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ChapterNine
Emelia
I’m on the doorstep of Sonya’s apartment, staring down at her welcome mat.
I’ve been here for a few minutes and I suppose I’ll knock at some point, but I haven’t quite worked up the energy. I’ve got a suitcase resting at my right hip and a few cardboard boxes stacked up behind me. My Uber driver was nice enough to help me unload them.
“Got a new place?” he asked.
“Something like that.”
The truth is I’m homeless as of, oh, thirty minutes ago.
I had an apartment I liked well enough. It was a third-floor walk-up in a cute neighborhood with a nice view of a tree from the bedroom window, but it was in my boyfriend’s name, so this evening when he came home from work with tears gathered in his eyes, telling me we needed to talk, I knew it wouldn’t be my apartment for much longer.
“I’ve been sleeping with someone else,” he admitted.
My mouth formed a perfect O.
Then there was silence. Silence as he waited for me to have a huge explosive reaction to his cheating. Silence as I waited for my body to fill with jealousy and rage.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he offered.
Questions…was I supposed to have questions?
I think I settled on something trite like “Do you love her?”
He admitted he did, and the real zinger came next—he was leaving me for her.
Right. Well that complicated everything. I was in the middle of making spaghetti. Was I supposed to let the water keep boiling or…?
I ended up just turning off the stove and leaving the pot there to sit. Something for him to worry about later, I suppose.
I should have realized something was going on with Cooper weeks ago. Things had been off between us. I’d been staying away from the apartment more and more, finding any excuse to hang out at bookstores and coffee shops, going for long brunches with Sonya and taking walks around the city on my own. He’d been working longer hours than usual. And our sex life…yeesh. That’s been nonexistent for a while now, but I was okay with it. Which, looking back, should have been a huge red flag, but I was content to ignore it.
I’ve been content to ignore a lot of things in my life for the last few years.
Since graduating from Dartmouth and getting my master’s degree in architectural conservation from NYU, I’ve taken my foot off the gas. I’ve been letting life pull and push me any ol’ way it wants, like a plastic bag whipping in the wind.
When a position opened up with New York City Parks after I graduated in May, I applied for it. Never mind that it isn’t exactly my dream setup. Never mind that I’m not in the trenches, helping to preserve the buildings and architecture around the city. Never mind that I’m a glorified assistant. I do a lot of desk work, a lot of scheduling, filing, errands. To say I’m using my degrees is a stretch.
So that about covers work. As far as my personal life goes…
Well, I’ve already mentioned Cooper. We originally got together because when Sonya started dating her now fiancé, Wesley, Wesley mentioned he had a single friend named Cooper, and everyone thought it would be fun to go on a double date. I agreed because, why not?
When Cooper seemed to fall head over heels for me and I didn’t exactly feel the same, I didn’t overthink it. I liked the setup. Best friends dating best friends is as easy as it gets.
And when Wesley proposed to Sonya and Cooper hinted that he saw us following in their footsteps sooner rather than later, I excused myself to go to the bathroom, locked the door, and felt like I was having a heart attack.
So yeah, when you look at it all smashed together, my life for the last few years hasn’t beengreat.
I know that.
Or at least I know itnow.
Sonya whips the door open.
“Ugh! Men! Can’t keep their freaking hands to themselves! I swear to GOD.”
