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“Are you kidding? Remember that New Year’s Eve we had twenty people in here?”
I laughed. It had been a night of sweaty bodies and laughter. “That defied physics. I still can’t explain it.”
“Is Javi at work?” Leah asked.
“Yes. Poor guy. He’s left all alone in this place paying only a third of the rent. What an unexpected score for him.” Granted, I still intended to use the other two bedrooms for work, but him not having to share a kitchen or a bathroom was a major coup in the city.
There was a knock on the door.
It was the movers. I got them organized and prepared for my whole personal life to sail out the door. It would honestly not take long. I was leaving behind my desk, desktop computer, lighting, camera, racks of stock. My bed was staying as well, to act as a sofa for me during the workday, but mostly because there was no use for a twin bed at Michael’s.
The first order of business was for them to bring up everything off the truck that had been loaded at Michael’s. Becca’s wardrobe. I had emptied Leah’s old room of my current stock just to move all of that in there easily. It was the room closest to the front door. We sat in the back on my bed, while they made swift work of the process. It only took them ten minutes to haul everything up. Then they started hauling out my belongings.
“Your organization has always amazed me,” Leah said, as we sat with our legs crossed on the stripped bed.
“If I were truly organized, we would each have a coffee in our hands. Oh, and I wouldn’t have failed to mail in my visa application,” I said wryly.
“What’s going on with that?”
“Michael and I have an appointment with a lawyer at the end of the week to start the fiancée visa process.” I glanced down at my engagement ring instinctively. It was such a lovely ring. “I hope all of this is worth it in the end.”
Leah gave me a look that made me uncomfortable. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked. “I’m not judging, I swear. I’m just asking. You’re our dark horse when it comes to relationships. Everyone else is so predictable and you’re… not.”
I wasn’t offended. But I also thought she was batty. “Are you joking? I go for the same type of man every single time. I’m ridiculously predictable.”
“But you keep your feelings a secret. None of us ever really know how you feel.”
“That’s because I’m British,” I said, both flippantly and truthfully.
Leah opened her mouth but I was saved from whatever she was going to say by two men coming into the room.
“We need the dresser now, miss,” the one said. “I need to tip the mattress up to get it out because this room is so narrow.”
“Sure.” I peeled myself off of the mattress and went to stand by the window as they hoisted up the mattress. I crossed my arms and leaned against the window. “What an anticlimactic ending to our years here, Leah. You’re living with your fiancé in a sprawling penthouse and I’m heading downtown. I never thought I’d live downtown.”
Leah ran her hand along the wall. “This apartment truly sucks on every level. There are rats in the walls. The kitchen is a joke. The windows rattle in the winter, so its freezing, and in the summer it feels like a sauna. The water pressure is nonexistent. And the steps to the second floor of the building are not to code. They’re only deep enough for size-five feet. It’s a winding, rickety, deathtrap.”
She was right about each and every point. “Yet, I’m going to miss it.”
“Me, too,” she said. “It’s only been a month since I moved out but at least I’ve been able to come over and see you here. I doubt I’ll drop by Washington Heights just to pop in on Javi. He’s not a guy you pop in on.”
That made me laugh. “No. He’s not. I’m not supposed to talk about the whole visa thing but you should have seen Javier’s face when I asked him to marry me.” It was funny now. It hadn’t been at the time. “He was flat-out horrified and yes, it had to do with him having a girlfriend, but it also had to do with him just being horrified at the prospect of being with me. His poker face is complete and utter shit.”
“It truly is.” Leah looked around. “They’re really knocking out this move fast. I can drop you off at the new apartment with your suitcase and then I can go grab us some takeout while you tell them where to put stuff.”
“That is a brilliant plan.” Leah had her fiancé’s driver waiting for us downstairs in whatever random parking spot he’d found.
“Also, you didn’t get this from me, but I have some paperwork downstairs for you. It’s what Immigration is looking for to prove you are a legitimate couple.”
That made me start, and guiltily look down the hallways. The movers were somewhere in the exterior hallways or on the stairs. I could hear their shoes squeaking and their huffing and puffing. They’d clearly left my front door open.
“Thanks,” I said. “I was scared to look any of that up on my own.”
“I did it at the library. So it could have been anyone.” She shrugged. “I do not under any circumstances want you to get deported and I definitely don’t want you to get in trouble. I’m also one of those irritating friends who is in love and wants all of her besties to be experiencing the same thing.”
“That is irritating.”
Leah laughed. “I know. But seriously, just glance over it all and then pitch it in a public garbage can or dumpster. Maybe that’s paranoid, but I’ve been watching a lot of spy shows and movies lately.”
