"Leaving? Like...actually leaving?"
"Yes, idiot, leaving! You!" Steph slammed a fistful of her clothes into a suitcase and wiped an angry tear off her cheek.
"But...you can't leave me now! What about the apartment? The lease? Our stuff?"
"Oh, real fucking nice," she scoffed indignantly, "I'm glad to know there really is something you give two fucking...FUCKS...about!"
With that, she slammed the case shut and struggled pathetically to wrestle the zipper around, laying across the oversized thing to squish her belongings down.
"But where will you go? What do I do?!" I pleaded desperately, following her down the hall, hoping beyond hope that I could still change her mind.
"Well," she spat as she yanked the door open, "it looks like you're gonna need to get yourself a fucking roommate. After that, you can go to fucking hell, asshole!"
And with a slam that shook the door in its frame, she was gone.
*******
"Fuck," I mumbled, deleting what I'd just typed. "Maybe, uhh..."
My fingers worked the keyboard again. Early twenties working professional seeking roommate to fill empty bedroom. $950, utilities split. Available for immediate...
Immediate what? Filling? That sounded wrong, and more than a little dirty.
"Occupancy! That's it," I muttered aloud, scanning my post before sending it off into the ether. It had been nearly three weeks since Steph had stormed out, and her forgiveness felt more and more unlikely as the days wore on. Unfortunately, landlords were never the patient type with silly little things like paying rent on time, and I needed a hand with mine.
I might not have been the best boyfriend of all time, but the theatrics still felt a little unwarranted. So what if I was happy with my lot in life? I didn't need more. Not like she did. Always, it had been "I need more from you, you need to put in the effort, when are you going to try for me?"
Whether she appreciated and loved me or not, I did miss the hell out of her.
An email notification interrupted my doomed scrolling through albums of her and I together on my phone. I hadn't even realized I was doing it again.
'Is the room still free? I'm VERY serious and can be there in an hour, cash in hand for first and last. Let me know, A'
Aside from the pleasant shock of realizing that my post had only been live for a matter of minutes, I recalled the disaster that my kitchen had become; scrambling to dump pots and pans into the dishwasher, I replied to 'A' and invited them to come see the place. My buzzer squawked less than half an hour later.
"Hello?" I said, holding down the intercom key.
"Hi?" came a woman's voice, "It's me, Alice. I'm here to see the apartment?"
"Right," I said, recovering from the mild surprise of having someone who wasn't a dude show up, "I'll buzz you in; unit 501."
The intercom screamed an ugly toneless noise, and I tugged open the apartment's door minutes later when she knocked.
"Hi there, how are..." I stammered, wholly unprepared for what greeted me there.
"Hi," she said, smiling nervously and offering her hand, "I'm Alice. It's nice to meet you...Dan, right?"
"Yup," I gulped, taking her hand and shaking it weakly. Easily as tall as me, if not taller, and pleasantly curvy, Alice dominated the space of the doorframe like a dark omen, clad all in black. Boots, fishnets, dark denim jeans, a black sweater with curiously trimmed holes at the shoulders that revealed sprawling tattoos, and a short shock of loose black hair that fell lightly about her face, she cut an imposing figure. Heavy thighs, visible between the bottom of her shorts and the tops of the dark thigh-high socks, matched the rest of her delightfully alluring body; if I hadn't been so intimidated, I might have wondered longer at what else the tight sweater might be hiding. If nothing else though, it was her pouty, full lips and rosy red cheeks that took my breath away. She was incomparably pretty, and I was completely caught off guard.
"Well, are you going to let me in?" she asked with a small smile.
"Fuck, sorry," I yammered, stepping out of the way to let her past me.
The apartment wasn't extravagant, but it was plenty spacious for what it needed to be. Opening into a large kitchen, dining room, and living room, generously large windows would have flooded the space with light if the blinds were up. A small den off the kitchen served as a little workspace for me, and a short hall led to a pair of bedrooms and shared washroom. I watched nervously as Alice paced through the place tentatively, pulling open closets, flipping lights on and off, and eventually poking her head into the room that would be hers.
"It looks good," she said after long minutes, "do you...mind living with a woman? I mean, obviously there's been one here pretty recently but...well..."
"Oh! Yeah, yeah of course, that's no problem. Not for me anyway. Is it okay with you? I'm not a woman, you're obviously the, uh, woman, but you...know what I mean."
She smiled, and I nearly died.
"I don't mind," she said, further seeking my imminent death by tucking her hair behind her ear with a hand half hidden by the tattered cuff of her cropped sweater. "Really. Can I just...is there anything to fill out? An application?"
Despite the dozen other emails that had rolled in to enquire after the room while we chatted, I took Alice's deposit and we sealed the deal with an over-long handshake. I told myself, after she had left, that I hadn't taken her in just because I was infatuated, but the only other excuse that had any merit to it was that the tall, amply-built woman had intimidated me into submission before she'd ever opened that perfect mouth to speak.
*******
"You didn't even ask for, like, a credit score or anything?"
"Honestly, it didn't really cross my mind. She seemed nice enough, so I just let her have it."
"Sheesh," Jeff whistled, "you sure know how to pick 'em."
"Well it hasn't backfired on me yet," I retorted.
"Yet! That's good I guess," he laughed. My brother seldom shared my sense of optimism.
"Seriously though, she's actually been really great. She made me cookies the other day!"
"Cookies? Like...she just whipped up a batch for you?"
"Well," I said, "kinda for me. I mean, she left them on the counter."
"You idiot," he laughed, finishing what I knew would be his last beer, "she probably thinks you're a fucking thief. At least Stephanie had you housebroken before she left; you are keeping the place clean, right? You can't be living like a pig again just because you're not dating the woman you live with."
"Honestly man, I haven't really had to do much. She just kinda...does it all."
"Oh Christ, Dan," he said, reaching for his jacket and slapping some cash on the table for his tab, "you gotta do your part, alright? She's your roommate, not your mom."
"Not like we'd know much about having one of those, eh?" I scoffed, rising to walk out of the bar with him. "How is Mom anyway?"
"Oh, you know," he chuckled as we strolled out, "just as incarcerated as the last time I checked."
Living with Alice really had been pretty unremarkable so far; she was quiet, kept to herself most of the time, and seemed to work at least twice as much as I did. Her daytime attire often consisted of oversized band hoodies with horrifically indecipherable letters scrawled across them, while her evening looks more than explained why her 2nd month's rent money had been paid entirely in cash; she bartended downtown most weekends, and seemed to have an unending supply of skirts, corseted tops, collars, and fishnets, all of which left precious little to the imagination. She obviously did very well with tips.
There were, however, several small curiosities about Alice that I hadn't worked my way around. For starters, she'd become fond of patting my head whenever I did almost anything at all, which was easy for her given that she towered over me in some of the boots she clomped around in. It was playful ribbing at first, just friendly teasing, but she did it with such frequency now that I was sure there must be *something* more to it.
Then had come the 'good boy's. Change a lightbulb? That's a good boy. Pay the electric bill on time? Good boy. Brushing my teeth in the morning while she was leaving for work? Good boy. Unloading the dishwasher? That was a good boy WITH a head pat. It never ended, and I'd be lying through my teeth if I told you I hadn't grown rather fond of it.
Of course, I'd left that all out when talking to Jeff. Some things didn't need to be repeated. Besides, things had really just gone completely off the rails from there.