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“Yes, we have but I don’t want to leave you here.” her voice sounded sad.
“I’ll do great. Just go and start working and maybe I can join you there,” I said, trying to convince her. She eventually agreed and we celebrated by finishing up our dinner and playing some music before we went to bed.
She went out the next day to buy some new work clothes for herself. I was on the couch, scrolling through Instagram, when she returned.
“Since our conversation yesterday, I’ve been thinking.” She said as she put down the bag of clothes she bought on the chair and sat beside me on the couch.
“What about?”
“Why don’t you come with me to Chicago?” she asked.
“To do what?”
“It would be a fresh start for us, and I hear that it’s also a very friendly city to artists. There are lots of art galleries there, and your chances of getting something to do there are higher.”
“Vivian, I can’t just pack up and leave.”
“Why? What exactly is keeping you here?” she asked.
I sat up, “I applied to a few places. What if I get a call back?”
She sighed and looked over at the bag of items she bought. “I’d let you think about it. We could both get an apartment and start again. It would be a whole new scene. Your work chances would be better, and with all those galleries, you’d be attending art events every now and then. Think about it.” she said.
I nodded, “I will.” I responded. She stood up and went into her room.
I thought about the conversation Vivian and I had over the next few days. The fact that I had not heard back from any of the jobs I applied to made me feel bad, but it also made me think Vivian had a point. It would be nice to move to Chicago and start all over again. The mere thought made me feel nervous, but it was also exciting. I started to research the art scene in Chicago, and I discovered that it was way better than the one in New York as far as galleries go. If I worked hard, I could even save enough to start my own gallery. The idea of how good life could get excited me, and I agreed to relocate with her.
She hugged me tightly and said, “To be honest, I didn’t know if I could do Chicago without you.” I smiled at her, and we started making plans to move immediately. One of the perks of her job was that it came with a small apartment in their staff quarters, but barely any staff lived there due to how small it was. The plan was for us to move there first before we got a bigger space to move into.
“Is there anything in that box?” Vivian asked, pointing at a box by my leg. She was kneeling on the floor, putting tape and labels over some boxes containing some of our kitchen utensils. I kicked the box to confirm whether it contained anything. The sound of ceramics hitting each other came from the box.
“Those must be the bowl plates.” She said, “Pass them to me.”
I stretched on the couch while groaning. She looked over at me, “Val, please. We need to be done with these today. We don’t have any more time left.”
I slowly stood up and passed the box to her. Of the both of us, she was the one always driven to complete tasks. It was one of the reasons she excelled at tech. It was task-oriented; I like to go with the flow and energy of things.
At the end of the day, we had finished packing up everything we needed. We were going to take them to the moving company the next day. We had paid them a sum to help us take our things to Chicago. I was exhausted and had just got out of the shower.
“What do you think we should do for dinner? These are our final nights here; I think we should do something fancy. Maybe oysters.”
Vivian laughed from the kitchen, “You’re allergic.”
“I know. But we should really do something special. New York has been good to us,” I said, coming to the kitchen with a towel tied around my chest and another around my hair.
She was sitting on the counter on her phone. “Why don’t we go clubbing?”
I frowned at her. “Clubbing? Why?”
“Like you said, it’s our last few nights here. Let’s do things we didn’t get to do here.”
“Like clubbing?”
“Exactly.” She said, jumping down from the counter.
“I went clubbing here. A lot.” I responded.
“I mean together. I went clubbing too, but never with you.”
