Her Apartment - A Short Story

 She was preparing a pizza in the oven and hitting pulse on her Blendex, making a piña colada when the buzzer rang. He was here! She buzzed him in and got out the glasses to serve her homemade drinks. A knock came from the door and she ran from the kitchen, slid down the hall like Tom Cruise in Risky Business in her Nike socks and opened the door.

“Hey how are ya?” – she said, with a grin.

Before he could answer she turned around and slid back into the kitchen to mend the oven timer. The pizzas were ready! What perfect timing! “Sorry, gotta get the pizzas out before they burn!” She yelled hoping he could hear her apology on top of her panting.

“No problem. Uhm, where can I leave stuff?” he yelled back.

“Oh just anywhere is fine, make yourself at home!” She didn’t realize how cheesy that sounded until she herd herself say it out loud. “Also the bathroom is through that door to your left.”

They’d been texting back and forth while he was in the Uber from the airport about how he forgot to go to bathroom before he got in the car.

She cut the pizza into slices, poured the cocktails and set the table.

She was setting the plates down at her tiny dining room table, if you could even call it that. It only fit two people, maybe 3, but she got it on sale at Ikea and loved it. He walked in and she looked up. They locked eyes and she let out a sigh of relief. His smile set her back and got her out of her state of stress. She smiled back, and raising his eyebrows with his arms out he said:

“Hi?!”, as if he felt he deserved affection. She smiled, and realized she’d barely acknowledged him since he walked in (yelling down the hall didn’t really count after all). She walked over to him and landed right into his arms. He was warm and she could feel his heart beating.

“I missed you”, he said and kissed her forehead. She looked into his eyes and told him she missed him too. She could see the love he had for her. She’d always dreamed of this moment. A man standing in front her, whom she could love and he would love her back. She’d longed for that sense of stability. She finally felt like “the luckiest girl in the world” like all those other girls would say. She felt at home with him.

“So what do you think of my new place?”, she asked. She’d moved into the new apartment when he was away and spent all weekend moving boxes in and driving around town getting little trinkets to make it feel like home. It was the first place she’d purchased on her own, finally out of her parents’ house.

“I love it! It’s very “you”.” He laughed. “I could tell which unit was yours just walking down the hall!”

She’s put a very unique welcome mat she found at Winners on the door that read “Welcome Home Bitch” which definitely matched her humour.

She turned a little red but laughed in agreement. She was just so pleased at how much he knew about her.

“ok ok enough making fun of me for my design choices. Sit down and eat. I just took it out of the oven so be careful it’s hot.”

They both sat at the same time and started eating. They caught up on the day’s events. He told her all the things he did while in Italy visiting family and she told him about the disaster that was her moving everything she owned into the apartment.

She lived in the east end of the city and had been dreaming about buying or renting in the area but waited until it was the perfect time. She’d never lived outside of her parents’ house but having just turned 25 last Christmas she needed her own space to cook and just live. Her dad helped her a lot with the money aspects, understanding fees and contracts. He helped get everything settled and made a couple trips down with her stuff on moving day. He refused to pay for a moving company, plus she didn’t really have many things to bring over anyways.

She wished he could have been there to help with the moving, but her dad and her made a great team too. She would miss their banter, but she knew it was the right time to be on her own.

They finished dinner and she offered to help him unpack. As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what she had walked into.

“You want me to leave my clothes here? What do you mean? This is your apartment, not ours.” She was a little disappointed at his answer. A part of her wished he’d play along with the idea. That’s when he realized what he said may have sounded a little harsh. “Sorry, I just mean. I want you to settle in a little before we decide to do this. You just moved out of your parent’s place so that you could live on your own and have your space. I don’t want to intrude on that. At least not until we both feel ready.”

Though those weren’t the words she was hoping for, she knew he was right. She needed her space to be fully hers for a little while and enjoy it in all she dreamed it would be. She had to spent the last 10 plus years not only exploring the city she’d dreamed of living in, but exploring herself. The city helped her find herself, it was her safe haven from the drama at home and troubles she had to deal with.

She knew she wanted him by her side for as long as time would allow, but when left to her own devices she didn’t truly know what she wanted in life. She liked her job, but something at the back of her head made her feel like something wasn’t right. Though she never admitted that to anyone, she knew he could see it and wanted to let her find her own path. He was there for support, but he couldn’t take her where she wanted to go. She had to figure it out herself.

“You’re right. I guess I just didn’t want you to leave. I’ve missed you all summer and I we have so much to catch up on, I didn’t want to spend another night without you” She looked up at him to gauge his response. He looked at her and cracked a little smile.

“I’m not leaving. What do you want to do? I’m yours all night.” She raised her eyebrows and smile back at him. “Oh you’ve just given me so much power. You’ll regret you said that” She joked with him and they laughed.

After a much needed hour or so of getting familiar with each other again on the couch, the kitchen counter… and in the shower, they changed into more comfortable clothes.

He stepped back into the kitchen in his boxers and made them a plate of nachos. They’d definitely worked up an appetite. She walked out of the bedroom in her pajamas, which left not much to the imagination, and sat on the couch to choose a movie. Ever since they met, it was tradition to watch a movie on Saturday nights, usually they’d do it at his apartment across town, but considering the celebration of her new place, they made an exception.

The movie played and as usual he fell asleep before the protagonist realized the moral of their story. She put a blanket over him, kissed his forehead and went into bed. She laid under the covers, closing her eyes and feeling incredibly grateful for the life she was given. Tonight, was one she’d dreamed of for so many months. Her dreams were slowly coming true and she couldn’t have been happier. No matter her anxieties about work, or the spurts of crippling sorrow, feeling lost and uninspired by life, it all was forgotten. Before falling asleep, she felt the bed raddle as he crawled in. She felt safe with him, nothing she’d ever felt with anyone else before. She could let her guard down without fear. Intimacy was much more than physical, sharing her life with someone, the good and the bad, that vulnerability was strength.  

“Goodnight”, he said, knowing well that she hadn’t yet fallen asleep. She didn’t reply, just smiled on her pillow. She was so happy.

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