Louise linked arms with me and sipped her black coffee, the scent of my pumpkin spiced latte making her pull back. She hated the smell because it reminded her of her dad, but it was an addiction I hadn’t quite managed to kick, and so she had to put up with it regardless. In life, you didn’t always get what you wanted, and this was a lesson she’d learned the hard way from her efforts towards trying to get me to quit them.
She had her bitter dark brew. And I had my sweet amber latte.
Best friends, yet so different.
“He’s cute though, right?” she giggled, and I nodded. She looked back the way we’d just come, the small coffee shop I frequented on my way to work every day growing smaller in the distance.
It was her day off and she’d decided to jump in my cab to work on the pretense of going clothes shopping afterwards, but after seeing her reaction to Damen, I now knew that the whole thing had just been a lie and she’d really just wanted to check out the guy I’d mentioned in passing so many times before.
“Yeah, he’s cute. He’s not my type though,” I lied, not wanting to tell her how I fantasized about him in the shower. In bed. In the kitchen. Practically everywhere.
“Really? So your type isn’t chiselled jawline, sexy gray eyes and hands like buckets with fingers so long that they could—,”
“Stop!” I barked out, not wanting to hear anymore of her crude talk. I had enough of those fantasies to last me a lifetime as it was. Besides, I couldn’t bear the thought of her thinking about him like that. Damen and I weren’t dating, but he was still mine, and had been since the day I’d walked into him in the coffee shop. Literally walked into him, spilling my coffee everywhere.
“Okay, okay, well, if you’re not interested then you won’t want his number then, huh?” she said with another of her giggles as she waved a scrap of paper in the air between us.
“You did not ask him for his number?” I gasped, a hand flying to my mouth. I groaned. “Nooo, Louise, why would you do this to me!”
“Oh stop. If you’re not interested in him, then what does it even matter?” She flicked her long blond hair over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at me in question and I let out another groan of mortification.
“I don’t know. I just…” my words trailed off and I dragged a hand down my face. “You know I’m not good with this sort of thing.”
“The dating thing?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you didn’t like him,” she teased shoving my shoulder.
“I don’t,” I lied again, still not ready to admit that I did.
“Whatever,” she replied matter-of-factly.
We were at the door of my office building and so we hugged and said goodbye. She was all smiles, whilst I frowned and reached for the door handle.
“Chinese tonight?” I asked hopefully, desperate to change the subject away from Damen.
“Aww, I can’t, I have tickets to a concert, but we can raincheck, yeah?”
I nodded in agreement, disappointment probably etched across my face at having yet another Friday night in on my own. Takeout for one, how depressing. It didn’t matter though. Louise was blind to anything that didn’t involve her and so she waved goodbye and walked away. So I did too, opening the door and continuing my day without her.
As I stood in the elevator, heading up to the fourth floor, I wondered what it was about me that Louise even liked. We’d been friends since forever, and yet we had next to nothing in common. Different music, different styles, different movie loves. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was our differences that brought us together? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that nothing had ever come between us before and nothing ever would.
I lay in bed later that night, the cool autumn air sending a drought from somewhere in the apartment. I’d come to bed early after eating Chinese for one and watching an old black and white movie. It was my favorite thing to do, but tonight for some reason, I just couldn’t find any joy in it.
Maybe I needed color instead, something bright and cheerful instead of monochromatic and almost… lonely feeling.
Because I was lonely enough without the reminder.
The slam of the apartment door and then Louise’s voice filtered into me and I sat upright, considering getting out of bed to make her a coffee and see how her night was, but the sound of male laughter made me pause.
“…sshhh…”
More laughter.
“…I don’t want to wake her…”
I slunk back under the covers as I heard her bedroom door open and close and then more laughter ensued. Reaching into my nightstand, I pulled out my earplugs. Louise must have been wasted because she knew I hated it when she brought men home without checking with me first.
The sound of moaning and hushed laughter echoed from her room and I scowled into the darkness, knowing I wasn’t going to get to sleep anytime soon.
Chapter Two
As morning light filtered in through the shabby material of my bedroom curtains, I rolled over with a groan. My own head hurting like I had been the one out drinking all night, and not Louise. I’d barely slept two hours, the sound of lust-fueled sex filling my apartment, and my head, until I could barely think straight, but it had been quiet for a good hour or so now, so I was guessing that Louise and whichever new man she’d brought home, had finally passed out. Thank God. I wasn’t sure how many more ‘Oh, my Gods’ I could stand to listen to.
It was always the same with Louise and it was one of my biggest complaints about living with her. In life, there were rule followers, rule benders, and rule breakers. Louise was a rule breaker. And the biggest rule we’d
