Jake's first impression of his new neighbor was that she was trapped under a couch. He was pulling into his driveway when he caught sight of her, a tiny young woman with jet-black hair and dusky, tan skin forced almost to her knees by the enormous weight of the sofa she was trying to drag out of the moving truck single-handedly. She'd managed to pull it far enough out that she was supporting its whole weight, but in the process she'd gotten positioned too close to simply drop it.
Jake shut off the car and jumped out to help. He ran over to where she was sweating and straining and swearing and put his shoulder to the end of the sofa. He heaved until his head swam with the effort, and with his additional muscle, they managed to push it back far enough that she could get out from under it. Once she was free, Jake lowered it gently to the ground.
"Thanks," she said once she caught her breath. She wiped a sheen of sweat from her forehead; this late in May, the southern California sun beat down with an almost physical force.
"No problem," Jake replied. He hopped up into the truck, still packed over half full with furniture and boxes. "Can you drag the other end? If you can, I can slide this the rest of the way out."
"Give me about five seconds and I can," she replied, shaking a little bit of life back into her arms. Jake was a little surprised-he'd expected her to have a little bit of an accent, but he was imagining something exotic and Middle Eastern. Instead, she spoke in a honeyed Southern drawl.
"Name's Zaina, by the way," she said as she stepped in, positioning herself at the corner of the sofa. "I'm your new neighbor."
Jake chuckled as she lifted the corner and pulled with an intensity that belied her slight frame. He pushed his end, and within a few moments the whole couch rested safely on the ground. "You were almost my ex-neighbor," he said as he set down his end. "What possessed you to try to do all this by yourself?"
Zaina shrugged. "No much choice, I guess. It's all got to get done by tomorrow morning so I can get the truck back, and I don't know anybody here yet."
"You do now," Jake said, gesturing to the couch. "Come on, let's get this thing inside and then we'll work on the rest of the truck."
With a little bit more sweating and grunting and one or two additional breaks, they finally got the massive sofa into the house and positioned in the living room. "This'll do fine," Zaina gasped out, letting her end fall and slumping to the floor. "Goddamn, but that thing's a heavy motherfucker!"
Jake couldn't help smiling. There was something unendingly hilarious about the incongruity between her delicate, bird-like frame and the boisterous profanities that came out of it. "So what brings you out here if you don't know anybody?" he asked, sitting down on the couch and enjoying the spoils of victory.
"Decided I needed a change of scenery," Zaina said, wiping her brow with the hem of her t-shirt. "My mom moved back to Kuwait after my dad died-they met when he was stationed over there back in '91, but she fell in love with the man, not the country. I stayed here, but I didn't have much holding me down to any place in particular. And I was having all sorts of problems with the neighbors-you ain't never seen crazy until you seen a West Texas woman who thinks you're stealing her man-and I figured hell, I seen enough of Texas to last me a lifetime anyway."
"Well, you won't have to worry about that here," Jake said, wiping away a little of his own perspiration. The air conditioning was off, and the atmosphere in the house was thick and sweltering. "I'm single, and Jaime on the other side of you got divorced about five years ago."
"Good to hear," Zaina said, levering herself up again. "Come on, let's get back to it. I unpacked the beer first, so it should be cold by the time we're done."
"And they say virtue is its own reward," Jake replied with a chuckle as he pulled himself off the couch. The two of them headed back out into the California sun.
A quick change out of work clothes and three hours of hauling later, they finished bringing in the last few boxes just as the sun was going down. It was all piled up in the living room along with the furniture, but Zaina said she'd worry about that later. "Right now all I can think about is that cold beer," she said as she went into the kitchen.
Jake felt the same way. His shirt was sticking unpleasantly to his skin and his shorts were damp with sweat, and Zaina looked to be in about the same condition. The air in the house was so warm and humid that his head was swimming, and Jake played with the thermostat for a moment while he waited for Zaina to come back.
