2 - ROOMMATE NEEDED

Roommate needed: Male or female, doesn’t smoke, tidy, can cook tasty meals is a plus, minds their business –

I scoffed at the roommate ad, is he looking for a roommate or does he want a maid? I folded the paper into my bag as I walked into the bank to clear out all the money from me and Marty’s joint account, ten thousand dollars, it was nothing much but it was enough to get me started on a new life.

It was a week after, and I hadn’t set my eyes on Marty since I found those videos on his laptop. Immediately, I packed all my stuff and moved them out of the house before he returned home. I left the laptop on the bed, playing that one video with him going down on another woman and then I sent him a text.

 “I saw the videos – I’m done Marty. I want a divorce”

Then I blocked him because I knew he was going to try and call and I didn’t want to speak to me. I didn’t want him to try and charm me with his words, look into my eyes with those big brown orbs of his and draw me back into his arms because I knew he was very much capable and I never wanted to set my eyes on him again – ever.

I shuffled around hotels for a few days before I decided to go back to Bradsbury town where I grew up, I had an old aunt that still lived there, and I could squat for a few days before I figured out what next to do.

Aunt Joan, bitter old thing but she always smelled great which was a plus if you ignored her stinking attitude, and always had her nose scrunched up like she smelled something bad which was quite the irony.

“So Cheryl dear, I get that it’s such a rough time for you but you’re eating into my space and – “

“I’ll be out of your hair soon Aunt Joan” I cut in before she had the opportunity to start being a bitch.

“So go back to your husband then” she looked up from the soup she was slurping and I paused from the you’ll peanut butter and jam I was whipping up for myself since I couldn’t eat the slop she prepared.

“He cheated on me, I’m not going back to him” I countered, hoping my voice was loud enough for her to hear, she had a hearing problem sometimes or was it Aunt Marge, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“So? Darling all men cheat baby, you’re not going to destroy your home because he stuck his stick into another woman’s honey pot. If you’re so upset about it, you could always do yours back”

I sighed, dropping the peanut butter covered back on the plate. The air was suddenly chilly even with the heater on and the cock on the wall kept ticking, I could feel a fury burning inside of me. I wasn’t sure why but all of a sudden I was angry, pissed and everything Marty did was suddenly dawning down on me and I realized how useless my life was seeming. No husband – no job, I didn’t even have a house to myself and I stuck here with an old bitter woman telling me to forgive my cheating husband.

“Four hundred woman Aunt Joan, he stuck his stick into four hundred’s women honey pot” I said angrily and stormed out of the house to the basement in the back where she had allowed me to squat. I kicked the wall angrily, the heat rising from my insides and threatening to consume me. I kicked the wall again and again, the tears spilling from my eyes and that was when my eyes jammed the newspaper peeking out of bag.

Roommate needed: Male or female, doesn’t smoke, tidy, can cook tasty meals is a plus, minds their business –

I wiped my eyes, my eyes skimming over the details that no longer seemed necessary and I moved straight to the contact information at the bottom

“No calls, just text”

So I quickly typed out the number on my phone and sent a quick text

Hi, I’m Cheryl Taylor. I saw the ad about the roommate ad  and I’m interested. How can we meet to discuss?”

It took about two minutes when my phone pinged with a text back and I peered at my phone.

“No need for a meet up, you got it. The house is 84^th street, 2^nd avenue. Do you know there?”

I stared at my phone for some seconds, that was it? Just like that? Why was it so easy? Was he some sort of serial killer looking for an easy target in desperate and homeless women like me? What if it wasn’t a man? Well that would make my life much more easier.

“Yes, I grew up here” I texted back.

“Perfect then, house key is under the flower pot, the one that looks like an angry grandma, you’ll know when you see it”

Perfect.

I was out of miserable Aunt Joan’s house the next evening, I took the whole afternoon to go shopping for things I might need, cooking things especially since that was the only kind of payment I could offer my mysterious roommate since he wasn’t asking for my own share on the deposit – I could care less, it works for me either ways.

I arrived at 84^th street a little well into the evening and took out the key from the grandma looking flower pot, it indeed looked like someone had carved the face of their angry grandmother on the pot. I opened the door and walked into the warmness of the house. It was bigger than I had expected, white porcelain floors. It had a large sitting room, with leather sofa chairs and a big plasma tv hanging on the wall, a dining table in an equally large kitchen, my jaw dropped in surprise. How was I getting this for free, in the city this would cost a fortune and I was getting it for free. Maybe this whole starting over thing wasn’t such a bad idea at all.

I set down the grocery on the counter, deciding to whip up some spaghetti and maybe my roommate and I could have some introductory dinner and just maybe they could tell me what they did for a living.

I took out the groceries one after the other and I began looking for the pots but there was none in sight, in the lower cabinets at least. I opened the cabinets up top and found the pot but the problem was, I was a five foot four woman and no matter how much I stretched, my hands couldn’t reach them. I was breaching the line of frustration when I felt someone behind me, stretching over me to get the pots and I froze immediately turning around when my eyes met with some familiar looking eyes.

Wait a goddamn minute.

“Aiden Scott?”

“Hello Tiny” there was that husky voice that was the weapon fashioned against me through out my high school life.

You have  got to be kidding me.