Chapter Seven
Roman
I wasn't sure what time it was, but if I had to guess, maybe some time after five but before six. My body just didn't know how to sleep in anymore.
It had started after basic training, those five a.m. mornings had stayed with me and even when I was up late the night before, I could never really manage to sleep in longer than seven or eight in the morning, still fairly early by civilian standards. That should have been a good thing, but I didn't want to be up at five in the morning. For once I didn't have to be.
I had expected the jetlag to last longer, but I hadn't really been feeling it too bad. I faded in and out for a while, figuring I might as well make the most of it. I wasn't going to spend the whole summer doing this; I had to go back to school at some point. I wasn't technically a dropout until I decided for sure that I wasn't going to go back to get my degree.
To be honest, I wasn't feeling that stressed about it. Football had been the thing I had come to college to do. Since I was a year older and hadn't practiced in so long, I was more worried about making up for lost time than my half-finished business degree.
When I opened my eyes again after drifting off for a second, I had to take a couple seconds to notice that the thing I was looking at was a person, standing by the bed. Tiffany slowly came into focus, looking down at me with her hands on her hips.
"Get out of my room," I said to her.
"This hasn't been your room for five years. You get out."
"Shut up, I just got back home," I said, laying on my back so I could look up at her.
"What kind of twenty-two-year-old man still lives with his dad?" she teased.
"You still live here," I said.
"I'm a girl, it's different."
"How?"
"I'm younger than you."
"So what? You need to get out there and experience the real world," I said, teasing her back.
She still lived at home, but she was right, it was a little different. She wasn't freeloading. She worked part time when she was going to class and full time when she wasn't. She ran errands and went shopping, things that like to help since she wasn't paying rent to her own landlord. It probably helped that she was a girl and was the youngest. Dad wouldn't kick her out. I was glad she still lived at home and was actually a little worried about what would happen when she graduated. If she wanted to move out, he'd live alone.
Mom had been gone for a long time, but if I wasn't here and Tiff wasn't, either, he'd be completely on his own. I didn't really like thinking of him that way. It was good knowing that he wasn't alone in this house.
"Dad likes me. He just wants you to leave," she said.
"But I just got back," I complained jokingly.
"It's been two days. Plenty of time. Get up, we have places to go."
"Where?"
"You need to move out, my friend. You're too old to still come home to your pops every night,"
"You’re gonna put me up somewhere?" I asked her.
"We're finding you a house," she announced. I laughed a little. Same old Tiff.
Our mom dying hit us both in different ways. I became protective of her, but then she became the person who tried to make sure everything was going smoothly. It had kicked whatever latent house-manager skills she had inside her into high gear. If losing Mom had made me cautious about who she hung out with, it had made her feel like making sure everyone was happy was her job.
"How are you going to do that?"
"I'm not doing anything, we're doing it together. And the first thing you need to do is get your ass downstairs. Hurry up, you're driving," she said, leaving with a smirk.
She definitely wasn't wrong about me needing to leave. I was used to having my own space, and I didn't need to be staying here. Dad was just nice enough to let me. I had had a couple down days, but it wasn't going to last, being in my own place, probably somewhere closer to campus since I'd be going back soon was a good idea.
Also, I was way too old to not be able to bring girls home because I lived in my dad's place – I wasn't going to argue with her there. I was dressed in ten minutes, and we were out the door in twenty.
I drove while she read out the addresses and features of the properties we were going to visit. The first place was an open house. It was big, so I knew already that I didn't want it. Tiff still insisted that we at least look at it. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a backyard. The real estate agent mentioned family and the school district enough times for me to let him know we weren't a couple. People made that mistake sometimes. After that, he flirted shamelessly with Tiff until we left.
The next one was being rented out by the owners, an older couple who lived one house down. It was better; still too big, but in my budget. Too bad it was almost all the way out in Richmond Heights. Trying to get to school from there just wouldn't be worth it. It was lunch by the time we had finished seeing and rejecting house number three for much the same reason. We stopped at a cafe before heading to the last one.
