His Wild Blue Rose

by A. J. Downey

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, sticking out my hand. She gripped it lightly in one of those wussy half-assed handshakes and I fought not to roll my eyes.

  I looked at the strawberry blonde.

  “You are?”

  She smiled broadly and said, “I’m Kenzie. I’m the best friend.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. Come on in.” I stepped aside and let the women through, all while thinking that this was a really bad idea. Alyssa’s email had come through three or four days ago, pretty much right after I’d posted the ad. I’d had a couple of dudes respond the next day, but one had reeked of pot and the other had said he was between jobs but could get me the money by the end of the week. Yeah, no.

  I’d sat on Alyssa’s email, not too keen on rooming with a chick, but it wasn’t like the offers were pouring in, and when I’d asked her availability to come see the room, she’d been cool, said whenever it was convenient for me. She’d also said she had the money up-front when I’d asked. I’d agreed to let her come see it, so I could get a better measure of her.

  “I’m Rodrigo, but most of my friends call me Golden.”

  “Alyssa.” She laughed nervously. “Most people call me Lys.”

  “Well, here’s the living room, kitchen; dining room,” I said sweeping out a hand. It was a funky layout, but I liked it. As you came in the front door, the living room was to your right, the dining table straight ahead, and the kitchen on the left. It was a bit of a jaunt around the table and straight back down the hall. The guest room was past the bathroom on the right, and my room was past the laundry closet on the left. I had my half-bath with a toilet, shower, and sink in the master suite, while she’d have the main bath out here.

  I liked the exposed brick wall on the one side of the living room and in her room. It was an old building and kind of gave it some manly vibes. I walked the girls past the black couch and black dining table set. The dining table was a bit big for the space, seating six, but worth it when I had the guys or Angel and other family over. It wasn’t often on that last one. I stopped just before the mouth of the hallway and turned.

  “So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for a living?”

  “Actually, I own a florist shop about six blocks from here,” she said. “When I answered the ad, I didn’t realize that this place was so conveniently located. I could walk to work from here, which will be nice.”

  She drifted around the back of the couch past the shelving units built into the back wall of the living room. The guest bathroom was on the other side of that wall, a buffer between the spare bedroom and the sound system I had installed in here. I followed her with my eyes and nodding, said, “It’s a decent-enough neighborhood. You have a car?” She shook her head and stopped at the bank of windows in the wall facing out over the alley and the street.

  “Well, if you ever decide to get a car, the building has a deal with the garage around the corner. It’s something like three hundred bucks a month to park a car in there; prices around here have gone batshit.”

  “You pay that much just to park your car?” Kenzie asked, and I tuned back to her. I swear, her blue eyes crossed. I laughed a little and shook my head.

  “Motorcycle, and it’s like less than half that for a bike, you can fit four of them into a full sized space. And before you ask – no, I’m not including the parking for my bike in the rent.”

  “I’m surprised they let you sublet,” Lys said, and her voice was so quiet, I almost missed it. She was looking out one of the window panes. Those windows had a decent view of the mouth of the alley and into the street, if you stood at the right angle for it, which she was. She had a bit of a faraway look in her big brown eyes.

  “They like having a cop in their building,” I said with a shrug. “Come on, I’ll show you the room; see if you like it.”

  She came back around to us, drifting along the hardwood like a ghost, and I chalked it up to just nerves and maybe a little heartbreak. She did say in her email the reason she was moving was because of a divorce. I thought it was a little weird at the time. Didn’t the woman usually get the house and everything? I didn’t get it, but it wasn’t any of my business. I didn’t really care, unless she couldn’t come up with the rent; then I would care a lot.

  “Just so you know, I don’t anticipate we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, which suits me just fine.”

  She stopped in front of me and made eye contact for, I think, the first time, her deep brown eyes sharpening, her brow wrinkled slightly. and she asked, “Why is that?”

  “I work second tour, two in the afternoon to around ten at night,” I said.

  She looked considering, then it seemed like she was relieved and she gave a nod. I gestured up the hall, an ‘after you’, and let the women go first. I didn’t like having unknown quantities at my back. It was never a good idea. I’d seen some shit. Some of the most innocent-looking kids could be strapped and loaded for bear, looking to kill my ass for the uniform I wore, both over there and over here. I wasn’t about to let my guard down. I stopped at what would be her door and turned the knob, pushing it open and all the way back, flush to the wall. Habit.

  “It’s not much,” I said, as she and Kenzie stepped through.

  “There was no mention of a desk,” she said.

  “I can have it moved out if you want.”

  “No, actually, I was wondering if I could use it. It’d be good for me to do my paperwork at the end of the day. I don’t like staying in the shop past closing anymore.”

  “Yeah, sure. I don’t think I have anything in it. It was my abuela’s. All this furniture was.”

  Kenzie gave Lys a sharp look. “Your what?” she asked me.

  “His grandmother’s,” Lys supplied. “‘Abuela’ is Spanish for ‘grandmother’.”

  “You speak Spanish?” I asked.

  She shook her head, “Just what I remember from high school.”

  “Ah, fair enough.”

