by Ali Parker
“Where are they now?”
“The south of France for another week, I believe. Then they’re heading to Scotland.”
“Have you ever traveled with them? Or on your own?”
Briar shook her head. “We used to go camping when I was little because it was affordable and easy. But I’ve never left the country.”
“If you could go anywhere, where would you go?”
She finished chewing her bite of curry and shrugged. “I don’t know. Nobody’s ever asked me that before.”
“Think about it.”
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I suppose I’ve always wanted to go someplace tropical. Like the Bahamas or Fiji or Belize.”
I imagined that a tropical vacation would look spectacular on Briar.
So would a bikini.
We finished our meal around two o’clock and Briar asked if I could take her back to the motel so she could get things in order for tomorrow. She had a phone call scheduled with her folks for early this evening and she wanted to get some groceries. I agreed begrudgingly and wished we could have spent a little more time together.
I would settle for what I could get at this point. She had a lot on her plate.
I drove her back to her motel and parked in front of her room. She took off her seatbelt and twisted toward me in her seat. “Thank you for today. It was nice to celebrate with someone rather than just spend the rest of the day by myself.”
“My pleasure. I had a nice time with you.”
She smiled sweetly and put her hand on mine over my shifter. “I’m glad we ran into each other last night, Wes.”
“Likewise.”
Her green eyes danced back and forth between mine, and as she stared at me, it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the car. I couldn’t look anywhere but at her eyes and her lips, and I found myself subconsciously leaning toward her as her cheeks flushed pink and her lips parted ever so slightly. She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and pinched it between her white teeth.
Then she blinked, shook her head, and opened the car door so she could step outside. She leaned over and smiled. “Thanks again, Wes. Maybe we’ll see each other again soon?”
“I hope so.”
Chapter 11
Briar
The front doors of the apartment building were solid wood. There was an old-fashioned knocker mounted on the door in the shape of an owl and it had been spray-painted black to match the hinges on the door.
To the right was the intercom system which listed all fifty units in the building. I scanned the list until I found the name I was looking for, Sonia Alef. I pressed the button next to her name. The speaker beeped and then went fuzzy until a bubbly female voice spoke.
“Hello?”
“Um, hi,” I said, suddenly nervous. “This is Briar.”
“Oh hey! Of course! Sorry, I lost track of time. Hang on. I’ll buzz you up.”
The speaker buzzed on cue and Sonia told me the doors should be unlocked and to come on up. I pushed inside the building. The lobby was clean and simple. There was a green bench against one wall facing the mailboxes on the other. Beside the sofa was a small bookshelf with a fake plant on top of it. It was a communal library for residents to take a book and leave one for someone else. It was in a bit of disarray but I liked the idea.
I made for the elevator and hit the up arrow. The doors opened with a bit of a whine and I stepped on and jabbed the button for the tenth floor. The elevator lurched and climbed and spat me out ten stories up.
The hallway carpets were thin and navy blue. The walls were white and all the lighting came from sconces mounted on the walls. There was no decor and the halls had a minimalist and sterile feel to them.
At the end of the hall, a door opened and a young woman stepped out onto the welcome mat outside her unit. I knew immediately this was Sonia. She had black hair that was pulled up in a massive, messy bun on top of her head and kept off her face with a silk red bandana. She wore an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of black spandex shorts, and she balanced on the balls of her feet as she waved hello.
When I reached her, Sonia held out her hand for me to shake. She had a firm grip and warm palms.
“It’s nice to meet you, Briar. I was glad to get your email yesterday. It hasn’t been easy finding viable candidates to come check the apartment out. Would you believe that most of my responses have been from men when my ad clearly said I was looking for a female roommate?”
“I would believe it.” I smiled. “Very easily, actually.”
She rolled her eyes but maintained her smile. “Right? Bloody bastards. Anywho. I’m pleased to see that you are in fact a lady.”
“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say lady.”
Sonia pushed open her door and stepped aside to invite me in. “I think I like you already. Come on in. Check it out. I’ll give you a tour even though there isn’t really much to see when all you have is six hundred square feet.”
I stepped into the apartment and Sonia closed the door. Hanging off the back of it was a coat rack where a denim jacket hung along with a black canvas backpack and a wide-brimmed hat. Sticking out of the backpack was a long, multicolored scarf.
The place smelled like potpourri and lemon. I told her so.
“Whenever the fall rolls around, I get a little carried away with all things cozy,” Sonia explained. “I have a pot of cider brewing on the stove and I have a bit of an obsession with seasonal candles. I hope that’s not a deal breaker.”
“Not at all,” I said as I looked around.
The place was exceptionally tidy. Nothing looked out of place, and for such a small apartment, it didn’t feel crowded either. There was no kitchen table and the small alcove that might have served as a good sitting place was left open in front of the patio doors. Against one wall was a wine cart which housed three bottles of red and a bottle of champagne. Wine glasses hung upside down and the top of the cart was full of other liquors: rum, whiskey, vodka, vermouth, and several more.