Even though the whole morning had been unsuccessful, it had been nice having someone to do this with. Tiff talked about school, her job managing a restaurant when she wasn't in class, asked me what I was doing next now that I was back. I noticed she never brought Veronica up, and I left it alone this time.
"This one better be good," I threatened Tiff as we finally pulled up to the last house. It was another one that the owners were renting out. It was a single story with no garage. It had a small back and front yard and just two bedrooms. This owner was a woman not that much older than us, renting it since she had gotten married and was moving out of state with her husband.
"It's smaller than the others, but the owner was really nice when I talked to her. I thought it was worth a shot," Tiff said. I was living alone so really one bedroom was all I needed; the other would just stay empty. The owner, Gloria, led us through the space. The kitchen was small but big enough, central cooling and heat, two bathrooms, one attached to the master bedroom, and it was a fifteen-minute drive to school.
"I think this is the one," I whispered to Tiff as the tour came to an end. Gloria was apologetically telling us about some fire damage that the house had gotten twenty years ago. I didn't care. I was sold.
"Are you sure? I can come up with some more places to see tomorrow."
"We'll take it," I said loudly, cutting Gloria off.
"You will?" she asked, relieved that I was taking the place off her hands.
"How soon can we put it on paper?" I asked. Tiffany tried to interrupt, but I didn't let her. This was the place. Chances were it was going to be temporary, but I still liked it. It had character. Gloria said I could sign for it immediately if I was ready. Half an hour later, Tiff and I were back in her car on the way to my dad's house. I had to pack; I was going to start moving out the next day.
"I still think you should have held out," she said from the passenger seat.
"You didn't like it? Good. That means I don't have to deal with you coming over to hang out," I joked.
"As long as you like it, I guess," she said. "The kitchen was small, but it had a nice stove. The little patio out the back was cute, too, you know; for dates and stuff," she said.
"Dates? I haven't been on one of those for years."
"I think you should get back out there."
"I just got back, Tiff."
"But you were deployed. Wasn't it just a sausage-party for a whole year over there?"
"There are female service members, Tiffany," I said, shaking my head.
"They don't count. You can't get hot and heavy in the middle of a war zone," she said.
"Please stop," I said, not really wanting to discuss my sex life with my little sister. I didn't want to tell her she was right, I hadn't been with anyone since Veronica, but I also didn't really want to tell her what a lot of other people got up to when we were deployed. When you put men and women together in one place for a long time, the inevitable happened. Sometimes with other service members, sometimes with locals, mostly consensual, but sometimes not. That was what nobody liked to bring up when they talked about deployed service members overseas.
"I'm just saying, you should go on a date. Start meeting people again."
"Tiffany, first you play real estate agent and then you play matchmaker? What gives? Why are you trying to get rid of me?"
"I'm not. I just thought you would maybe like to get into a normal routine. Meeting people, having normal relationships, and becoming a civilian again. I don't know what you saw over there or what they made you do. It's just... I've heard what happens to a lot of veterans when they come back home."
"Tiff, you have nothing to worry about, really," I insisted.
"It's still going to make me feel better if I know you're doing normal stuff and can still talk to people."
"What do you think happened over there?"
"Come on, Roman," she said sulkily. She was serious. I could tell she meant what she said when she said she was worried about me. I didn't want to tell her not to be because that wouldn't convince her.
"I'm fine. I swear. Just to show you. I'll go on this date with your work friend."
"She's great, you're gonna love her."
"Whoa, I said I would go on a date with her. No one said anything about love."
"Whatever, you know what I mean. She's a nice girl. I know you'll hit it off."
I admired her confidence, but the jury was out on that one. I didn't know who this person was that she was introducing me to, and besides, all I had agreed to have was a date. Just one. I had just gotten back and just gotten a house. I was still getting my feet back under me; I wasn't trying to date, get a girlfriend and shit. I needed to set myself up before I could start dating again.
That said though, dinner with a pretty girl... I wasn't going to say no to that. Yeah, deployment wasn't a sausage party, but the guys outnumbered the girls and since we weren't there to eat dinner, chat, and have a good time, spending time with a girl on a date would be nice. Maybe I had been out of the game too long.