Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Trina
“So the apartment will be empty,” I say, as I realize I don’t have any furniture. I don’t even have a bed, and I don’t have money to buy one.
“I could loan you my air mattress,” Sara says. “And people are always leaving furniture on the street. I’m sure you could find a dresser and maybe a chair.”
Great, just what I want. Discarded furniture that probably has rats living in it. I think I’d rather have an empty apartment.
“What do you think?” Jenna asks, smiling at me. “It’s a great location, and there’s a grocery store just down the street.” She points to the mini fridge. “That barely holds anything so you’ll find you have to go to the store a lot.”
Asher had a full-sized refrigerator, but we didn’t keep much in it. We usually went out to eat. I won’t be doing that anymore. I’ll have to start cooking meals, or microwaving them since I don’t have a stove.
The music next door gets louder and I hear a door slam.
“What about the neighbor?” I ask Jenna. “Sara said he can be kind of loud?”
“Yeah, but you get used to it.”
“Does it get louder than it is now?” I ask.
“Only on the weekends.” She pauses. “Well, sometimes it’s during the week, but not usually. Do you have to be up early for work?”
“No. I don’t have a job right now.”
“Oh, then I wouldn’t worry about the noise. It’s like the city noise. You get used to it after a while. And the good thing is, you’ve got no one on the other side.” She points to the wall opposite the neighbor. “That’s just a storage room.”
“Does it come with the apartment?”
“No, it belongs to Scott.”
“Who’s Scott?”
“Your neighbor.” She smiles. “He’s really hot. Like the kind of hot where it’s hard not to stare.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
“No, he’s more of a casual dater. You’ll see a lot of girls coming and going from his apartment.”
“So aside from your neighbor and his occasionally loud music, you like living here?” Sara says, trying to stay positive.
“Yeah, it’s been great!” Jenna turns to me. “And don’t worry about Scott. He’s a really sweet guy once you get to know him. I’m sure he’ll invite you to his parties. They’re a great way to meet people. There’s always lots of single guys there.”
“Parties with single guys? Right next door?” Sara smiles at me. “That’s convenient.”
“The last thing I need right now is another guy,” I tell her.
“Now, sure, but eventually, you’ll be ready to date again.” Sara looks over at Jenna. “She just broke up with her boyfriend. That’s why she needs an apartment.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenna says to me.
“It’s fine,” I say, even though it’s not at all fine. “I just need to forget about it and move on.” I straighten my stance, trying to appear like I’m already over the breakup. “So what’s the rent?”
When she tells me, I think I must’ve heard her wrong. It’s ridiculously cheap, which makes me think there’s something she’s not telling me.
“That’s it?” I say. “How can it be that cheap?”
“I got a deal on it,” Jenna says. “It’s possible he’ll raise the rent after my lease is up, but you’ll get three months of cheap rent.”
“Trina, you should take it,” Sara says. “You’re not going to find a place that cheap anywhere in the city.”
“I have twenty people wanting to see it,” Jenna says, looking at her phone. “And I only told people at work. I haven’t posted it online yet.”
I look around the tiny space, my stomach knotting up as I realize this is now my life. Living alone in this shoebox of an apartment with no furniture.
“I hate to rush you, but I need to get going,” Jenna says. “And I kind of need to know if you want the apartment. This girl just texted me that she’d take it without seeing it.”
The music next door gets louder and I hear some guys shouting over the pounding bass.
“Trina?” Sara says. “What do you think? You want it?”
I nod, realizing I have no choice. It’s all I can afford. Maybe in three months, I’ll have saved up enough money to get a bigger place. It’s not likely, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
“Great!” Jenna says, rushing over to one of the boxes. She takes out a piece of paper. “I just need you to sign the sublet agreement.” She hands it to me, along with a pen.
I quickly look over the agreement, then sign it, and hand it back to Jenna. “I might need a couple days to get you first month’s rent.”
“Oh,” she says, chewing her lip. “I guess that’s okay. It’s just that I don’t know you and—”
“She’s good for it,” Sara says, smiling at me. “Trina isn’t going to scam you out of the rent.”
“No, never.” I take my wallet from my purse. “What if I give you enough for the next few days?” I search my wallet and only find a twenty-dollar bill. “Or how about twenty dollars?”
“Keep it.” Jenna smiles. “You seem honest, and you have Sara as a reference.”
I shove the money back in my wallet. “What about Monday? Will that work? I promise it won’t be later than that.”
“That should work. I’ll talk to him just to make sure.”
I assume she means her landlord. I’ll have to get his info, but we can go over that stuff later. Jenna’s in a hurry to leave, probably to go on a date with her boyfriend. That’s what I’d be doing if Asher hadn’t dumped me.
“The movers will be here tomorrow morning,” Jenna says. “The place should be empty by noon so if you want to come by then, I’ll give you the keys and you can start moving in.”
Wow, that’s soon, but I guess it’s good. I can’t keep staying with Sara.
The three of us go out to the street. Jenna takes off in a cab while Sara and I remain on the sidewalk outside my new building. I can’t believe I’ll be living here. It’s amazing how your whole life can change within a matter of hours.
“You got an apartment!” Sara squeals. “Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah,” I say, trying to sound as happy as she does. “Thanks for letting me know about it. I’m lucky it was still available.”
