I finally spot my phone on the floor beside my nightstand. I inch out of bed to grab it, trying not to wake Eric, who is now snoring. I take the flat sheet with me to use as a cover, wrapping it around my naked body.
Reaching for my phone, I illuminate the touch screen and see that the missed call is from Nessa, my best friend and total opposite. She recently got promoted to detective in the city and I am the daughter of a professional criminal whose very playground used to be where she now patrols daily.
Sometimes, I wonder if it weren’t for the fact that we were roommates in college, if we ever would have become friends. However, opposites attract, both in love and friendships. So, early phone calls after a night out of drinking is part of the package deal that comes with being Nessa’s friend.
I go to call her back, but she beats me to it, as the phone vibrates once more. This time, I answer it immediately.
“Hey, Nes, what’s up?” I ask groggily as I walk toward the large bay window in my room that overlooks the house next door.
“How are you feeling, girl?” she asks, sounding way too chipper for it being morning.
“Eh, I’m hurting,” I respond as I rub my hands on my throbbing temples, wishing I had some Tylenol for this headache from Hell.
A breathy chuckle echoes in the earpiece of the phone as, I’m sure, Nes is about to say something snarky. “From what, the new ink or from Eric laying down pipe last night?”
Yep, there it is.
I feel my cheeks turn red. “Gross, Vanessa, he is your fucking cousin.”
I internally cringe at the reminder that Eric is Nessa’s cousin. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that, but it just makes everything feel more complicated. Especially because I view our arrangement as purely physical, while I know he wants it to be more. He has had a crush on me since he visited the dorms when Vanessa and I were freshmen in college. We have hooked up on and off over the years, but it has never meant more to me than that. A fact I try to remind Vanessa of almost daily, since she is somehow convinced, I’m going to marry him.
“He has had a hard-on for you forever. It’s me, Sienna. Cousin or not, you can tell me these things.”
“I know, but still. I just don’t want to lead him on any more than I probably already have.”
“Well, I think it’s a little late for that, considering he has landed in your bed almost every night he has been in town,” she sarcastically reminds me.
Eric lives in the city not too far from Nessa’s apartment, but his new job has had him in town recently. Last time I checked, he is an intern for some bigwig in the city, so what he needs to be doing here, an hour and a half north of the city, I’m not exactly sure. I never asked him, not like there has been many discussions between the two of us since he has been in town. We usually drink, fuck, repeat… and in that order.
“I know, I just hope he doesn’t expect an invite tonight when we go out. I was kind of hoping for a girls’ night, since it’s your last night in town,” I say to Nessa.
“Yes! Let’s try that new bar on Main Street tonight,” Nessa responds. Thankfully, she didn’t insist on inviting Eric.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Great, a girls’ night is just what the doctor ordered,” I say softly in the phone, on the off-chance Eric isn’t in as deep of a sleep as he appears to be.
Vanessa’s bubbly tone shifts, hearing the amount of relief in my voice. “Sienna, I know this month has always been difficult for you, but it’s been twelve years already. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to move on?”
I pause. Twelve fucking years, I can’t believe it.
Somehow, losing Leo has stung just as much, if not more, as losing my parents. I know Nessa wants me to move on and stop closing doors in my love life before they are even able to open, but I hate talking about it.
“Alright, Nes, let me get going. I need some coffee before I finish these last few paragraphs that I owe Luke before tomorrow’s paper is printed,” I lie. Work can wait. As a freelance writer, I occasionally get some article opportunities for physical papers, but it’s nothing that has crazy deadlines. Truthfully, I’m already caught up with the work I had to do. I just don’t feel like talking anymore, especially about Leo, Eric, none of it.
“Ok, see you tonight. Say hi to my cousin for me,” she teases. “Oh, and don’t forget, with you moving to the city, you aren’t going to be able to escape seeing Eric,” she reminds me.
“I know that Nes.”
“I just wanted to make sure,” she says with a slight edge to her voice.
I hang up the phone and look up at the brick house of nightmares next door. I need to move out of this place for good. I try so hard to move on, but sometimes, this house suffocates me, bringing me back to a state of grief I just can’t handle anymore. The memories are too vivid, and lately, they haunt me more than comfort me.
I ignore Eric snoring as I take in Leo’s old house, which looks nothing like how his Titi Rose used to maintain it. The shutters are all faded from the sun. The landscaping isn’t maintained, with its overgrown bushes crowding the once pristine walkway. The porch that was once adorned with rocking chairs now remains bare, with chipped paint and weathered wood.
As if Leo leaving the way he did wasn’t confusing enough, what happened to his Titi Rose and the house, afterwards made even less sense. There was no for sale sign, no moving trucks, nothing. The house remained vacant, until one day, a woman named Miranda, around the same age as Rose, moved in.
I continue staring out the window a moment more when I hear the mattress squeak as Eric makes his way out of the bed. I turn to look at him. He is in nothing but his checkered boxers that hang low, exposing defined abs with a V trailing down to his groin. His long, golden hair is messier than mine from however many rounds we went at each other last night.
“Good morning,” he says in his usual flirtatious tone.
