Wow. This is really nice, Dominique. Those built-ins are stunning," I said, marveling at how this felt like a home not a condo.
"Yeah. My Dad and brother are both carpenters, so they fixed me up with those as a housewarming present. There are more in the office. I have a problem letting go of books, as you can tell." She moved to the kitchen. "Coffee, tea, hot chocolate?" she asked plugging in the kettle.
"What are you having?"
"I was thinking a Chai?"
"Sounds good. Thank you." I made my way to the living room and perused the bookshelves. Bigger format and huge tomes on the bottom reference and cookbooks center stage, with paperbacks and novels up top.