  I know it was bad, but it meant I could bitch about her to Angel, to a degree, in front of her if she got on my nerves and happened to be home.

  “So, what do you think?” I asked, getting used to the idea of having a chick in my space, like, full-time.

  She exchanged a long look with her bestie and sighed. “I’ll take it,” she said softly, and there was a note of trepidation in her voice. Somehow that made it a little easier on me, knowing she was just as dubious about this shit as I was.

  “Cool, when do you feel you can move in?”

  “I have her things packed in my living room, we can be back in an hour if tonight is good,” Kenzie said, and she didn’t sound happy about it at all.

  “What’s the hurry?” I asked, laughing a little.

  “She’s been sleeping on my couch for the last few weeks.”

  “It’d be really nice to sleep in a bed,” Lys answered, and she looked longingly in its direction.

  “You got the money, then, yeah. Tonight works for me. You’ll pretty much be on your own, though. I got a tour.”

  “A what?” Kenzie’s brow wrinkled.

  “A shift,” Lys supplied and I smiled. She was smarter than she looked. She reached into her purse, it hung cross-ways over her chest and between her tits, and pulled out a plain white banking envelope. She handed it over and I counted the cash inside. All crisp, fresh, one-hundred-dollar bills. It was all there.

  “I’ll get you a key,” I said, and she smiled a little sadly.

  “Okay, thank you.”

  “You bet.”

  4

  Alyssa…

  “You’re sure about this?”

  “For the last time, Kenzie, I’m sure.” She pulled smoothly into the loading zone in front of Golden’s building. It was a strange nickname, and I wondered if I would ever find out how he got it.

  “Oh, wow, there he is,” she said, and I rolled my eyes slightly. I loved my friend dearly, but there were times she could be a bit of an airhead.

  “I know,�
�� I said with a little laugh. “I texted him like he asked me to, so he could bring down the key.” He hadn’t been able to find it right away and had told us to get my things. I didn’t think a cop was apt to steal my money because, you know, he was a cop. I still had to admit it’d played havoc on my nerves, though.

  “Hey,” he said, a bit breathlessly. “Sorry about that, here you go.” He handed me two silver keys on a weak wire ring.

  “One apartment and one mailbox,” he said, though I didn’t need the explanation.

  “Thank you,” I murmured.

  He squinted into the back of Kenzie’s SUV.

  “Is that it?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Kenzie said. “Think you might be able to grab one?”

  “Yeah, I’m good for a load up, but then I gotta get ready for work. Gimme two.” He left my door and went around to the back hatch. Kenzie was out of the car and met him there. She gave him two of the totes, one of the heavy ones and another, lighter one on top. He marched into the building without as much as a backward glance and I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  He was as tall as, and probably bigger than, Raymond, which was fairly physically imposing. He was a police officer, which meant training, and that made him scarier in my book. Unlike my soon-to-be-ex-husband, Golden moved with a surety and grace that said he was well in control of his body, beyond just an average person. He also had some impressive muscle; the sleeves of his t-shirt hugged his biceps and the clearly-defined musculature of his back rippled through the thin cotton material. I shut the car door behind me and watched him walk away. I blinked in my sudden awareness that I found my new roommate attractive.

  I hadn’t counted on that. It left me feeling more than a little discombobulated, even as Kenzie called out to me, “Hey, Lys, you okay?”

  “Fine!” I said hurriedly. “I’m fine.”

  Kenzie and I double-teamed the rest of the totes and suitcase. I held the elevator while she loaded them all in, running back and forth from her car. The load zone was only good for thirty minutes, so she would have to go find a place to park. Honestly, though, I wished she would just go. I didn’t think I could get settled with her here, plus, she’d already done so much for me that my guilt was working overtime.

  “Okay, let’s get this stuff into the apartment and then I’ll go park for real.” She stepped onto the elevator beside me and I let the doors close.

  I chewed my lip for a second and finally said, “Actually, it’s okay. If you can just help me get this stuff into the apartment, I can take it from there. There’s no need for you to stay. You have things to do.”

  “Are you sure?” She looked torn. The elevator shuddered and came to a halt. The doors seemingly took forever to open back up.

  “I’m sure,” I said, stepping off and dragging a stack of totes off the elevator, over the thin carpet. Kenzie did the same with the other stack and snatched the handle to the suitcase as the doors tried to shut on us again. I glanced up the hall and realized Golden’s door stood open.

  “You’re really sure, Lys?” she asked one more time.

  I gave her a mock-frown and reminded her, “This was your idea.”

  “No, moving this soon was your idea. It was just my idea you move into this apartment.” She gave me a conspiratorial little smile and lowered her voice. “Bonus points that he turned out to be hot.”

  I blushed hard and shook my head, banishing the thought and said, “I shouldn’t be thinking like that. At all.”

  Kenzie stopped me with a hand on my arm and said, “Lys, what Raymond did to you was undeniably shitty, but you’ll get through this. I promise. You will.”

  I smoothed my lips together and nodded. I just wasn’t ready for anything, I guess. I don’t know, I still needed to unpack a lot of things, and not just these totes full of clothes and belongings. I swallowed hard, and jerked my head away from the elevator toward the door of the apartment, still standing open.

