As she headed inside she wondered why Carly wouldn’t invite her. Perhaps she was jumping to conclusions, and it was just a last-minute rendezvous. Pure spontaneity. She couldn’t expect Carly to invite her to every little event. Furthermore, she couldn’t rely on Carly so much. She needed to make new friends.
She was just slightly disappointed because she thought they would spend more time together after she moved back to San Diego. They used to speak to each other at least three times a day, and if they weren’t on the phone with one another they would e-mail back and forth. Now it seemed like a challenge to even get a hold of her. Oddly, it seemed like they were better friends when Elise was in Arizona.
The idea that they were drifting apart was almost unfathomable. Carly was her best friend in the world. Elise just needed to be patient, more understanding, and in the meantime she needed to make more friends. She was tempted to ask Carly about her project at work but knew better. She held back for the same reason it bugged her when people asked her about the movie rights. These things took time.
“So how are we going to move your bed and strap it to the car without Stan?” Carly asked.
“Glorious D said he would help. Since we’re only driving fifteen minutes, I figured we could just tie the bed to the roof of your car. Justine should be coming home from work any minute to say good-bye and help, too.”
Elise was emptying her sock drawer into a box when she heard Glorious D rapping to someone outside. She automatically assumed it was Justine until she heard him say, “You no hike. You got the bike.” Unless Justine had pedaled her way to work that morning, he was rapping to someone else.
She shot a surprised glance to Carly when the doorbell rang. Perhaps it was Walt issuing a complaint because she was taking up two parking spaces in front of the complex while she moved her stuff. Or maybe it was the armed fugitive the helicopters had been hunting the previous day. She tiptoed to her window and peeked from a tiny slit in the blinds. “Oh my . . . It’s Max,” she whispered.
“No way!” Carly said gleefully.
“Shhhh.”
“What do you mean shhhh? Go answer the door.”
“How do I look?”
“Gorgeous.”
She caught a glimpse of herself on the way to the door and noticed that she looked a little pale. She wished she had time to run back to her bedroom for some blush. But when she heard Max’s second knock, she knew she couldn’t waste any more time. He’d leave if she didn’t answer soon. She remembered a brief scene in Gone With the Wind when Scarlett O’Hara had pinched her cheeks before meeting a suitor. Elise grabbed her cheeks and smashed them between her fingers.
“Hey stranger.” She cringed at how corny and trite she sounded.
“Hope you’re not too busy,” he said.
“No. Just packing.”
He looked at her strangely, and she wondered if she had broken blood vessels when she’d tried to add color to her cheeks. Then she realized he was probably waiting for her to ask him in.
“Oh, c’mon in. Sorry, I’ve just been kind of overwhelmed with the move and everything.”
“Yeah, I heard about the eviction. Where are you headed to?”
“Mission Beach.”
“I was wondering when you guys were taking off. I was just coming back from my buddy’s shop down the street and I thought I’d drop in and say hello . . . or good-bye, I guess.” He shrugged before setting his helmet on her coffee table.
Her hopes sank with the mention of good-bye. Apparently he planned on never seeing her again.
“So how is the book coming along?” he asked as he rubbed the side of his nose. Strangely, this turned her on, and she imagined his hands rubbing her skin.
“The book is coming along well. I got signed with a film agent, actually. One of the best in Hollywood.” It was hard to believe she had let the words leave her lips. If she was jinxing her chances of walking the red carpet with Sandra Bullock, that was just fine. Watching his eyes widen and the dimples that came over his face were worth it.
“Really? Congratulations. Is this the new book that you just finished?”
She nodded. “Yes. With the same detective, Ashley Trent.”
“That’s great. I will definitely keep my fingers crossed for you.”
“Well, you know just because I got signed doesn’t mean that anything will happen. The film industry is even worse than the publishing world, and the odds are slim.” Downplaying everything again, just in case of being jinxed.
“Well, never give up. I have confidence in you. I’m sure you’ll make it.”