“I know, right? It was perfect timing. If we hadn’t shown up when we did, the place would’ve been taken.”
“I guess it was meant to be,” I say, although it’s sad to think I was meant to live in that tiny apartment on the first floor of an old building. When I used to dream of living in New York, I imagined myself in a posh apartment on the top floor of a luxury high-rise. That dream might’ve come true if I was still with Asher. He’s already making a lot of money and will probably double his income by the end of the year.
“Let’s check out the neighborhood,” Sara says, motioning me to follow her as she heads down the street.
I’d rather go back to her apartment and put an end to this horrible day, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see what’s around here.
“Trina, look!” Sara stops next to the grocery store Jenna told us about.
“Yeah, it’s close. Just a block away,” I say, not sure why she’s getting so excited about it.
“No, look!” She points to a sign on the window. “They’re hiring! You could get a job.”
“At a grocery store?” I laugh, thinking she must be kidding. “I need a real job, one that pays more than minimum wage.”
“Yeah, but you also need money. Finding a job you really want could take weeks, or months. You can’t wait that long to make money.”
She’s right. It could take months for me to find a job in fashion, especially if all the jobs are being given to interns who work for free.
“Let’s go inside and you can get an application,” she says.
“I’d rather work in a clothing store. That makes more sense since I want to work in fashion.”
“But look around.” She glances down both sides of the street. “There aren’t any clothing stores here, and even if you found one, they may not be hiring.” She points to the grocery store. “This place is hiring and it’s only a block from your apartment. And I bet you’d get a discount on groceries.”
“I’ll think about it. Let me get moved into the apartment and then I’ll look for a job.” I check the time and see it’s after seven. “Why don’t we go back to your place? I can check out the neighborhood this weekend.”
“Okay, but I really think you should ask about the job. What if you go there later and it’s taken?”
I shrug. “Then it wasn’t meant to be.”
An older man comes out of the grocery store, smiling as he approaches us. “I saw you two checking out the help wanted sign. You girls looking for a job?”
“I’m not,” Sara says. She points to me. “But she is.”
“I’m really not,” I tell him. “Not right now.”
“How much does it pay?” Sara asks.
I glare at her, wishing she’d stay out of this.
“Fifteen an hour,” the man says. “And you get ten percent off anything in the store.”
“That’s pretty good,” Sara says. “Right, Trina?”
It isn’t bad, especially since I don’t have to subtract subway fare. But a grocery store? Really? I’d be a lot more comfortable folding t-shirts than stacking tomatoes, or whatever it is you do at a grocery store. I know very little about food. I’m not even sure I could tell the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber.
“You could start as soon as tomorrow,” the man says.
“I don’t know. I should probably think about it.”
“You could always quit if you don’t like it,” Sara says. She’s starting to sound like my mom, acting like she knows what’s best for me.
“I should introduce myself,” the man says, putting his hand out. “Frank Catonelli. I own the place. My family opened it over seventy years ago.”
The man looks about seventy, or maybe he’s in his sixties. It’s hard to tell. He’s short and round, and mostly bald, with just a little white hair on the sides.
I shake the guy’s hand. “I’m Trina, and this is my friend, Sara.”
“Trina just moved to the neighborhood,” Sara says. “She’s only a block away so this job would be perfect.”
“Which building?” Frank asks.
“That one,” I say, pointing to it.
He nods, smiling. “You’re going to like living there. Have you met the boys?”
“What boys?” I ask, glancing at Sara.
He laughs. “I’ll let them do the introductions. Anyway, let’s go inside and I’ll tell you about the job. Right now, I need someone for nights, but I might have some hours open up during the day.”
“Yeah, I’m not really—”
“Trina, you could at least let him tell you about it,” Sara says, again sounding like my mom.
I know she’s only trying to help, but I’m exhausted and sad and not in the mood to do a job interview right now. Despite that, I follow Frank inside the store to what looks like the employee break room. There’s a long counter and a fridge and a round table with chairs.
“Have a seat,” Frank says, pointing to the table.
A half hour later, after a brief interview and a tour of the store, I agree to come back tomorrow at five for training.
“You got a job!” Sara says as we leave the store.
“And dinner.” I hold up the sack.
When Frank found out we hadn’t had dinner, he filled a sack with deli sandwiches, chips, and some cans of soda.
“That was really sweet of him,” Sara says as we head to the subway. “He seems like a nice guy. I think you’ll like working for him.”
“Hey, what do you think he meant when he asked if we knew the boys?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see any kids around, but maybe they live on a different floor.”
“I think he meant guys our age, not little kids. You know how old guys are… they think anyone younger than them is a kid.”
“I can’t believe I just took a job at a grocery store. I can’t even cook.”
“You don’t have to cook to work there. And think of all the people you’ll meet. Maybe you’ll meet your dream man while stocking bananas.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I say with a tired sigh.
“Hey.” Sara comes in front of me. “I know it’s not what you wanted, but you did it. You got an apartment and you got a job. And you did it without any help from Asher. You should be proud of that.”
She’s right. I should be proud, although I didn’t do it on my own. Sara was a huge help. Without her pushing me to come here tonight, I’d still be homeless and without a job.
Now it’s up to me to figure out the rest. Where I go from here. What I do. And how to move on, knowing the life I’d planned with Asher isn’t going to happen.