44. Sy
44
SY
Trudging up the stairs had felt like a Herculean task, my breathing ragged from holding back tears as I made it to our landing.
But walking into the apartment was worse. The movers would be here in a few hours, hauling away the rest of Jenna’s life.
I shoved my hands into my pockets as I let the door close behind me, crossing the apartment to stand in Jenna’s doorway. Glancing at the key rack, I realized there was only one pair dangling there.
She’ll have to mail those back just in case I get a roommate.
My chest tightened as I leaned against her doorframe. Her room hadn’t looked like this since the day we moved in. Up against the wall, her bed frame was disassembled next to a stack of boxes labeled “BOOKS”.
Clear as day, I could see myself sitting on her floor with sweat dripping down my face as I built her bed frame for her the first night in the apartment. I had offered partly because I wanted to hang out with her while she put clothes away. But I also didn’t trust her ability to build a bed that she could actually sleep on.
And then her bed was built, always made up like she was expecting a magazine photographer to show up and capture it.
I couldn’t stop the giggle from rising in my chest as I remembered us fleeing up onto it when we saw our first cockroach. It was an inevitability in this city but that didn’t stop it from being any less gross.
Jenna had squealed, making me think it was a rat or something. So I followed her blindly into her room and up onto her bed. Until she was able to form words and tell me what was actually going on, and then I hopped down and grabbed the can of Raid to get rid of the fucker.
And of course, the memories of this summer flooded back. The sex. The cuddling. The way it felt to please her. All of it came back to my body like it was still happening.
Ripping myself from the doorway, I popped my head into my room. Neatly folded on my bed was a familiar t-shirt.
At least she replaced the one she took. I grabbed the fabric from the bed and brought it to my nose, taking in as much of her scent as I could get. There was no way of telling how long the smell would linger, how many nights I could sleep with the shirt pressed to my nose before it would fade.
I set it back down on my bed and shook my head.
How could I let her leave like this? There must have been something I could have done.
Collapsing onto the couch, I tugged at my hair. There on the coffee table, my new lease sat and stared up at me. In black and white, my name was put next to Jenna’s. It had only taken management three years to agree to put my name on there.
Leave it to Jenna Chambers to make it happen.
Scoffing, I realized just how pissed management would be if they found out Jenna had left. One wrong day and they’d notice a new roommate in our two bedrooms.
I bite my lip. A little risky.
The apartment was so bare, so empty I could hardly picture a life here anymore.
There was one more thing I could have done.
I could have fought. For her. For us.
My chest rose and fell quickly as the idea came to my mind. Not willing to waste another second, I jolted up from the couch, threw on a pair of sneakers, and grabbed my keys and wallet before sprinting out the door.
I ran down the stairs, taking two at a time and nearly eating shit on each landing.
When I bodied the front door open, the sounds of New York flooding my ears, I searched for a taxi.
There was no time to call a car, she could already be past security at this point. All I could was hope traffic had held her up enough for me to catch up. She had twenty minutes on me.
I ran to the corner of Catherine and Henry, raising my arm to hail a yellow cab.
Within a few moments, like they had been sent by some higher force, a cab swerved through traffic and pulled up to the curb.
I threw open the door and slid into the seat. “JFK, Delta’s Terminal, as fast as you can.”
With the grizzled face of a true New Yorker, the driver turned around with a wrinkled forehead. “Are you kidding me?”
He probably assumed I was being dramatic, attempting to recreate some corny movie.
Fuck, maybe I was.
But I nodded. “I’m so fucking serious. Sir, the love of my life is about to get on a plane and leave this city forever. Please, step on it.”