by Wiley, John
“I have never wished to be illiterate more than I do right now.”
Jeremy rolls his eyes as he takes a drink of his beer. “So you don’t know if you guys are going to move then?”
“We haven’t talked about it. I had no idea she was even doing it so we could move…I figured she just had some extra classes. And do you know that she didn’t tell me until this morning that she’s taking a full load of classes all three summer sessions?”
“Dang. Cheryl’s crazy.”
“I feel bad though that she’s doing this.”
“Why? I think it’s a really nice gesture.”
“Well yes, but…I don’t know if I want to move, if I’m being honest. I mean, I just got this new job and I really like it…I don’t know that I want to quit after just six months. And think of how it’ll look on my resume. And then there’s the chore of trying to find a job out there. Rhys applied for hundreds of jobs and the only one he ended up getting is in a coffee shop.”
“At least you have some savings that you could live on while you look.”
Joey shrugs. “I guess. I just don’t know if I want to…”
“You really need to talk to Cheryl about this.”
“Yeah…” Joey sighs. “Can we get another pitcher please?” Joey asks the waitress as she passes.
***
Adele: So are we still hanging out tonight?
Erick: Of course. Why?
Adele: well I haven’t heard from you since you ditched me last night…
Erick: something happened..i’ll explain tonight. I’ll pick you up in 2 hours
An hour and a half later Erick comes out of his room; he’s wearing khaki’s and a polo shirt. He wipes some sweat from his forehead, visibly nervous. “So do you have it all under control here?” he asks Gene.
Gene is in the kitchen stirring something in a pot. “Yeah, it’ll all be set when you get back.”
Erick sits on the couch and ties his shoes.
“And I talked to Janie and the girls and they all said they’d try to keep the noise down tonight, so that’s nice of them.”
“Yeah.” Erick stands up and wipes his forehead again. “Do you think I should turn the air conditioner on?”
Gene shrugs. “I don’t really see the point since you’re dining outside.”
“Oh, right. Well, I’ll turn it on anyway.” He turns the knob on the wall and the walls begin to shake as the ancient machine kicks on. A couple pictures fall off the wall and crash on the floor before the rumbling stops and the cool air begins to make its way out of the vents.
“I’ll get those.” Gene sets the spoon on the top of the pan and walks over to the pictures. “Go ahead and get Adele; you know how she can be if you’re late.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He grabs his keys off of the hook on the wall and leaves the apartment.
Gene shakes his head as he smiles and puts the pictures back up.
***
At quarter after seven Erick pulls the truck into the parking lot. “So this is where you live?” Adele asks when Erick opens the door for her.
“Yeah. It’s not much, but I like it.” He leads her to the steps. “I do wish the owner would do something about these though.”
“Is this the only way up and down?” she asks as she climbs the wobbly staircase.
“Yeah. Well, apart from the fire escape, but as inconvenient as these are, it’s still probably easier than climbing a fire escape, especially in your dress, which is lovely by the way.”
“Thanks,” Adele says. She automatically brushes imaginary lint off of the bottom of her short black dress. When she reaches the top of the stairs she takes in her surroundings. Three doors to what must be three apartments on the second level of…whatever this building is, she didn’t even notice – not expecting to pull into a parking lot behind it.
“This one is mine,” Erick walks toward his apartment to the small round dining room table that was brought outside. For privacy he got some large potted plants and used them to build a sort of wall to separate his apartment from the rest of the roof.
As she walks to the table, she notices that the plants are all wrapped in clear twinkle lights and then strung above the table, forming a sort of canopy. Erick pulls out a chair for her and she sits, smoothing out the red and white checked table cloth as she does. “Let me guess…we’re having Italian?”
“We are,” Erick says as he walks to the door to his apartment. “We’re ready,” he says to Gene. He sits down across from Adele and pushes a button on the remote control on the table. With the first push the lights all come on and with a second push music begins to play from the stereo behind him.
“Well, I can’t say much about the building itself, but you’ve done a pretty nice job setting this up,” she says, looking around some more. “It would be nicer if you’d had me come over when it’s dark so I can get the full effect of the lights.”
“Oh, you’ll be here at dark,” Erick grins at her.
“I will, will I?”
“You’re in for such an amazing evening that you’ll find it very difficult to tear yourself away.”
Her mouth twitches upward. “We’ll see.”
“First course,” Gene says as he opens the door. He has a small tray with two salads and two glasses of wine on it. He sits them on the table before taking a step back and putting the tray under his arm. “I’ll be right back with some water for you, and then the main course will be out shortly after.” He turns and goes back inside.
“So is he like your manservant or something?”
“What?” Erick chokes on his wine.
“It’s a joke, though I do find it a little odd that the homeless black man is now working for you.” She pokes at her salad, eventually stabbing one of the cherry tomatoes with her fork and eating it.
“He doesn’t work for me,” Erick says, the beads of sweat returning.
