“Actually, I’m interning. I’ve been working my ass off all summer. I don’t even know if the firm would give me the time off. No one takes time off, and I don’t particularly want to be the only one,” she stated telling only a partial truth. The other three interns had taken time off at the beginning of the program, but it had been before the work had drastically increased. Lately, the interns barely had time to breathe, let alone think of taking a weekend rendezvous out of state. She may have had a quiet Saturday planned, but that hardly kept her from being on call.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize,” he said quietly. “I guess I’ll just have to tell her you weren’t able to get off work. Please let me know if you happen to change your mind. It really would help me out immensely.”
Jack had a talent for making her feel bad about the decision she made, especially if it wasn’t directly in his best interest. “I’d really like to help,” she said, lying through her teeth. “There’s just no way that I can get the time off, and anyway I couldn’t afford the flight,” she said off-handedly.
“I wouldn’t make you buy your own ticket,” he added hastily. “You would be doing me a huge favor. Of course, I would take care of you…uh…it…the ticket.”
“Oh.” The last time she had seen him he was just out of college, poor, and practically starving for a job. Of course he would be doing significantly better financially two years later. Unlike her, sitting in a hundred thousand dollars of student loan debt with a year left in school.
“I guess I’ll let you get back to your morning. Sorry for waking you up so early. You have my number now,” he said as if that solved all the issues. “You can call me if you want.”
“Right. Okay. Thanks,” she stated dumbfounded. Why would she ever have to call Jack?
“Later.”
“Bye.”
She hung up the phone closing it with brutal force. Somehow, she restrained herself from flinging the stupid thing across the room. She was so angry and worked up and also terrified he would never call again. Too many emotions were roiling through her body right now so she did the first thing that came to mind. She quickly added Jack’s name into her contacts despite the nagging urge to erase his number, all recollection of the phone call and him.
Lexi ground her teeth in frustration. She couldn’t believe that after all of this time, this was why he was calling her. He called her because he was in love with another woman. Well, he hadn’t come right out and said that, but it didn’t matter. Jack would never contemplate marriage without due cause. She shook her head hoping she could wake herself from the nightmare of what she had just heard. When that didn’t work, she pushed herself off the ground, careful not to put too much weight on her sore toe, and stalked out of her bedroom into what only a resident of New York City would consider a living room.
In all honesty, the living room, dining room, and kitchen were all compacted into one puny space with two doors leading into the bedrooms on either side. Grimy yellow paint crusted the walls with navy smudges appearing more prominently in some places where the top coat was peeling off. The crown molding was cracked and grungy. Her roommate’s sofa, which luckily had a maroon cover to hide the seventies-esque pattern, took up the majority of the room. Two large bean bags, one brown and one turquoise, sat to one side, and a black Ikea table donned the other. A brown coffee table, left over from the previous owner, was cluttered with old newspapers, coffee stains, and seemingly endless dents from late night escapades. The only remotely spectacular item in the living room was the flat screen television her parents had given her as a move-in present.
Dusty wood floors creaked as she walked to the kitchen to brew the pot of coffee she so desperately needed. An off-white refrigerator hummed noisily along the far wall closest to Lexi’s door. A window was etched into the wall above the aluminum-plated sink revealing a glossy view of the street below. After Lexi prepared the coffee, she leaned back against the cool counter and ran her fingers through her brown matted waves.
Her laid back Saturday had gone from relaxing to a spastic panic attack in the span of a fifteen minute phone call. When the timer went off, she poured herself a mug and guzzled the steaming coffee as quickly as she could muster before moseying back into her room to take a shower. Even though she drank the coffee black, the caffeine barely hit her. She knew by the time she was out of the shower, any signs of consuming it would have all but dissipated. She scrubbed her body vigorously with cranberry body soap. After applying shampoo through her long tresses and rinsing, she cut the shower off, dried her body, and slicked her hair back into a high ponytail. She threw on a pair of red Nike track shorts, a flimsy black tank, and a pair of running shoes. Making her way back into the kitchen, she poured the remaining pot of coffee into a travelers mug and scribbled a quick note for her roommate since this was the one morning she had actually woken up before her.
Forgoing a cab, Lexi trekked on auto-pilot across town, haphazardly knocking into eager tourists staring skyward. She remembered being one of those clueless people when she had first arrived in town. Now, she could navigate the city nearly as well as any homegrown New Yorker, except for her best friend, Chyna.
That was precisely who she was after as she meandered down Park Avenue on the way to the Upper East Side. It always baffled her that her best friend was more wealthy than she would likely be in her lifetime. But they got along and Chyna didn’t seem to mind the financial discrepancy.
Lexi and Chyna had met nearly two years ago standing in line at a nightclub. Well, Lexi had been in line. Chyna absolutely refused to be subjected to waiting outside, when there was fun to be had on the inside. Lexi was next in line, wearing a scandalous outfit more fit for her home in Georgia than fall in York. She had been freezing her ass off for the past hour when Chyna arrived at the front entrance of the same locale gliding out of an onyx-colored town car, and directly through the rope.
Having seen one too many of these girls flounce into the club in front of her, Lexi began throwing a fit yelling about another skanky whore taking her place inside, not even caring that the bouncer looked like he was itching to kick her out of line. Surprisingly, Chyna stopped in her tracks, turned towards her, and asked her directly what she had said. Lexi repeated herself, smiling through chattering teeth the whole time. The bouncer’s eyes had bulged at her comments and moved to remove her from the line, but Chyna put her hand out stopping him in his tracks. She then demanded he allow Lexi inside. Ever since that night, they had been all but inseparable.
Lexi planted herself on the front steps of Chyna’s apartment building, smiling at the doorman. “You’re here early, Miss Lexi,” Bernard said opening the door for her and signaling for her to enter.
“Yeah, I had a pretty shitty morning to be honest, Mr. B.”
“I’m sure it was nothing you can’t handle,” he said with his ever enthusiastic smile.
“Thanks, but you give me too much credit,” she said producing a smile of her own. “Chyna upstairs?” she asked as she stepped through the entranceway.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Alone?” she threw the question over her shoulder.
He smiled that all-knowing smile and winked at her. Lexi laughed wondering if Chyna ever slept alone.
Lexi took the elevator to the top floor, listening absentmindedly to the classical ballad playing through the speakers. After exiting, she located the door to Chyna’s apartment, slid the gold key into the lock, and twisted it. Swinging the door open, she smiled inwardly at the new renovations Chyna had effectuated into her foyer.