  “Let’s just get this stuff inside, okay?”

  “Okay,” she agreed, but I could tell that she wanted to say more. There was a lot to say, but none of it was anything I was willing to hear right now. I picked up two of the totes and struggled up the hall with them, setting them just inside the door and sliding them across the floor to rest at the end of the dining table. Golden had set the two he’d brought up on it.

  I dashed back down the hall and took the handle to the suitcase that Kenzie offered me and she said, “Go on, I’ll get the last three.”

  I gave a short nod and wheeled the suitcase all the way back to the bedroom. ‒My‒ bedroom. At least, for now.

  I paused briefly by the closed door to Golden’s room. I could hear the shower running and I quickly dashed the image of what he might look like, shirtless and with water cascading down his chest, from my mind. Kenzie was right. He was hot, and I? Well, I was emotionally-wounded, not dead.

  I dragged the big suitcase in the open doorway of the room I’d rented and heaved it up onto the bed in front of me. I put my hands on my hips, letting out a gusty sigh at both the accomplishment and the effort of getting it up there on my own, and surveyed the space once more, this time with an eye toward where to put it all.

  “Watch yourself,” Kenzie said gently, but I still jumped. I stepped aside so she could get through the door with a tote full of documents. She went over to the roll-top desk and set the tote on the deep navy carpet beside it.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem, you start doing your thing, I’ll bring back a couple more.”

  I went over to the closet and slid it open. No hangers inside, damn, but it did have a row of shelves on one end, which would be useful, and a shelf all along the top.

  It’d been ages and ages since I’d done a roommate situation, and back then, it’d been a dorm roommate and a single room. This would probably be easier to work with, but not as easy as having my own home would have been.

  Still, keeping my business running without having to let go of any employees wasn’t easy. Neither were the mounting lawyer’s fees, or the fact that other bills, bills that were in my name, were piling up because Ray refused to pay them until I talked to him, even though they were for the condo he was the one living in. ‒That‒ wasn't going to go on for long. My lawyer wanted it liquidated, and I wanted my half of that money.

  Kenzie returned with two totes of clothes and went around the bed to the dresser set against the brick wall below the window in here. She set them on top of it and turned around with a dissatisfied sigh, asking, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

  I wasn’t, but I needed to do this on my own. I also didn’t want to push her away or make her feel like I didn’t value all she had been, and still was doing for me, though.

  “I need a few things,” I said, at last.

  She perked up. “Like what?”

  “Hangers, for one.”

  She started looking around and said, “Sheets, and a better bedspread would be nice in here.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “What’s my budget?” she asked, with a devilish grin, and I instantly took back any thoughts I’d had about her being flighty. She'd instantly known what I wanted.

  I grinned and reached into my purse at my hip. I pulled out my wallet and huffed out a harsh sigh at how little was in it.

  “Looks like I have about a hundred and twenty dollars to pull it off,” I said, cringing.

  “No problem, if it’s one thing I learned from Pinterest and forever watching those money-saving-hack videos, it’s how to shop and decorate on a budget.”

  “I never did get why you watch those things; you make quite a bit of money.”

  “I also like to take vacations and go places, and the best way to do that, is to save a lot of money. A penny saved is a penny earned.”

  “Right, well, do your frugal best with this.” I handed her the money.

  She smiled and winked.

  “I may or may not throw in some of my own.
No arguing!” She put up her finger and wagged it back and forth when I opened my mouth to protest.

  “Fine,” I grumbled.

  “Do what you can, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

  I nodded and she came back around the bed and skirted out the door. I heard the front door to the apartment open and close and I let out a semi-defeated sigh. It would be nice, getting back to taking care of myself. I wanted so badly to find the woman I’d been before all of this. I was scared I would never get her back.

  I sighed again, this time at the monumental task of getting all of this put away. With a deep breath, I started with the dresser, glad that she’d brought in the totes of dresser clothes first.

  I was midway through refolding all the things as I put them into dresser drawers when a light rap of knuckles fell on my open bedroom door. I jumped and let out a startled little yip, immediately pressing my fingertips to my lips self-consciously.

  “My bad, didn’t mean to scare you. I’m headed out.” I turned around and my mouth went a little dry. Golden stood in his uniform in the doorway, and it made him rather imposing, especially with the added bulk of the protective vest he had on over his uniform shirt but under his jacket. The blockiness of it and the bold white letters across the front proclaiming ‘POLICE’ was seriously intimidating.

  “Oh, okay. Anything I should know?”

  He shook his head, the light from the hallway catching on the damp strands of his hair and giving him an almost haloed effect.

  “Nah, don’t think so. Your friend coming back?”

  “Oh, yeah, she went to grab me a few things like hangers and bedding. I’ll, um, give yours back. Where should I put it?”

  “Hall closet where the washer and dryer live; there’s an open space on the shelf above them. If there’s not, just leave it folded on top of the dryer.”

  “Okay, will do, thanks.”

  “No problem. I’m off at ten, usually home by midnight or so.”

  “Okay.”

  “Have a good night, then.”