The kitchen had a little island that jutted out and there were four bar stools there, so I assumed that was the dining area. Behind the stool was a white sofa that faced the fireplace, above which a TV was mounted. There were twinkle lights on the mantle that wove between candles and little decorative pumpkins.
“Your place is really cute,” I said as Sonia led me across the plush white rug on the living-room floor and down the hall to the bedrooms. Well, hall was generous. It was more like a three-by-three-foot cut-out where each wall held a door that led to bedroom A, bedroom B, and the bathroom.
Sonia pushed open the door on the right. “This would be your room. It has morning sunshine that lasts until about three in the afternoon this time of year but six in the summertime. You can use the furniture or I can find a way to move it out if you have your own.”
“I don’t have anything,” I said. “I moved out here the other day and only brought bags of clothes with me.”
“Ah, well if this works out, consider all this yours.”
I marveled at the white dresser, silver-trimmed mirror that rested upon it, and the matching nightstand and queen-sized bed with powder-blue bedding and too many pillows than I would know what to do with. It was the sort of room I’d dreamed about sleeping in but never believed I would ever have—especially not in New York where something like this seemed so out of reach.
Sonia showed me her room next. It wasn’t big, none of the rooms were, but it was nicely appointed. Her walls were yellow and all her bedding and carpets were royal blue, red, orange, and green. It felt Moroccan and vibrant and it smelled like sage and pumpkin.
The bathroom was simple. A candle was burning, naturally, and the shower curtain was forest green with white painted pine trees across three quarters of it. Everything was squeaky clean and the shower wasn’t overflowing with shampoo bottles or other hygiene items like my old shower had been when I lived with Madison and Riley.
Sonia had her shit together
. It was obvious.
That was the kind of energy I needed in my life.
We left the bathroom and Sonia sat me down on her sofa. “So, what do you think? I know it’s a bit small, and it might feel like we’d be on top of each other all the time, but with proper boundaries, it’s not too bad. I like to cook and clean and I would expect you to clean up after yourself as well. A messy living environment gets under my skin and makes me anxious, so I can be a bit of a pain in the ass about it. But if you can look past that, we can make it work, I’m sure.”
I looked around the living room and imagined what it would be like to wake up in the morning and sit here basking in the morning sun with a cup of coffee in hand.
“I think your home is really lovely,” I said.
Sonia grinned. “Thank you.”
“I understand if you need some time to think about this but I don’t. I want to live here.”
Sonia blinked at me. “You do? Just like that? What won you over, the candles?”
I laughed. “I like the candles. But mostly I like you. You seem really down to earth and I think we would do well living together. I respect my surroundings and I don’t like messes either. I’m pretty quiet and low key. I like to read. I can be a bit of a homebody when I feel drained, so it’s not out of the norm for me to spend a full week at home only leaving the house for groceries. If that’s tedious for you, I understand.”
“Not at all, so long as we can do movie marathons together.”
“Where do I sign a lease agreement?”
Sonia laughed again and rocked back against the cushions on the sofa. “Oh, I’m relieved you like it. I’m really sick and tired of meeting oddballs and weirdos who want to live with me. When can you move in?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Today?”
“Seriously?”
Sonia nodded excitedly. “Absolutely. I’m sick of living by myself, and to be perfectly honest, I can’t afford the rent here on my own. You seem really awesome and I think you’re right. We’ll get along swimmingly.”
“Wow, um, yeah, okay. Let’s do it. I don’t have much stuff to move. Just three large suitcases. I can head back to my motel and collect them now and make my way back.”
“Do you have a car?”
I shook my head.
Sonia popped up off the sofa. “Let me drive. We’ll grab pizza on our way home and make a day of it. I can help you unpack or stay out of your hair. Whatever you want. Do you need anything else?”
I shook my head and looked away as I started to sniffle. “No, this is perfect.”
Sonia sat back down. “Are you crying? Did I say something wrong?”
“No, you didn’t do anything.” I ran a thumb under my eyes to wipe away tears that I desperately wished I could control. “It’s just a relief to have found a place and a good person who’s willing to take a chance on me. I just moved to the city, and my first day here was really rough. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to stick it out long enough to make it work here. But some good fortune has fallen into my lap, and coming across your ad online was the icing on the cake.”
For the first time since leaving Waynesville, I could see a glimmer of what my future might be like. And so far, it looked like I had a promising job and a roommate who I was convinced would become a close friend in no time.
Sonia put her hand on my shoulder. “I know the feeling. But whatever is supposed to happen will happen. I’m just as relieved to have you move in. Now let’s go, girl. We don’t have time to waste!”
