Chapter Three #3
Cierra: Hey hey, I’m back! Have to find a new place like ASAP and was gonna spend tonight apartment hunting online . . . can I come over to yours? Could use some company rn
She didn’t have to wait two minutes to see the three little dots appear. Mia always reserved Sundays for home days.
Mia: Get ur ass over here!
Cierra smiled and let the door slam behind her on the way out.
She felt a sense of renewal coming over her.
With all this new free time, she needed to spend it somehow.
And while she wasn’t looking to get into another relationship soon (counter to what everyone seemed to think), it’d be nice to go out with someone.
She thought about what Lisa had said, how this was a chance to explore the dating scene as this version of herself.
When she started seeing Harry, she’d been in a completely different place.
Unsure of herself, navigating a chaotic new city, desperate to feel safe.
In the elevator, she drafted a text to Julian asking if his offer still stood, and left the building.
“Cee-ahh-raa, where have you been?” John asked in his thick accent.
John was an older Eastern European man who had been a doorman at Mia’s luxury apartment complex since the Clintons were in office.
His hair was still full, though gray, and he carried himself with a spry energy, handling packages and assisting residents with quick, precise movements.
He pointed at the small bouquet in her hand.
“Always with the lilies for your friend, huh? She should have a man bringing her something. What’s happened with the world, my gahd,” John muttered to himself, before walking back outside to his station.
Cierra stood alone in the old-fashioned but still glamorous lobby, with wall-to-wall mirrors, a yellowish marble floor and gaudy gold chandeliers.
Flowers were Cierra’s go-to gift for Mia, since it was more about the thought than the actual present.
It’s impossible to get something for a girl who can buy anything she wants (and often does).
But after all Mia had done in the past couple of months, Cierra wanted to say thank you.
She walked over to the elevator bank, and once the doors closed, she inhaled deeply, enjoying the sweet perfume of the bouquet.
The elevator opened directly into Mia’s penthouse, which was thirty floors up on Central Park West. She had a mostly open floor plan, and the aesthetic of her apartment was luxe Art Deco meets bohemian.
Unlike the beige and white hellscape of Cierra’s own apartment, Mia’s penthouse opened up to a den with velvet purple and blue couches, oil paintings with gold leaf accents, and a mix of lanterns scattered across the ceiling.
It made no sense, but it felt complete. Kind of like their friendship.
And there Mia was, waiting right inside the door.
“Aww! You shouldn’t be the one getting me flowers.” Mia squeezed her friend and inhaled the scent of the lilies voraciously. “I’m so, so happy you came! Plus, I just made coffee, if you want some.”
“Yes, please. I figured maybe I should take you up on the offer of company, and besides, I didn’t want to break anything else.”
“Break anything else? What broke?”
Cierra exchanged the bouquet of lilies for a mug of steaming coffee. “Oh, just one of Harry’s prints I threw across the room. And I texted Julian, so you can stop asking about it.”
Mia was wide-eyed and open-mouthed while Cierra took a nonchalant first sip. “Good for you, Cee,” she said approvingly, while looking for an empty vase. She settled on a navy glass orb.
Cierra gave a light curtsy. “I try my best.”
“I was just about to order some dinner. I know you said you needed to do apartment stuff, so I can leave you to it until the food arrives? And then we can vegetate?”
“Sounds perfect.”
“I know.” Mia practically bounced, quickly placing the order on her phone. “One of my many talents. Oh! And I wanna hear about Julian!”
“Not much to say. I texted him just before coming here, but he hasn’t gotten back yet.”
“What made you do it, finally?”
Cierra thought about her sparsely decorated, colorless apartment with Harry. How she’d never hated the apartment, or the print, but she’d never really been crazy about it either.
“I dunno. When I got back from Connecticut, something felt different, I guess. Just ready to move on.”
Mia suddenly paused, with a pensive look, like she wanted to say something else but wasn’t sure how it would land. Cierra could sense when her friend was trying to hold something in. “What is it?”
“Well . . .” Mia pondered, choosing her words carefully.
“I was thinking, moving is so much work, and you have so much going on, and . . . well . . . I mean, I know you can handle everything yourself — you’re very capable — but if you wanted to stay at my place for a bit, it’d be really nice to have some company. ”
“I appreciate the but offer, but . . .” Cierra trailed off, thinking about her options.
She was in no financial position to get a place on her own, not anywhere she wanted to live that was acceptable and within a five-mile radius of Manhattan. But what would others think? What if Mia or her friends picked up on the fact that she was broke?
“. . . I think I will consider it. Moving is a ton of work, and I don’t want to rush into a place.” She grinned at her friend. “And even though it’d be an enormous sacrifice, I guess I could rough it here for a bit.”
Mia, for the second time since Cierra arrived, stood dumbfounded. “You’re not pranking me, are you? You’ll actually consider it?”
“I’m being serious.”
“You promise?”
“I promise!” Cierra said, and held three fingers up, miming “Scout’s honor.”
“Ho. Lee. Shit. We are about to have so much fun! It’s gonna be like college again! And you’re single?! We have so much lost time to make up for,” Mia exclaimed.
“Hold up, I still have to get a job and an apartment, remember?”
“Yes, of course, we’ll do that, too. But as part of staying here, you are obligated to attend at least one social function with me, once a week. No exceptions.”
Cierra held a finger under her chin in thought, then walked over to her friend and held her hand out. “You have yourself a deal, ma’am.”