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“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He smirked. “You were never one of those girls who just ate a salad.”
“How would you know what I ate?”
“Shelly’s birthday party senior year, I watched you inhale two cheeseburgers and a hot dog in less than five minutes. It was impressive.”
I hoped my burning cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. I wondered why he remembered anything about my eating habits. “I was just hungry that day.”
“You need to eat so your shoulder can heal.”
“And you need to get back to work. Let’s go.”
“Fine. But next time, we’re getting lunch.”
“Fine.”
Chase held up his pinky.
I rolled my eyes. He held it out more prominently, until I had no other choice but to interlock my pinky with his.
I waved goodbye to his parents before we stepped out into the parking lot.
“So… how do you like living with Shelly?” Chase asked as he roared his engine to a start. “I know you guys have been best friends for a long time.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I just feel bad. She and Brody were talking about moving in together right before everything happened. He’s been dying to move out of his parents’ house. Now their lives are on hold because of me.”
“It’s not because of you. Your friend is helping you until you can get back on your feet again. That’s what friends do.”
“I know. But that doesn’t make me feel any less guilty.”
“I’m guessing you weren’t able to keep your house after your dad passed?”
“Nope. He owed too much, and I wasn’t able to make the payments. Once my shoulder heals up, I’ll be able to work and save up as much as I can to get my own apartment. I’ve been trying to find something to do to make money in the meantime, but haven’t had much luck. There’s not much I can do with one arm.”
“You’re still pretty banged up,” he said, gently. “You should take this time to rest. You can worry about everything else later.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“I know, I’m not in your shoes. But everything has a way of working itself out. You can only focus on the here and now… and right now you’ve got to heal.”
It would be comforting to believe that everything worked itself out; it certainly was a nice notion.
“You know, we have a small space on the side of my house. It’s above the garage. I know my parents were looking to rent it out, but then everything was put on hold. It’s vacant.”
“They should put an ad online. Lots of people search for apartments that way. You can post pictures, too.”
“I’m telling you about it, in case you wanted to get out of Shelly’s place.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t do that. I don’t have money for rent. I don’t even have furniture to put in an apartment.”
“It’s already furnished. My parents moved my old bedroom set in there when I moved to California. There’s a refrigerator in there that we use to store extra food around the holidays, and a small kitchen with a sink and stove. It would be perfect for you.”
I shook my head. “That’s kind of you, really. But I still wouldn’t have money for rent.”