Sonia pulled me to my feet and we hurried out the door like giggling schoolgirls. She told me all about the neighbors and the building on the way down, explaining that the only person to watch out for was Mr. Carruthers, who lived on the first floor and whose unit was right beside the mailboxes. Apparently, he had a tendency to try to debate politics with anyone and everyone, and his opinions were, as Sonia put it, quite polarizing.
She took me down to the parking garage where she had a little white car parked. It was called a Colt and it was old as hell. The passenger window shook in its track whenever we exceeded a speed of forty miles per hour and the radio only played one station while the rest were fuzzy.
So we drove with my hand on the window to keep it from vibrating, listened to French music, and played twenty-one questions.
And it wasn’t bad at all.
Chapter 12
Wes
My phone buzzed in my pocket on Thursday night while I was sitting across that table from Walker at a new cigar lounge in the city. Normally, I would never check my phone at dinner, and I still resisted the urge to do it now, but I was definitely tempted.
So when Walker got up to use the bathroom, I pulled my phone out of my jean pocket and opened the message. It was from Briar. We’d exchanged numbers after Thai food so I wouldn’t have to aimlessly drive around hoping I’d find her walking the street. Had that not worked, I would have popped into her new work at the cafe, but she didn’t start there until Monday, and that seemed like an awfully long time to have to wait before I could see her again.
The text message was only pictures. Four of them, to be exact. The first three were random shots of the apartment she and I had looked at online over Thai food. And the last was her and another young woman standing in the living room with their arms wrapped around each other grinning at the camera.
She’d moved in.
I traced the lines of her grin with my eyes. She looked genuinely happy. So did the other woman.
I smiled in return and typed out a message to congratulate her on moving in. She’d found a new home and a job all within a matter of twenty-four hours. Any normal person would have trouble with that kind of success but it made sense to me that Briar wouldn’t. She was so likeable. So charming and funny and easy to be around. Who wouldn’t want to live with her?
Walker returned and I put my phone facedown on the table.
“Talking to someone?” my friend asked.
“That girl I was telling you about found an apartment today and moved in. I was congratulating her.”
“Ah yes, Briar, right? Your mystery girl from the pub?”
“That’s her.”
“When are you seeing her again?”
“I don’t know. We don’t have any plans.”
“You should make some.”
I eyed him suspiciously as he leaned back in his chair and sipped his bourbon. “Why?”
Walker chuckled, bemused, and set his drink down before clasping his hands together over his stomach. “Because you like her obviously.”
“So?”
He rolled his eyes. “You have a crush, man. A real, genuine crush. How long has it been since you were interested in a woman in this way?”
“I don’t have a crush on her,” I said, feeling like we’d gone back to high school.
“Oh, sure you don’t.”
“I don’t,” I insisted. “She’s a muse, nothing more. You know I don’t have the time or energy to indulge anything more than that. Harriet is up my ass about my deadlines, and if I don’t meet them, my publisher is going to drop me and—”
“I don’t see how any of that has anything to do with Briar.”
I frowned. “Time, Walker. It all has to do with time. I want to know more about her so I can round her out in my head and use her as a character. Nothing more.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m curious, not crushing.”
Walker didn’t seem convinced. He studied me quietly, obviously thinking his own thoughts until he decided to strike again. “For a guy with his head always buried in the pages of a romance book, you’d think you’d be able to spot a potential love story for yourself a mile away.”
I felt my brow furrow and resented how accurate my friend’s words actually were.
I was incapable of romance in real life. Sure, I could write it. I could create it in my head. I could spin words and make two fictional people fall so madly in love that it m
ade real, living, breathing people swoon. But I couldn’t capture that feeling for myself.
Love was a fickle and elusive beast in my world.
“She’s just a girl,” I said, and I didn’t know who I was trying to convince, myself or Walker.
If it was Walker, I was failing because he smirked at me. “That’s always how it starts.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“That’s the best part, Wes.” Walker leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You’ve already started. The heavy lifting is done. You just need to stay consistent and keep showing up. Take her out on a date. Not an impromptu date. A planned, deliberate, no-holds-barred date. Text her back and invite her out to dinner.”
“She has a lot going on right now with moving in and—”
“Don’t be a little bitch,” Walker barked. “Text the girl and tell her you want to take her out on Friday night. Someplace nice.”
“How nice?”
Walker’s smirk never left his lips. “Someplace where you can pull out her chair for her and it won’t be weird.”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Wes, just text her. She’s not going to say no. And even if she does, so what? Ask her to go out with you next week. Be persistent. If she’s not into you, she’ll say no again. If she is? Well, then maybe you’re really onto something with this girl. You can claim she’s a muse all you want but you’ve never talked my ear off so much about a muse before. There’s something different about this one, and if you let her fall through the cracks, I swear to God you will live to regret it. And so will I because I’ll have to hear about it too.”
“You’re kind of an ass, you know that?”
“When I need to be, yeah, I am.”