“I think so.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Marta; you’ve really cheered me up.”
“Oh, hang in there, honey,” she said. “You just moved here; it’s a big adjustment. Wait till you meet a few people and make some friends, maybe even meet a potential boyfriend.”
“Oh, I’ve already met him,” I said. “Unfortunately, he doesn’t know it yet.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Do tell.”
I sighed and shrugged. “It’s a nonstarter. He’s my brother’s friend, and I don’t think he’s interested.”
“What makes you think that?”
“We’ve been talking for about two weeks now, ever since we met at Brent’s party, and he hasn’t made any attempt to actually meet me. He calls almost every night, and we talk for hours, and it just feels natural and easy and…right. But then he says goodnight, and that’s it.”
“Why don’t you suggest meeting?”
“He’s busy at the moment,” I replied. “He’s a firefighter.”
“Really?”
“Yep.” I nodded.
“Well, as excuses go, that’s a pretty good one.”
I smiled. “I don’t think he’s avoiding meeting me,” I clarified. “I just think he’s placed me firmly in the friend zone.”
“You’ve met him only the one time?”
“Yes.”
“Then you don’t know that for sure,” she said wisely. “Until you meet again, you can’t be sure about the chemistry. You might need to give it more time. You might need to give him a bit more time.”
“Time for what?” I asked, in amusement.
“Time to discover how wonderful you are.”
I laughed. “If he doesn’t already know that, then maybe he’s not worth it in the first place.”
“You’re the best judge of that.”
I sighed longingly. “No, trust me…he’s worth it.”
“He’s a looker, huh?”
“Oh, you have no idea,” I said. “He’s got that careless handsome ruggedness about him. And even better
… he’s actually fun to talk to. I mean he can actually hold a conversation. How rare is it to find a man who’s hot and smart?”
“Rare,” Marta agreed. “Trust me; I’m still looking.”
I finished my work a little earlier than usual, and so I decided to make a few calculations to see where I was at and how far I would need to go in order to make my future plans possible again. When Brent had agreed to let me stay with him, I had insisted that I would contribute to the rent once I found a job. He had told me that wasn’t necessary, but he hadn’t insisted too hard, and I felt obligated to make the offer and keep to it.
Now that I had landed a job, I was contributing four hundred dollars towards the rent, and I had to factor in another hundred dollars for other general expenses for the month. That meant I was left with about a hundred dollars to put in my savings account. My calculations only served to pull down my mood and make me feel sorry for myself again.
Instead of wallowing, I packed up and headed back to Brent’s apartment. It was a thirty-minute walk, but I needed to save money wherever I could. When I got home, Brent was lying in front of the television with his shirt off, slurping noodles from a bowl.
“Uh…you’ve got a couple of noodles on your chest,” I pointed out to him.