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“She left,” Gia motioned for Roxi to come inside with a tilt of her head. “There’s the couch.” She’d changed into her official work uniform: Khaki pants and a red polo shirt with her name stitched on the right breast. Her normally wavy dark hair was pulled into a matching red ballcap that read, “Local Market.”
“Thanks. Nice outfit, by the way. The preppy look works for you.” Roxi dropped an understated black duffle in the middle of the new couch and slumped into an adjacent cushion. She looked like Roxi—running tights, band T-shirt knotted in one corner, just the right amount of make-up to highlight that she didn’t need it—but her energy was different. Subdued. The boring bag was a dead giveaway. “Is she coming back? Your mom?”
“Doubtful. Are you okay?”
“I will be. But I needed to get away for a while. Thanks for letting me come over.”
“You wanna talk about it?” Gia slid onto the open spot on the couch and pivoted to face her guest, bent leg creating a figure four on top of the cushions.
“I don’t know. We fight sometimes, but—” Roxi trailed off. Her espresso-colored eyes were darker than ever, the light behind them dim.
“But?”
“This was different. I walked in on her with someone—likewithsomeone—and she lost it. She charged me, which I guess is kinda funny since she was butt naked, but still, it wasn’t good. Even when we were together, we never fought like that. I was usually the one with the temper, not her. It doesn’t make sense.” Roxi shook her head as she recounted the argument and her ponytail danced on her shoulders. Late evening light from the single window in the living room lit her face from the west, giving her caramel skin a soft glow. She looked angelic, Gia thought. A sad angel.
“She charged you? Like, to have a physical fight?”
“Sí. Yeah,” Roxi nodded.
“Wow, I’m sorry. You can stay here as long as you need.” The devil on Gia’s shoulder told her to keep talking. “In fact—”
“I won’t stay long,” Roxi interrupted. “I just need a few days to find a place. I shoulda left a long time ago, but it was easy, you know? Until it wasn’t. She hasn’t been the same since the stroke, and I keep trying to make it work ‘cause we have history.”
For some reason, Gia’s shoulder angel was absent during this talk and her shoulder devil kept whispering in her ear, “tell her she can be your roommate. Two birds with one stone. Do it.”
“Strokes can change people. How old is Savannah?” Gia thought she knew the answer to this question based on their early morning grocery store bump in. Savannah had to be at least ten years older than Roxi. Maybe more. “Just curious.”
“She just turned 42.”
“Wow, quite an age gap, huh?”
“Yeah, but it never mattered,” Roxi raised her gaze from the coffee table, exposing the slightest purple tinge around her left eye.
“Rox?”
“Hm?”
“Did she actually make contact?”
“Contact with what?”
“Did Savannah hit you?” Gia leaned over the duffle bag barrier between them and brushed her thumb across the smooth skin around Roxi’s eye. “Because it looks like she made contact.”
“Yeah, she got a piece of me as I was backing away.”
“What the fuck?! You can’t go back there. You can’t see her anymore! I can’t believe shehityou!”
“Calm down, it’s okay.Estoy bien.I’m fine.”
“It’s not okay. It’sneverokay to hit someone. Ever. You should—do you want to live here? I need to get a roommate anyway and it’s not fancy and you can hear the neighbor peeing through the walls, but it’s been pretty safe, and I just got this new furniture and—” The devil won, but the angel supported Gia in this one. She’d had a relationship that involved being hit and vowed never to let that happen to herself or anyone she knew again. There was only one option: invite Roxi to move in.
“Hey,” Roxi spoke softly and reached for Gia’s hand. “You don’t have to do this. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself—I just need a couple days. Don’t turn your life upside down because of mine.”
“It’s no big deal, really. I was just telling my mom I need to get a roommate to stay here. My dad spotted me so I could move, but I can’t make the rent working at the market alone. Just for a while? Till you can sort it all out?”
“How much is your rent?” Roxi had found something interesting on the top of the coffee table again, her gaze forward, arms crossed over her chest. Was she considering it?
“$1,400. I know, it doesn’t look like an $1,400-a-month apartment, but it was the best I could find.”