She looks at the food and back at Erick, making implications with her eyes.
“He’s just helping me out tonight. He used to have a restaurant, and since I still can’t really afford to take you anywhere nice, I asked him to cook us dinner.”
“You probably could have afforded a restaurant instead of buying these plants behind me,” she says.
“Hmm…that’s actually a good point. Rhys would usually point that out to me. But whatever, I had already asked Gene before I bought the plants anyway.”
“Where is your roommate,” she says the last word with a touch of disgust.
Erick shrugs. “I don’t know, really. I haven’t seen him since we left the restaurant last night.”
“Which is the perfect segue for you to tell me what happened last night. It was really rude to leave like that, you know?”
“We got robbed.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” she says with no emotion in her voice.
“Thanks…”
She takes another bite of her salad.
“But they didn’t take anything. So that’s good.”
Adele nods and looks to his apartment. “I don’t see any damage,” she notices.
“Yeah…Rhys actually left his key in the door and that’s how they got in.”
“Wow,” Adele says with a grin on her face. “Did you kick him out?”
“No,” Erick says in a confused tone. “Just because he made a mistake?”
“You could have lost everything! And just imagine if you’d come home and they were still here; you could have died!”
“Well, yeah, but…it didn’t play out that way so…it’s fine.”
“Hmm.” She drinks from her wine.
“Besides, Gene and I had a conversation about it earlier while we were cleaning and –”
“He didn’t even help clean up his mess?” she interrupts.
“No. Actually, I have no idea where he is. Maybe I should check on him…” he feels his phone in his pocket but doesn’t take it out.
“So, you’re keeping this guy around
that caused you to risk your life and didn’t even help clean up the mess just because a homeless man told you to? How wise can he be; he was homeless!”
“That’s not fair…”
“I hope you and Rhys work different shifts so you don’t have to see much of him. He sounds like a nightmare.”
“He actually got fired –”
“Are you serious? Why?”
Erick shrugs. “I don’t actually know, he hasn’t told me about it yet. I only know because my neighbor told me.”
“What a joke of a human being.”
“That’s not fair, Adele.”
Adele shrugs and finishes her salad. “I just find it really surprising that you’re still standing up for him when he clearly has so little respect for you that he can’t even help clean the mess caused by his mistake.”
“Second course,” Gene comes out of the apartment with his tray, this time containing two plates of chicken parmesan.
Erick is poking his chicken when Gene goes back inside. “Why are you being like this?” he asks. He looks up at Adele, meeting her eyes.
“Like what?” She cuts a piece of her chicken and puts it in her mouth.
“Every time I talk about Rhys, you start attacking him.”
“I’m only saying what I think you need to hear. Sometimes when you’re around someone for so long it’s hard to see changes in their personality that could have a negative effect on your life; forgiving them for inviting murderers into your apartment, for instance.”
“They weren’t murderers.”
“Do you know that for certain?”
“I guess not.” He pushes his food around on his plate and then sets the fork down. “It’s just that I like you, and then you go and say things like this that make me wonder why I asked you out.”
Adele looks genuinely hurt.
“Sorry if that was rude.”
Adele avoids eye contact and shrugs. “It’s fine. I realize I can come off kind of harsh at times.”
“Then why do you do it?”
She looks up at him. “I made a promise to myself years ago that I would be completely honest with people. My mom was cheating on my dad and I found out but didn’t tell him. But then he did find out and I’ve never seen anyone so devastated, so I decided to not hold back anymore.”
“But that’s not your fault, it’s your mom’s. And regardless, there’s a difference between being honest and being a bitch.”
“I guess.”
“Ready for dessert?” Gene comes out of the apartment with a bottle of wine and refills their glasses.
“Not yet, thanks,” Erick says.
“So maybe I should have some more tact when I’m stating my opinion.” They continue eating in silence for a few minutes before she continues. “It’s just that I really do think you need to reconsider your relationship with this guy. I think he’s bad for you.”
Erick looks at her. “I don’t know.”
Adele sighs. “I like you too, Erick, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Erick smiles at her. “I appreciate your concern. I just don’t know that I can remove someone from my life like that, even if we do seem to be growing apart.”
“See! And –”
“Can we not talk about this anymore? I appreciate your concern, but it’s putting a damper on the romantic-ness of tonight.”
“Romanitic-ness?” she says with a laugh.
“Yeah. I’m shit at scrabble.”
“Chocolate chip cannoli,” Gene says, placing the dessert plates on the table. “I’m glad to see that you two are having fun,” he says, noticing the smiles on their faces.
“I’m not done yet,” Adele says when he puts the dessert on the table.
“Sorry,” he says as he takes the dessert back inside.
***
“Please, no! Put the gun down!” Rhys yells while sitting inside a small café.
“You should have thought about that before!” Sinead says. She’s sitting on a big fluffy chair with her knees pulled to her chest. “And then he gets shot,” she says as she shuts her script.
