_______
Emily
I should have known things were going too well. My old-timer had to putt-putt-boom during my move. Dad was behind me in his truck with my bed, so he pulled to the side of the road when it happened.
I stepped out, suddenly petrified of my Malibu, wondering if she was going to burn until there was nothing left. There was an awful lot of smoke coming from underneath the hood. Dad stepped out and called Benjamin’s dad to tow it to his garage. I was already sweating about it. I couldn’t afford to fix it if it was something huge.
Dad told me not to worry though, and I climbed into his truck—another junker that we had found him after he had destroyed his—and we headed to my apartment. Once we were there, my good mood was gone. I had a place to live, but now my car was giving up on me. I watched Dad glance around the empty living room and he frowned. “Are you sure you want to move?”
I sighed. “Yes, I do.”
I didn’t want to live at the house. I craved independence.
“You don’t even have any furniture,” he told me.
“I know. I’ll get some little by little.”
“I don’t like you living alone.”
“Women live alone all the time, Dad. I’ll be okay. Besides, I’ll only be alone for a few weeks.”
“Why is that?”
“Benjamin’s going to be my roommate.”
He looked surprised but not unhappy about it. In fact, he seemed more than okay with it. “You should have told me. I’ve been worrying for nothing.”
“I wonder how long it will take to find out about my car?”
He gave me a pitying smile. “That car’s as good as gone, Emily, we might as well start looking for another one.”
I couldn’t look for a car. I had rent and enough bills to pay already. I couldn’t afford a car payment or my insurance being higher. Dad must have seen my distress because he added, “I’ll drive you back and forth until we find out about your car.”
I hated to bug him, especially since I was moving here. “But I’ll be here. That will give you a hard time.”
He shook his head. “Just gives me something to do.”
I sighed. My big moving day had been ruined.
______
I hung up the phone and sighed.
“So, it can’t be fixed?” Katie asked, sitting on the couch she had given me with her baby, Jeffy, bouncing on her knee. He was a little butterball, and I lost my frown as I bent over and held my arms out to demonstrate to him that I was coming for him. He lost his pacifier when he started smiling at me, which turned me to mush.
“Said I was better off junking it,” I said, taking him from her arms.
She smiled as I did so. “I’m sorry. What are you gonna do?”
I shrugged my shoulders because I didn’t know myself. “I don’t know. I’ll look online for another junker. I can’t afford a car payment right now, not when I just moved in here.” I stared around the living room. I had the burgundy couch she had given me, my TV stand, and TV. Oh, let’s not forget Benjamin’s PS4 he had his dad give me from his old room so that I could leech off his Netflix and things. Otherwise, I’d have nothing.
My internet would be hooked up in a few days. I was happy about that, but I was just piling up bills that were suddenly making me nervous.
“How are your books doing?” she asked me.
I shook my head. “It’s kind of more of a hobby right now, I haven’t even received my first payment yet. There hadn’t been an amazing turnout for the first volume, but with the second, it was better.” My books were being purchased though so that was a plus. I loved the idea of readers loving and reading the imaginary people that I’ve come to adore. That I even took a chance to create them and share them with someone else.
Okay, share me and Benjamin, more like.
She smiled. “Still pretty cool, regardless.”
Jeffy screamed at us, trying to gain our attention, and we both laughed. “Such a chunkster, I love you so much,” I told him.
“He never complains when he sees you, so he must love you too.” She smiled at her little boy with such love that I was grinning at her. “What has Benjamin said about your car?”
I stopped grinning. “He’s trying to get me to go down to the dealership and pick out one of their loaners.”
“Why don’t you?”
I lowered my eyes. “Are you serious? Faith hates me already. She’d die if she found out that he got his dad to give me a vehicle to use.”
She nodded. “That’s true. What did she say about him moving in with you next month?”
“I don’t know if she knows yet, and I honestly don’t want to know.” I shivered at the thought. “She doesn’t care to say how she feels about me. You know I’m a marshmallow and can’t say anything back most of the time.”
She laughed. “Marshmallow, that is you.”