“Thanks.”
She felt her hopes drop like the Titanic when he reached for his helmet. Don’t go, she wanted to shout.
“You ever been to the races?” he asked.
“The races?”
“Yeah, the horse races. Del Mar.”
“Born and raised in San Diego, and I’ve never made it to the track.”
“They start next week. I was thinking about heading over there on a slow day at the shop. You wanna come with?”
“Yes. Sure.” Hee! Hee! He’d asked her out.
“Cool.” He rolled his helmet between his hands. “All right, then. Why don’t I grab your cell phone number, and I’ll call you?”
She wrote down her number on a scrap piece of paper and wondered how men managed to be so cool and collected. So patient. I’ll call you? When? She was dying to know.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, she ran to her bedroom.
“You are going to have so much fun,” Carly said. “That is going to be the best date, so much better than getting dressed up and dealing with dinner and worrying about conversation. You guys will have something to focus on. It will relieve some of the first-date tension.”
They packed up all her boxes, and Glorious D even pitched in to help them carry the mattress.
“I’m gonna miss you, man,” he said as they slid the last box into her trunk. “You been a real cool neighbor.”
“Well, I’ll miss you, too.” She leaned in to hug him and realized how thin he was when she felt his bony shoulders and back.
“What does the D stand for?” she asked. “If you don’t tell me now, I’ll wonder for the rest of my life.”
He smiled. “That’s a secret. But I’ll tell you. Cuz I like you. It’s Dwayne.”
They were just about to leave when Justine showed up. “Oh. Are you leaving already?” Elise had told her she was leaving around eleven, and it was now noon. How convenient for her to show up late. “Come give me a hug,” she said, arms outstretched. “Jimmy sends his best, too.”
Elise hugged her. “Take care,” she said.
“You, too, and keep in touch.” She had a feeling they weren’t going to call each other up for girl talk, and it really didn’t bother her that much. However, a tiny, teeny, minute part of her actually thought she might miss Jimmy a little. He did make her laugh.
“You have someone coming to fix that hole?” They had discussed the hole in the wall several times in the past two weeks, and Justine had always promised that she would take care of it. However, Elise hadn’t seen her make any effort yet.
“Yes,” Justine said firmly. “Consider it done.”
Elise and Carly arrived at her new apartment around noon. She knocked on the front door and waited for her new roommates to greet her. However, no one came. She knocked again and waited. They hadn’t given her a key yet, so she had no way of letting herself in. She was positive she had told them that she would be arriving around eleven thirty. A pang of guilt hit when she realized she was almost an hour late. Maybe they had gotten hungry and left. She hoped they hadn’t left. There was no way of getting in, and they had double-parked so they could unload all her stuff. She pictured Iris and Megan hungry and unable to wait any longer, and she suddenly felt bad for not calling to tell them she was running late.
She pounded again with her fist and was holding her hand midair when a guy opened the door.
He wore khaki pants and a baseball tee and squinted from the sunlight before rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
She looked over her shoulder, wondering if she’d perhaps gone to the wrong apartment. Carly waited behind her with a box.
Elise looked at the liquor store across the street, then back at the wrought-iron numbers next to the front door. She was definitely in the right place. “Hi,” she said. “Are Iris and Megan here?”
“They’re sleeping.”
She had spoken with them twice the day before and had told them during both conversations that she would be moving in around twelve. She hadn’t expected them to be waiting with moving gloves and a hand truck, but she had thought they would at least be awake at the crack of noon to say hello. “Well, I’m moving in today,” Elise said.
“Uh . . . Really? Hmm.”
“Yes.” She waited for him to move aside, but he gave the girls a once-over. “All right,” he mumbled before stepping away from the door.
Her first thought when she reached the top of the staircase was that Megan and Iris had gotten rid of the coffee table since the last time she was there. Then she realized it was still there. It was just buried beneath fifty million cans of Natural Light and a magic eight ball. Another young man snored in the recliner.