“Seems to me like you know it pretty well.” Rhys hands her his copy of the script.
“Well, we have been going over it for,” she looks at her phone. “Dang, it’s already 11!”
“Seriously?” He looks at his own phone.
“Didn’t you have anything else to do today?”
“Not really. Just look for a job, and then help…crap.”
“Help someone crap?”
“Yeah,” Rhys laughs. “No…I told my roommate I would help him clean our apartment today; we got robbed last night.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did they get anything?”
“No, our neighbors saw them and called the police before they got anything.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah,” he sighs. “It’s just that they got in because I left my keys in the door.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“Yeah, I feel really bad about it. My roommate was pissed; he didn’t even sleep at home last night. But I can understand why he’s upset.”
Sinead nods. “Well if you need to get going to help clean –”
“No, he’ll have done it already. He had a date tonight and I told him I’d stay away.”
“So where are you sleeping tonight?”
“Oh, I’ll sleep at home; I just meant that I wouldn’t be sitting in the living room while they try to watch a romantic movie, or whatever they had planned for tonight.”
Sinead nods as she puts the scripts in her bag. “Well, I’m going to get going, I’m exhausted.” She stands up, stretching her back as she does. “But I have your number, so I’ll text you with the info for Monday so you can meet with my manager about the assistant thing.”
“That’ll be great; thanks so much.”
She smiles at him. “See you soon.”
He walks to the counter and orders a scone and peppermint tea and then goes back to the table. While playing Say the Same Thing on his phone, it starts to vibrate; his sister’s face flashes on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Hey, where are you?”
“I’m fine, how are you Marion?” he says with a smile.
“I’m hungry and have to pee,” his sister says with a sigh.
“Oh, OK…”
“Shit, I knew I should have told you I was coming; now I’m going to piss myself!”
“What? You’re here?” Rhys stands up and grabs a napkin from the bar. He wraps his scone in it, grabs his tea, and leaves the café to go home.
“Yeah. Mom and Dad told me that you were having a rough time so I decided to come visit you.”
“I thought you guys were coming out in September.”
“We are, but I don’t have anything going on and I heard you might need some family so…here I am, in front of your apartment, pee dripping down my leg.”
“Gross,” he laughs. “Did you knock on the door? Isn’t Erick home?”
“If he is, he isn’t letting me in.”
“Go down to number 200 and tell them that you’re my sister and ask if you can wait for me there. I’ll text them and tell them that you’re not just some con artist.”
“When are you going to be here?”
“Ten minutes; I’m running. Well, I will when we hang up.”
“Later.” She hangs up her phone.
“Bye,” Rhys says to the blank screen. He puts the phone in his back pocket and runs down the road.
***
“Is that really what you think I should do?” Erick is leaning against a large tree in front of Adele’s apartment building.
“It’s up to you. You’re the one that said you felt like there was too much strain on your relationship.” She’s sitting on a bench near the tree Erick is leaning against. “I don’t want to be the reason your friendship ends,” she says with a shrug.
“You’re not.” He sits next to her. “Maybe
I’ll talk to my parents and see what they think.”
“It seems to me that you’ve made your decision and you’re just looking for someone to agree with you so you don’t have to be responsible for your actions.”
Erick nods, his eyes unfocused on the middle distance.
“Well, thanks for dinner,” Adele says as she stands up.
“I’m really sorry about tonight,” Erick says as he stands up also.
“What for?”
“I spent a majority of the night complaining about Rhys.”
Adele smiles at him. “It made me feel good that you felt comfortable enough to open up to me.” They stand in silence for a few beats. “Well, good night.”
“Good night.” He gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey,” she says when he starts walking back to his truck.
“Yeah?”
“You wanna come upstairs?”
“Yeah, OK.”
She grabs his hand and leads him upstairs to her apartment.
***
“Hey, come on in” Chloe says to Rhys when she opens the door.
He walks inside and sees Marion sitting on the sofa, playing on her phone. On the chair next to the sofa is Cindy reading a book. At the dining room table Gene and Jennifer are eating left over chicken parmesan. Chloe sits by the third plate on the table and takes a bite of her food.
“What’s going on?” Rhys asks, shutting the door behind him.
“I made extra food for Erick’s date tonight and brought it over for the girls,” Gene says.
“I was wondering where you were when Marion said no one answered the door.”
“I could only handle so much Adele before I had to get out of there.” Gene walks to the kitchen and pulls out another plate of food. “Come eat,” he says to Rhys. He sets the plate at the table and sits back in his chair.
“That’s OK, I have a scone.” He holds up his crumbled napkin and scone crumbs fall out of it. “Besides, my sister just got in town!” He walks to his sister and pulls her off of the couch and wraps his arms around her in a bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he whispers.
“I’m glad to be here,” she smiles. She gives him a quick tight hug and then pushes him off of her. “But go ahead and eat,” she says as she sits back on the sofa. “I was just texting Paul anyway.”