by Unknown
“I’m glad you liked them.” Rose laughed, standing up. Lauren glanced up and down the stairs then leaned closer to whisper to Rose.
“Have you noticed that George seems to charge a lot for the rooms here when they really need some work? I’ve told him the hallways need new paint jobs and smell funky about a million times but still nothing’s changed.”
“You know, I’ve actually been wondering about that lately. Not only does George not have anyone come and fix things in the building but I’ve noticed he’s always wearing suits these days.”
“Last week he had on a rolex watch too.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. I’m going to go look up the landlords email and see If I can talk to him directly.”
“Oh that would be wonderful, Rose. Thank you. I’d do it myself but between my job and Joey's preschool I’m just too busy.”
“Don’t even worry about it Lauren. I’ll let you know what I find out.” She said goodbye to Lauren and waved to Joey then headed to her room. After closing the door and tossing her shoes aside she padded over to her bed and pulled her laptop out from underneath it. She hummed as she turned on her cheap coffee maker and started turning on her laptop. Once it finally turned on she sat down on her bed and spent 15 minutes just trying to get the wifi to work.
“Can’t even get us decent wifi in the building.” She muttered as she typed in the address of the building. She found the name of the landlord easily, he apparently owned many of the apartment buildings in the city. There was a picture of him on his website. He had a strong jawline and neatly trimmed grey hair. He was smiling in the picture but it wasn’t quite reaching his eyes.
“Mark Greyson.” She read aloud. There was his email right next to the picture. She moved the mouse so it was hovering over the email, about to click. But hesitated. Like a busy landlord managing so many properties would even care that they had peeling paint in the hallways. Or that the main lobby smelled like rotten milk.
She groaned and closed the webpage, laying back on the lumpy mattress. She’d figure it out later, she decided. Maybe she just needed to be more patient, maybe George would eventually take time out of his schedule to arrange for someone to fix the building.
Chapter 5
On Monday morning Rose woke up and went to her classes as usual, but the whole day she was buzzing with excitement. She noticed however that she didn’t spot James anywhere when she went to lunch, and he wasn’t at the library either.
After she had finished her last class she stayed on campus and sat on one of the many benches scattered throughout the University. It was a scorching day and she fanned herself with a book as she pulled out her phone.
She sent a quick text to James asking where they should meet, and then waited for a few minutes. There was no reply, and she wondered briefly if he might be sick with a cold or something. She tried calling then, but still no answer. She didn’t want to seem too clingy so after that she put her book and phone away and got off the bench, headed to the bike rack.
She easily remembered where James’ apartment was and rode her bike there. She set her bike down by the steps, where she could see it, and walked up to the intercom buttons. She pressed the one for his apartment and waited.
“Hello?” It was Jordan’s voice.
“Hi Jordan, this is Rose. I don’t know if you remember me…”
“Of course I do! Hold that thought.” The door made a sudden clicking noise and she opened it, entering the cool air conditioned building. Jordan was waiting at the door of James’ apartment, smiling.
“Are you here for James?”
“Yeah, we were supposed to meet up today to work on the project but I can’t get ahold of him. And I didn’t see him at lunch today so I was worried he was sick or something.”
There was a strange expression on his face for a moment, but then it was gone and she wondered if she had imagined it.
“He’s ok, just at a doctor's appointment. He might not be back for a few hours actually.”
“Oh, alright. Well I guess I’ll head home then. Thanks’ Jordan.”
“Anytime.” He smiled and closed the door as she headed out the lobby. She was headed down the front steps when she spotted James’ car approaching. She waved when he saw her, and he waved back, parking along the sidewalk next to her.
“Hey stranger. Need a ride?”
“I’d love one, but I’ve got my bike with me.” She laughed and gestured toward it.
“Oh, about that.” He jumped out of the car grinning and walked to the trunk. “I made sure to clear my trunk yesterday. It’s big enough to fit your bike.”
“Thank you, James. But you didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to.” He smiled. “So just load your bike and we can head out on our adventure.” He grinned and got back in the car while Rose dumped her bike in the trunk, the closed it with a loud slam.
“How was your day? I was kind of worried when I didn’t see you anywhere and you didn’t answer the phone.” She said as she got in the car.
“Oh, sorry I was really busy with work and stuff.”
“And your appointment?”
His steering swiveled a little bit and he turned to look at her, a mixture of worry and...fear?
“What did you say?”
“Jordan said you were at a doctor's appointment. He didn’t say what for or anything.”
“Oh, ok. Yeah, it went fine. Just a regular checkup.” He looked relieved and returned his focus to the road. Rose thought he was behaving kind of oddly but she decided not to say anything.
Dolshel forest was a large forest along the outskirts of the city, with three different walking paths within it. Rose would have wanted to go on the longest one, because it covered the largest amount of the forest but James insisted that it was more likely that the person who found her would have walked down the shorter path. She didn’t want to argue and so after parking the car and grabbing her backpack from the trunk, they set off down the path.