Elise wondered if he had a form of tribal art tattooed on his face. Perhaps he was Maori? Then she realized it wasn’t actually the unique designs sported by native New Zealanders, but rather the work of his intoxicated friends. Apparently the poor soul had passed out and unknowingly been victim of a Magic Marker. Printed in jagged handwriting across his forehead was “I love wacking off!”
She turned to a noise in the kitchen and watched as Scrubbles ate from one of several pots that had been left on the stove. He glanced at Elise and Carly as if they had been there all day before he stuck his head back into his meal.
The guy who had let them in flopped back onto the couch, closed his eyes, and pulled a throw pillow over his head, attempting to block out the light. Elise glanced over her shoulder at Carly. Eyes wide, she looked equally as surprised.
“Let’s go to my room,” she whispered. They headed down the hall, past Iris and Megan’s closed bedroom doors.
“Looks like we missed the party,” Carly said as she set her box on the floor.
They set their boxes down and continued to unload while her new roommates’ friends dozed in the living room. They were hauling Elise’s dresser through the room when one of the boys sighed loudly and rolled over, as if he was being rudely awakened. All the while Iris and Megan had yet to make an appearance.
She noticed Scrubbles stretching one long front leg across the floor outside Iris’s room. He was scratching at something, and Elise wondered what he was after until she realized he wasn’t actually scratching. He was digging. Or at least attempting to dig a hole to cover up the mound of poop he’d just left outside the door. Judging from the faint animal odor that came from Iris’s room, Elise assumed his litter box lay inside.
She debated waking Iris. Which was worse? Picking up cat poop or interrupting her roommates’ sleep on the first day? She didn’t want to get started on the wrong foot and decided she had cleaned up enough little doggie dumps on her walks with Bella that she could handle picking up a little cat doodle. She was about to head for some paper towels when Megan’s bedroom door opened.
“Oh!” she gasped. “Elise! You’re here.”
“Yes. Today is the day.”
She wore a pair of underpants and a tank top. Elise avoided looking at her nipples, which were glowing through her sheer white camisole like headlights. She waited for Megan to run to her room for a bathrobe, but instead she threw her arms around her. “I’m so glad you made it! Let me just wash my face, and I’ll help you get unpacked.”
Elise watched as Megan missed Scrubbles’s little present by a millimeter. “Scrubbles!” she said. “I don’t know why Iris even has that cat. She’s always locking the poor thing out, and he’s always crapping where he shouldn’t be. “Iris!” She beat on the door. “Iris. Elise is here, and your cat shit in the hallway again!”
Iris emerged, also in her underwear, her legs sticking from the granny-style panties like bratwurst. “Whatever, Megan. The house is in shambles and it’s totally your fault.” She looked at Elise. “It was not my idea to have people over last night, but Miss Party Girl over here just had to invite people over.”
“You didn’t seem to mind so much when you were on your fifth shot of tequila.”
Bella came out of the bedroom to see what the commotion was about, and Elise realized this was the first time the cat and dog had come face-to-face. A blunt vision of the two animals going for each other’s throats popped into her thoughts. This was all she needed at this point. However, Bella wagged her little tail and trotted over to the cat. Scrubbles was more reluctant but politely stood while the dog sniffed every inch of his body.
Iris looked down at the box Elise held. Her Potter CD rested on top, and Iris immediately pointed to it.
“I love them!” she said. “They’re my favorite band.”
“Really? Interesting. I just lived with the bass player and his girlfriend.”
“Jimmy Frankel was your roommate before here?”
“You could call him that.”
“Iris is in love with the lead singer,” Megan said.
“No I’m not.” Her cheeks turned red.
“Uh. Yes. You. Are.”
Who knew Potter had so many fans? She felt like she knew a celebrity.
Megan and Iris did little to help. Rather, they said good-bye to leftover partygoers, then argued over who was going to use their previous roommate’s Saturn for the afternoon.
