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I immediately called Emma, and she picked up right away.
“So, my landlord is a dick and I have to move in 30 days.” Panic had started to set in and I thought of all the terrible things that could happen if I couldn’t find an apartment.
“Move in with me,” Emma said after a pause. “You can stay with me for a few months until you can find another place. It’ll just be temporary. You can save some money and maybe get better roommates.” Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that. Fuckkkkk.
“Are you sure? I don’t know how much rent I can do.”
“Don’t worry about it. You can help me with utilities. I’m not going to let my best friend be in a bad situation. I love you, Cal.” Her voice broke a little as if she was getting emotional. So was I.
“Wow, that would be amazing. You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I do. You’re my wife, remember? And my go home.” Right. That.
“Okay. Okay. Are you sure? You’ll have me thereallthe time. I’ll sneak into the kitchen at two in the morning to make a charcuterie plate. I’ll sing too loud in the shower.” Emma laughed.
“I do know you, Callyn. I’ve known you my whole life. Nothing you could do is going to shock me.”
I grinned. “That sounds like a challenge.”
Emma groaned on the other end of the line.
“It’ll be fine. You can move in now if you want. I can put most of my stuff in the basement.” That didn’t sound like a horrible idea. I mean, I’d have to pay rent here anyway, but the sooner I got out of here, the better.
“This weekend? Can we use your car?” I didn’t have one, but Emma had a nice SUV that her parents got her when she went to college that would hopefully fit everything I needed to move.
“Sounds good. We’ll be wives and roommates.”
In spite of being best friends our whole lives, we’d never actually lived together. We hadn’t gone to the same college, and we hadn’t graduated at the same time, so it had never really worked out for us to be in the same apartment. Plus, our incomes were so different. She had parental support for her rent when she’d been younger. I’d had to scrape by on my own. I was sure we’d be able to live with one another with no problems.
“That’s still really weird, Em,” I said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it. I mean, I know it’s only temporary.” Emma sucked in a deep breath and was silent for a second.
“Right,” she finally said. “Anyway, I’ll clear out the spare room. Is there anything else you want to bring? I can move out some of my stuff and put it in storage so you can make this place more of a home, even if it’s just for now.” I’d always moved in with other people who already had furniture, so I didn’t have much of my own. Just some lamps, a dresser, a bed frame, and a mattress. Pretty pathetic. I was going to be out of luck if I had to furnish my own place. I’d missed my chance to go “shopping” when all the college kids had moved out and put their shit on the street. You could outfit an entire house for free if you weren’t worried about potential bedbugs.
“Uh, not really. My bed is pretty much shit. Yours is nicer.” Maybe this was a chance for me to start over with everything and maybe get some new stuff. I’d been getting by with the same crap since college.
“We’ll pick out some new sheets for you, and you can decide how you want to arrange the room.”
“Sounds good.” All of the tension I’d felt when Eddie had dropped that particular bomb on me was gone. I was going to live with Emma. This was going to be fucking awesome.
“I swear, I don’t remember having this much stuff. I’m pretty sure some of it multiplied overnight,” I said as we brought yet another box into Emma’s living room. Well, I guess it wasmyliving room now. Weird.
“Callyn, your stuff isn’t tribbles.” I squinted at her, wondering what the reference was from.
“Star Wars?” I asked. Emma gave me a sad look and shook her head as if she was terribly disappointed in me.
“Star Trek, original series.” Right. She’d been begging me watch it forever, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Maybe now that we lived together we could do a marathon. I could just picture it, the two of us cuddling up on her expensive couch and sharing a blanket and a giant bowl of popcorn topped with cotija, lime juice, cayenne, and butter. We had sleepovers all the time, but this would be different. We’d be together all the time.
“Is that the one with the sarcastic talking raccoon?” I asked, trying to remember. I had the worst time remembering character’s names from different movies and shows.
“Oh my god, you did not just ask me that,” Emma said, collapsing on a box with a groan.
“What?”
Emma shook her head.
“I’m going to make you flash cards and we’re going to practice.” I knew she wasn’t joking. Emma had had to put up with me whispering “which one is he again?” so many times during movies, but she was always patient with me and explained who the character was so quietly that only I could hear her and no one else in the theater got mad.
“Fine, fine,” I said, looking at all the boxes. I was finally free from my old place and my old awful roommates. There was going to be a lot less sex going on in this apartment, I’d wager. I mean, I wasn’t going to be having any (except with myself), and I didn’t think that Emma was either. My stomach rolled a little bit at the thought of Emma being that way with someone. It was weird to think about her that way, so I should probably stop.
