Chapter Nine
Mia
My best friend and roommate, Lana, is waiting at the table when I arrive for our coffee date.
Despite living together, we rarely see each other at home.
Instead, we try to do this once a week. Her hair is bright pink and apparently upsetting the elderly as an older man tuts at her.
She wiggles her fingers, blowing her signature bubble gum before popping it with her tongue.
“Hey, sorry I’m late. I went for a longer run than normal.”
“How was it?” she asks, pushing a mocha and a muffin toward me.
“You’re perfect, you know that, right?”
She grins before looking away, her shoulders high as she wrings her fingers in front of her.
“I’m just going to come right out and say it.”
“Okay…”
Oh God, she knows.
She knows about the stalking. Alfie, the Catwoman appreciation outfit I put on. She knows about all of it. And she knows about my past with my hometown. She’s the only person outside of Berry Brook that knows, and oh God, she’s going to judge me so much.
Really Mia?
Another male authority figure?
Can your reputation survive two life-explosions? Probably not, so keep it in your pants.
“I’m moving to Puerto Rico. I’ve been offered a placement there for six months, which will delay my graduation, but I really, really think I can do a lot of good by supporting the community there.
They never really recovered after the hurricane.
They were still compiling a list of missing people when COVID hit, and that went to shit.
It’s been trauma after trauma and I really want to go and help but it means I need to move out and I know you can’t afford a place on your own so I’m offering to cover my share of the rent until you find someone else to fill it. ”
I’m stunned…Lana is leaving me. I am the most self-absorbed person on the planet, thinking everything is about me. Also, she did not take a single breath in that entire ramble, and I’m low-key impressed.
“Are you mad?” she asks, cautiously pushing the muffin closer to me like she’s trying to distract a tiger with a steak when you’re the alternative meal option.
“God no, of course not,” I answer honestly. “I’m happy you’ve found something you want to go and do. I’ll just miss you, is all.”
Liar.
She’s my best friend. We haven’t been away from each other for longer than a few weeks in the last decade.
What am I going to do without her? Screw the money, I’ll figure out my rent situation but being without her for that long seems disastrous.
My chest aches and it’s like a part of me is severing.
I know it’s extreme but Lana understands me in a way that no-one else does.
We’ve been together so long, our entire adult lives.
We’ve resolved heartbreaks with ice cream and tequila, moving into new places together, the holidays, hell we even had a part time job at the same fast food place for a year when we were trying to scramble rent money together.
But she’s right. There was no way I could afford that place on my own.
And Lana pays for more than half now, given that she has the bigger room.
I’m not sure I’d be able to get someone to be that generous even if I did find someone.
But I’ll worry about that later. For now, I need to focus on my friend.
“Tell me about the program,” I say, taking a sip of my coffee.
◆◆◆
Lana heads to her family’s house for the afternoon as she usually does on a Sunday, and I sit for a while longer in the café, the cozy, threadworn armchair holding me like a warm hug.
I pull out my phone to check some listings for rental options and decide to join some rental groups online whilst I’m at it.
And if I can’t find a relatively normal roommate, I could afford to live in a not so nice part of the city.
It would probably mean living further away from work, but I’m only going to be there for three more months anyway, so I try not to consider that when I scroll through the options.
“I overheard.” I peek up and see Crystal, the barista. She pushes an almond croissant my way, and I smile. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m happy for her.”
“I know you are. But you’re allowed to be sad too. You guys have been inseparable for what, ten years?”
I nod, the emotion of it all washing through me, and I feel my chin start to quiver.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re gonna be fine.”
I sniff. “It’s just the end of an era, you know? I’ve lived with her for ten years, and now I’m going to have to live with some creep that walks around the apartment in his underwear.
“I’m sure you can find someone that knows how to put on pants.”
I hand my phone over, showing her the photos of a guy who, for some reason, has mirrors in every single room and whose reflection shows the lack of clothing.