Iris wanted it so she could go volunteer at a homeless shelter for a summer class project she was working on. Megan wanted it so she could go to the library for her summer school English class.
“I can give one of you a ride,” Elise said, trying to be helpful.
“Well, we have another car,” Iris said. “It’s just that the Saturn is so much cooler.” Elise wondered what the other car looked like. How cool could a Saturn be?
She was putting her clothes away when her cell phone rang. It was a number she didn’t recognize. Max? Should she answer? What if it wasn’t him? She did have a strict policy of not answering the phone for unknown callers, and for a moment she remembered what had happened the last time she’d answered. She ended up at a baby shower with Jimmy. However, she couldn’t take the suspense.
She let it ring three times before picking up. She didn’t want it to look like she was carrying the cell phone in her pocket, even when she slept, which she was. She needed to seem busy.
“Hello?”
“Yes, hi, Elise. Thomas Yackrell here.”
His glasses and loafers were practically a faded memory.
“I just wanted to see if you were still interested in going to my public speaking group. It’s called the Podiummasters—all one word—and I thought you might want to come. It’s a wonderful group of professionals. I think I mentioned it last time I saw you.”
“Well, um, actually I’m going to be very busy these next few weeks. With the move and everything. And I’m starting a new book, so maybe down the road?”
“Well, they’ll have a meeting at the end of the month. Lemme tell you what. I’ll check the schedule and get back to you and we can set a date. How does that sound?”
She thought for a moment. Her instinct told her to just say no. But her heart told her not to be mean. “Uh, yeah. I can’t promise anything, but that sounds fine.”
“Who was that?” Carly asked as soon as Elise hung up.
“This guy my parents are trying to set me up with.”
“Is he cute?”
“The lenses of his glasses are bulletproof.”
Carly laughed.
“I shouldn’t make fun of him,” Elise said. “He’s nice, but he’s just so not my type. He wants to go to his Podiummasters C
lub, which I could probably use. But I don’t want to lead him on.”
“Just avoid him.”
Elise was starting to wonder if that was Carly’s attitude toward everyone.
16 .Youthful Guidance
The day after Elise moved in with the Branston sisters she ate her Special K with a wooden spoon. She hadn’t unpacked the ample silverware she owned yet, and there were no clean spoons in the kitchen. She tried to be brave and search the pile in the sink, but when she saw mold growing she decided to settle for the lone wooden mixer which rested in a drawer full of crumbs.
After living with Justine’s anal retentiveness she had hoped for roomies whose mere presence didn’t make her feel like she needed to make her bed. Living in squalor was what she had gotten.
“Good morning,” Megan said when she entered the kitchen. She didn’t seem to find her choice in utensils odd. She poured herself cereal in a glass. “So I was wondering,” Megan said. “And you can totally say no.” Elise watched as she searched for a utensil. “But I have this paper due, and I really don’t have time to write it,” she said as she pulled a dirty spoon from an empty bag of chips on the countertop. “So I was wondering if maybe I could pay you to write my paper. Being that you are a writer, I figured you might be interested.” She ran the spoon under the faucet.
She could think of a dozen things she’d rather do. “What’s it on?”
“Emily Dickinson.”
“Well, I really don’t know that much about her, and besides, to be perfectly honest, I don’t really like writing essays.” She wondered two things: One, how Megan didn’t have time to write a paper. She didn’t even have a job, and she was taking one summer school class. Two, how did she have the money? Their parents supported them, but wouldn’t she rather spend it on other things? “I’ll help you, though,” Elise said. “I’ll take a look at it, and we can work on it together. Okay?”
She shrugged. “All right.”
After they ate their breakfast, she led Elise to her room. Elise felt bad about stepping all over Megan’s clothes, CDs, books, and other belongings until she watched as Megan trounced over all her stuff as if it were carpeting. She sat down on her bed and handed Elise one paragraph. “This is all you have?”
Roommates Page 20