“Boy you sure had time to prepare for this.” James said, staring at her backpack, and outfit. She was wearing blue cargo shorts, a tee shirt and tennis shoes. Rose blushed, embarrassed. He hadn’t brought a backpack, just his camera, and he was wearing a nice polo shirt and khakis.
“I’m an outdoorsy person and I like to be prepared. I brought snacks, water, and a first aid kit. You never know what could happen. Especially since we have to go off the trail and in the forest.”
“Well, now I know who I should be near during the apocalypse.” He joked, laughing out loud. Rose joined him laughing, and she felt truly happy in that moment. She could almost forget that she was running out of time to find a job.
“So how do you want to do this exactly? Walk to the end of the path and follow any offshoots along the way or something?” He asked.
“Yeah that could work, and then if we don't find any worn paths we could just go off the paths altogether and go through the forest.”
“Alright, sounds like a plan.” He said, and pulled his camera out of its case.
“So you’re in the photography program right?”
“Yep.”
“Are you planning on pursuing that as a career?”
He glanced at her sideways.
“Did no one ever tell you not to ask people what they’re doing after college?”
“No.” She was confused now.
“Most people don’t really know what they’re going to do after college, or how they’ll use their degree specifically.”
“And you’re one of those people?”
“Nah, I’m going to take pictures and travel the world. Right now, that’s the extent of my plans for the future.”
“Really? How would you support yourself traveling the world, just by taking pictures?”
“I’m not worrying about the specifics right now. If I have to live like a beggar while I travel than I will. There’s just so much world out there and I want to see it before I run out
of time.”He stared up at the trees, frowning.
Rose was speechless and they continued walking down the dirt path, both in their own thoughts.
As they walked down the path James would stop every once in awhile and take a picture of the tree’s overhead, a pretty flower, or an oddly shaped tree stump. They went down 4 worn paths branching off from the main path; each of these resulted in nothing but mosquito bites and running into spider webs.
“Let's just try this last trail and then be done.” Rose said as she scratched at her arm.
“See this is why I chose to wear long pants.”
“Yeah, yeah you're a genius.” She followed him down the worn path. She had to duck and move to the side alot as the forest was particularly thick here and branches were in the way.
“You don’t…” He suddenly hit the dirt face first, tripping over a root.
“James! Are you ok?” Rose asked, sitting down next to him and offering a hand to help him up. He didn’t take it, but slowly pulled himself to a sitting position. He had smudges of dirt on his face and his hair had gotten messed up. Rose couldn’t help laughing a little, he looked so funny.
“What are you laughing at?” He didn’t sound offended.
“You have dirt all over your face and your hair is sticking up like crazy.”
“Oh.” He gave a short laugh. “You know I think I’m done traipsing through the forest for today.”
“Yeah, me too.” Rose laughed. She stood up and he followed suit, both of them pushing branches out of the way as they walked back to the main path. James was very quiet and Rose glanced back to make sure he was following.
“You, ok?”
“Yeah.” He was staring down, thinking about something. “In fact I feel better now than I have for the past week.” He mumbled this part, almost to himself, and Rose didn’t ask him to clarify. She assumed he was just thinking out loud, and probably didn’t mean for her to hear it.
As they walked down the main path back to the car, James thought about what had just happened. That whole week he had been away from Rose had been a nightmare. He had been running low on energy, had a hard time falling asleep, and just felt weak in general. But when he had tripped on the branch and fallen on his face just then, it was like nothing. He felt fine.
In fact he felt full of energy as if he could do anything. He glanced at Rose walking beside him; she was looking up at the trees. He wondered if it was just his imagination or if his being around Rose made him feel better. On the drive to Rose’s apartment James went over the past few weeks in his mind. But still, he couldn’t figure it out. Either way though, he really did enjoy spending time with Rose, he realized.
“You know what?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you doing anything tonight?” He asked, turning his head to look at her for a moment.
“Not really, why?”
“We’ve been so busy searching for clues about your necklace and studying for school. I think we need a break.” He grinned and switched his turning signal on suddenly pulling into a parking lot full of stores and restaurants.
“Whoa, ok what did you have in mind exactly?”
“Let’s have dinner and not talk about the necklace or about school.” He said and parked the car in front of a small Mexican restaurant. “They have the best tamales here.”
“Alright, let’s do this.” Rose laughed. They both got out of the car and walked into the restaurant, a bell dinging as they entered. A short Hispanic woman walked up to them, black hair pulled into a ponytail that swished as she approached.
“Your usual table Mr. Rochester?” She asked, grabbing two menus from the counter.
“Yes please.” James answered and they followed the lady to the table. It was a corner booth near the front windows. They sat down and the lady, Claudia her name tag said, gave them their menus and left. They sat across from each other and as soon as Claudia was out of sight Rose raised her eyebrows and stared at James.
