Chapter 7
Grayce
I closed the door on the next to last roommate application I had for the day. I had taken off the whole day, so I could interview the women I thought would be a good match. I sighed and picked up the phone and called Ella.
She answered on the second ring. "How did it go? We missed you at work."
I poured myself a cup of coffee, which by now had been sitting there since the morning. It tasted like old shoe, but it was better than nothing, and I felt like drinking the bitterness that coincided with my mood.
"We? Ella, it's just you and me."
"For now, it is. We will get more and more people as you grow. I'm talking about the future ‘we.’ Find any cool people to room with?"
I sat heavily on the couch. "Not a single one. They all had issues that I can’t get over. One was actually stoned. I just want someone clean, good work history, and I would settle for decent, not even, perfect background."
I heard Ella snort. I loved her laugh. It was one of her quirks and I had always loved it.
"You know they are all background checked. No one can be as perfect as you."
"Stop. That's not what I mean. Just someone with goals in life, easy to get along with, and has a good sense of humor."
"Sounds like a want ad on Tinder."
"Shut up. It seems there is no one out there like that, and this is New York City for God's sake. There are seven million people living here. At least one of those women should have had at least one of those qualities, but none of them had any of them. One didn't even have a job. When I asked her how she was going to pay, she shrugged at me."
"You're being too hard."
"No, I'm not. I want someone who is of the same caliber as I am." I leaned back in the couch. "Maybe I am being too hard on them."
She snorted again. "I didn't mean hard on them. I meant hard on yourself. You’ve always had such strict standards on who you are. It's almost as if you wanted to be someone different when you were with Carter, like you needed to be perfect in order to be with him."
"That's not true." Was it?
I heard the silence on the other end. Ella wasn't one to argue. She got along with everyone, except for most men. She didn’t let them get close to her. I could tell she really didn't want to get into my psychological issues.
Then again, maybe she had something. I remembered that when I was with Carter, my friends had slowly dropped away, one by one until it was just Ella. Carter had something to say about most of them and I hadn't realized until just now how all my guy friends had left, even my gay friends, and then all my college girlfriends who went on to different law firms.
Once Carter had caught my eye in college, I pursued him like a hunter went after a deer. He was smart, sophisticated, and had a wicked sense of humor. It wasn't until we broke up that I realized there was a subtle cruelty about him. A way of being that took everyone's feet out from under them. The times at parties where he would be making fun of a new employee to the laughs of his cronies. I didn't want him to do that to me, so I would sip on my wine quietly. Then I stopped going to those parties and worked, and worked, and worked to prove to him that I was worthy.
Maybe it was to prove it to myself.
I shook my head. "You have a point."
"How many more people do you have to left interview today?"
"Just one. Great background check and work history. Now, I just need to see if they have a good sense of humor."
Ella was quiet for a moment. "I know you are going to tell me no, but just hear me out. "
"What is it and why do I know I'm are not going to like it?"
"Because you won't. However, I'm just going come out and say it. Start checking out some guys for your roommate."
"No, no, and no."
"Listen, having a guy as a roommate doesn't mean you’re going to hook up with him. Most guys are decent. You just ended up with a shitty one."
I shook my head. "Am I hearing you correctly? Ella actually says guys are decent?"
"There are some. Maybe not for me, but for you."
I was sad that she didn't have someone. She had Noah, sure, but that didn’t mean she couldn't have a guy to make her happy. Maybe, someday, I could find someone to make me feel again. The unbidden thought of the guy from the gym crossed my mind. He had it in the looks department, most definitely. Just thinking about him caused sensations to pulse through my body.
"...and they would be able to pay."
"I'm sorry, I was distracted and zoned out after you said, 'guys are decent.'"
"I said that you’re in a great area of town, so there are bound to be people interested in a good place who’ll be able to pay. Just be patient."
"I don't want to be patient. What if they don't work out and then I'm stuck? I want to get a good roommate and I am not into waiting for someone at the same time my baby law practice is floundering."
"We are not floundering," said Ella. "You lost one client on the same day we got a new one. It was just bad timing. You just want everything to happen all at once. It's going to take time and you will be able to do it. Maybe not all at the same time, but take little steps and you'll get there. Same with dating. You'll get back into it when you find that person who lights your fire."
"As will you."
She made a hmpf sound. "I'm talking about you, not me."
Noah made noises in the background, then asked, “Can I talk?”
"Not now, Noah,” Ella said. “Grayce will be by later this week. Ooh, Grayce, when do I get to come by?”
“Let me get the roommate situation out of the way and go from there.”
“Sounds good. Damn, he’s running around without a clothes on again. Gotta go,” Ella said as she hung up.
I looked around my apartment. It was such a nice place and it would be nice to have a roommate to chat with after shitty days. I was starting to settle in and I felt myself becoming me, again, after having been lost for all those years.
I brushed my hair out of my face. One more roommate interview to go, and then I could catch up on some Real Housewives.
The knock on the door was right on time as I glanced at the clock on the microwave. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. I stepped back and shook my head. I grabbed my phone and looked at the next interview. In big letters, Taylor Bennett. But the person at the door was not a woman.
I swung the door open and saw the man I hadn’t been able to get out of my dreams, or off my mind, since he’d spilled coffee all over me at the gym.