Then she walks out of the flat.
I plug the mattress in and it starts blowing up. A quick look at the emptiness of the room makes the invitation very appealing. I’ll put together my bed so I can sleep once I’m done hanging out in her flat.
I don’t mind sleeping here at night when I’m exhausted, but the idea of sitting alone in this room for hours before falling asleep makes me feel like I’m in an institution.
I might as well spend time with people I enjoy instead of driving myself crazy.
22
AVERY
I’m not sure what got into me or why I decided tonight was the time to invite Max over, especially since not everything is put together in our apartment. The dishes are still in the sink, and I hadn’t even vacuumed earlier today.
Maybe this is my answer to not sending him my phone number just yet. That feels too final, and while I want to spend more time with him, I’m worried that he’ll just disappear back to New York, taking a part of my heart. Not that I’ve gotten that far, but I’m teetering over the edge of falling for this guy.
I’ve been juggling so much that it’s hard to get everything done, and I was so conditioned as a kid to believe people would look down on me if the house wasn’t perfectly clean that it feels strange to let someone see it like this now.
“I think we’re going to have a visitor,” I tell Lila and Cora as I walk in.
They’re sitting at the table painting, and both look up at me in confusion.
“Who’s going to visit us?” Lila asks.
“I invited Max over.”
Her confusion only deepens. “Why did you do that?”
“Have you seen that apartment? It’s so drab and lonely. I felt bad for him.”
“He’s not sleeping over here, is he?” Cora asks.
“No,” I say quickly. “He’ll still sleep over there, but I just wanted him to have somewhere to sit besides a hard floor or an air mattress that will probably deflate in the middle of the night.”
“That’s the worst. I had that happen before,” Lila says, like it’s an everyday experience for her.
Then her eyes light up dramatically.
“What are we going to do? How are we going to entertain our guest?” she asks in a fake accent.
Sometimes I think this girl belongs in the theater club.
“Any good ideas?” I ask.
She dips her paintbrush into the water before swirling it through green paint and brushing it across the white paper.
“I’m not sure what our serial killer friend likes to do,” she says with complete seriousness.
Cora looks between the two of us with a horrified expression. “Serial killer friend? What?”
I can’t help laughing when Lila replies, “Avery and I picked him up when his car ran out of gas. I thought he might be a serial killer who was posing as someone in need to make us his next victims, but he’s actually a really nice guy.”
Cora blinks a few times. “And he’s staying in the unfinished apartment next door?”
“Yeah. The B&B had a pipe burst, so they’re trying to fix everything before their reservations start coming.”
I start on the dishes, and thankfully, the other two start cleaning the front room.
“What should we do if he comes?” Lila asks.