A small gasp escapes Crystal’s lips, and she bites down, holding in a laugh. “Oh wow, he looks like he’s changed in one of the photos…the Y-fronts change color.”
“That was the third one I’ve looked through where I’ve seen someone in their underwear.”
She hands my phone back to me after hearing her name being called by the owner.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
I sit back and close my eyes for a minute. I am Mia Sinclair. I left home at eighteen and moved to a new state, rebuilt my life from ruin, and now I’m a soon-to-be PhD graduate. I can handle moving in with someone new as my best friend leaves me for six months. Six months is nothing.
A gravelly voice pulls me out of my spiral. “Mia, is that you?”
I look up, long floppy hair, hazel eyes, a scar running through his eyebrow and down to his cheek. He’s roguishly handsome, and somewhat nervous as he talks to me.
“Hi, Nate,” I say to Alfie’s patient.
I don’t often see patients outside of work, the last week or so excluded from that statement given Alfie’s new extracurricular activities, but when I do, it feels like seeing a teacher outside of school.
Not right. Awkward. Like I should hide behind a bush until they move along and don’t recognize me.
“Are you okay? You look upset,” he asks me.
“Oh, I’m okay. I’m just looking for somewhere new to live. My roommate is moving overseas.”
I try to rack my brain to see if there is anything from Nate’s notes that I should be cautious about.
Alfie works with a range of people. Some of them incredibly unwell, some of them court-ordered after being found guilty of a crime, some who could pick up the almond croissant sitting in front of me and use it as a weapon if they so chose.
I don’t make the rules, I only know the risks that come with working with people, and that is that all humans, in therapy or not, are unpredictable.
You never quite know how life is going to turn out; that much is certainly true as I think about Alfie and his behavior the last few weeks.
“Nate!” Crystal calls out for him to collect his order.
I give him a small smile. “See you Wednesday.”
“I’m looking forward to it, Mia.” He gives me a toothy grin and as he goes to collect his coffee, I pick up my things, almond croissant included, and head home.
◆◆◆
Wednesdays are my busiest day of the week.
I work for Alfie in the morning, usually skipping lunch to help out before the afternoon patients arrive and I leave Alfie to fend for himself.
Whilst he’s looking after some of our court-ordered patients, I’m teaching classes as part of my doctorate at Elwood University.
It was an elective I chose to do to see if academia was something I wanted to pursue after graduating.
As it turns out, I’d rather have a hot rash on my ass before leading another Psych 101 class, so it turns out, no, academia is not for me.
Alfie taps his watch, his eyebrows hiked up as I tidy up my desk. God, he’s so handsome, even when he’s being an overbearing ass.
“Yes, Da—"
I stop myself as Nate walks through the door and into the waiting room. His eyes light up when he sees me, and I blush a little. I can't believe I nearly called Alfie Daddy in front of a patient. What is wrong with me?
“I’d better get going,” I mutter, mostly to myself, but I feel the gaze of both men lingering on me.
“Come in, Nate, I’ll just be a second,” Alfie says.
Nate steps toward Alfie’s office but turns to me first. “Any luck in finding a place?”
“Oh, not yet, but I’m still looking.” I smile awkwardly and catch Alfie’s eye. He looks displeased, and for once I’m grateful that I’m about to leave him for the afternoon rather than face an interrogation.
“Let me know if you need any help. I’d be happy to help you look at places.”
Oh God. Shut up, Nate.
Is he blind?
Can he not see that Alfie's nostrils are flaring like a goddamn warning beacon? The USS Shitstorm has docked and is about to spit fire from Alfie’s perfect mouth.
“I’ll be okay, thanks, Nate. See you later, Dr. Adams.”
As he ushers Nate into his office, Alfie steps out, pulling the door closed before approaching me.
“He bumped into me at a café whilst I was looking at new places to live. That’s all,” I explain.
“We can talk about it later. Are you free tonight?”
“I—umm, well yes. I was just going to do some dissertation defense prep.”