“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve built things up in my head…”
“You’re a writer. That’s what you do.”
“Not like this. Some romantic dreams just aren’t meant to be.”
Bel clapped her hands. “Write about that then. Do you have the letter with you? Can I see it?”
“No,” I said without hesitation. “I mean, I don’t have the letter.”
The letter is tucked in my back pocket. I keep it there all the time. I read it almost daily. I basically have it memorized. If I shut my eyes, I could hear someone reading it. I spend way too much time visualizing Delilah and I don’t know who that is.
“I think you should do something with it.”
“So you could put it on your site or whatever?”
“Not necessarily,” Bel said. “But it could get you exposure. Imagine a weekly spot where you’re writing this story about a letter? Building it up piece by piece. Readers would go wild for that.”
“You think?”
“I know so. And we could see what other attention it could get. Agents? Publishers? Who knows…”
“That’s really nice of you to say,” I said. “I’m just… things have been strange for me, Bel. Seeing Josh was harder than I thought.”
“So, you and him… was that a thing?”
“I’m not going to talk about it,” I said. “Sorry. I’d better get going actually. I have to get ready for work.”
I have no work tonight. I’m not on the schedule until two days from now for a double. You don’t know that, Bel. I don’t know anything about you. You don’t know anything about me. This is all Grace’s fault. Her and her stupid cats.
I reached into my bag and took out some money for the coffee and tip.
“I can get that,” Bel said.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“At least send me the story. What you wrote about Josh.”
“I will.”
“And a bio about yourself. Links to anything you’d like. You wrote the story so you should get credit.”
“Of course. Thanks.”
I left the coffee shop and hurried to my car.
I felt a heaviness in my chest that I didn’t like.
It wasn’t guilt. It wasn’t regret. It wasn’t even anger.
It was just… empty. A heavy emptiness.
And a little bit of picturing Josh lifting me up onto the counter so he could kiss me better.
I wasn’t going to be able to get rid of that image for the rest of my life.
“Oh, honey, you cannot imagine the size of the rats in the basement here!”
I heard Miss Laura’s voice booming.
I rolled my eyes.
She probably had a delivery guy cornered to talk about anything.
“How big were they?” a voice asked.
The voice made my hand freeze on the door handle.
“Damn near the size of dogs! I swear on it. I swear on the graves of my family. They were huge!”
I ripped open the door and couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw Josh leaning against the wall next to my apartment door. Miss Laura, from across the hall had her door open as her animated hands danced through the air.
“Ain’t no trap going to catch them down there,” Miss Laura said. “That’s why I pay for outside storage. It’s a hassle to decorate sometimes, but you have to do what you have to do in life.”
“That’s the truth,” Josh said. Then he looked at me. “There you are, love.”
“Oh, Amelia, hi,” Miss Laura said.
“Hi,” I managed to say.
Miss Laura pranced over to me. “Oh my, is this man devilish or what? He’s making the angel on my shoulder blush.”
I started to blush because Miss Laura had no version of being quiet, which meant Josh heard her.
“Josh, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“A man that good looking shows up to my apartment door, I’m inviting him in,” Miss Laura said.
“Is that an invite?” Josh asked her.
Miss Laura waved her hand at her face. “You cool it there…”
Josh started to laugh.
I was now embarrassed and angry.
I hurried to my door and unlocked it.
“Come on,” I said to Josh through gritted teeth.
“Nice to meet you,” Josh said to Miss Laura.
“You too, honey. And, Amelia? We need to talk later.”
Rushing into my apartment was my safety from Miss Laura.
But it also meant bringing Josh into cat heaven.
“Whoa,” he said when he looked around.
“Oh, crap,” I whispered. “Yeah. My roommate…”
“Is that a framed cat picture?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, not even looking at the wall.
“Was it her cat?”
“No,” I said. “She doesn’t even have a cat. She’s just obsessed with them. Please don’t ask.”