“Your usual table Mr. Rochester.” She laughed.
“I keep telling them to call me James but they just ignore me.” He laughed then opened his menu, staring at it. Rose took a moment to look at the restaurant. The seats were soft red leather, the walls were painted with traditional Hispanic scenes, and there was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling made out of beer bottles. Not your usual decor but it actually looked nice and cast a warm glow about the building.
“Are you going to order anything?” James asked, breaking her concentration on the chandelier.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to try those tamales you mentioned. Since I’m not sure I believe you that they’re the best.” She grinned.
“Oh, trust me; I’ve looked far and wide. They’re the best there is honey.” They both laughed and ate from the small bowl of chips till Claudia returned with their order.
“Thank you.” Rose said and Claudia nodded then walked away. “Wait, how did she know our order?”
“Oh I know the chef so when I come here I just text him my order.” He answered, digging into his plate of nachos.
“He has time to check his messages while he’s cooking?”
James looked to the side for a moment then back at her.
“You know, I don’t know.” He laughed. They didn’t talk much for a while, just devoured their food. When Rose’s plate was nearly empty James gestured at it with his fork.
“So, what’s the verdict?”
“You were right.” Rose rolled her eyes, and James laughed, pushing his plate aside.
“So tell me, how did you end up going to the University even though you can’t afford a car or nice apartment. No offense.”
“None taken. When I was in school I studied all the time, and when I graduated I qualified for a scholarship. That’s pretty much it.”
“Wow, so you’re a genius then?”
“No, not quite.” Rose laughed. “If I were I’d probably have a job by now.”
James frowned.
“You don’t have a job? How do you pay your rent?”
“Well...you know I’d rather not talk about it. Let’s just say it hasn’t been easy the past few weeks.” Rose answered, fiddling with the ice in her water.
“Ok, that’s fine. But you know I have a lot of contacts in this city, I could help you find a job if you wanted.”
“Thank you but...I...I need to do this myself.”
“Why? You didn’t want me to help you figure out where the necklace comes from and you don’t want help finding a job. Why do you have to do it yourself?”
Rose looked down at her hands; they were clasped together under the table. She took a deep breath.
“I don’t expect you to understand this, but ever since I was a kid I always wondered how someone could just leave their kid. And...I realized that I didn’t want to do anything that would justify them leaving me. So I worked hard, I did my homework myself, I didn’t ask for help. I did odd jobs to save up money for my bike, and paid for my first few months rent by working for the landlord. I don’t ask for help because I want to prove to myself that I’m worth it, and that I deserved a family who loved me.”
She made eye contact with James then, his face was unreadable.
“Honestly it was really hard for me to let you help search for clues about the medallion. It drove me crazy when you wouldn’t leave me alone.”
She stopped there, expecting a negative response. She sounded pathetic even to herself. Surely someone who had things easy in life would think her even more pathetic.
“Oh, Rose. I’m sorry.” His voice was soft and sounded sad and yet his face was red as though he was angry. He held out his hand and she took it.
“You are worth it, and you definitely did not deserve to grow up the way you did.” She felt her eyes start to sting and looked away.
“Rose look at me.” She did and his eyes were looking directly into hers, his hand holding hers above the table was firm yet gentle.
“You did not deserve t
o grow up without your parents. But you shouldn’t have to do everything on your own either. Do you understand? I know it’s hard but you have to rely on other people sometimes.” He looked down at her hand and softly rubbed her palm. “Our hands aren’t meant to carry that much weight alone.”
She felt tears falling down her face then and pulled her hand out of his grasp to wipe her eyes.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t have asked you all those questions. But I’m glad I did.”
She had just finished wiping her face when Claudia showed up and took their plates away. They thanked her and James insisted on paying the bill. Together they got up and headed back to the front door. But on the way Rose halted, staring at a man seated across the room.
“Rose?” James asked.
She didn’t hear him though, she was already walking toward the man. He was busy on the phone and didn’t notice her till she was standing right next to his table staring at him. He glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll have to call you back Marv.” He hung up the phone and folded his arms on the table watching her. “Can I help you?”
“Hi, I’m sorry I’m just surprised to run into you.”
“Do I know you?”
“Oh, right now, sorry my name’s Rose.” She held out her hand and he shook it.
“Mark.”
“Yes I know. I actually live in one of the buildings you own.”
“Oh I see, so did you have something you needed in regards to the apartment?”
“Yes.” She paused gathering her thoughts. “I’m not really sure how to say this but the property manager isn’t taking care of his duties properly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well the price has been going up every few months and everyone’s been paying but nothing seems to be getting done in the building. We’ve all told George, the property manager, that the hallways have peeling paint and that it smells foul in the lobby. There’s more than that but that’s the main stuff. And George seems to get a new suit every month or so. I don’t want to get to accusatory here, but I feel like this isn’t fair to the tenants.”