CHAPTER 13
Larissa stared at her laptop screen and reread the email.
The next couple they were going to interview tonight needed to move the meeting.
It would throw the schedule off a bit, but she checked the room reservation system and was able to make the change.
Doing these interviews remotely was a possibility, but so many people had volunteered to meet, and she knew it would be better to see them in person to get a real feel for them.
She hadn’t started writing the actual book yet, but her outline was beginning to take shape, which was progress.
Of course, her dissertation file was still sitting on her desktop, untouched.
The goal had been for her to finish it by the end of the semester since her advisor had only given her one semester off from a teaching load, which was part of her program, but as it was, she couldn’t see that happening, and she only had herself to blame.
“Hey, I’ll be back in a little bit,” Harlow told her when she made her way out to the living room, where Larissa was working on the sofa.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, nowhere. Just out.”
“A date?” she asked.
“No, not a date.” Harlow chuckled as she grabbed her keys. “It’s one in the afternoon.”
“It could be a lunch date or a coffee date.”
“It’s not a date, Larissa.”
“Okay,” she replied and waited.
“Fine. It’s an apartment.”
“You’re going to check out an apartment?”
“Yeah, I made an appointment for two.”
“It’s one.”
“I know.”
“It takes an hour to get there? Where are you thinking about moving, Harlow?”
“It’s forty-five minutes away. I’m planning to get there early.”
“Forty-five minutes?!”
“It’s closer to my office,” Harlow said and crossed her arms over her chest. “I should be back around four. If you want to grab dinner or something, text me.”
“I could go with you,” she offered.
“You want to check out this apartment with me?”
“I could be a second set of eyes, yes.”
“For a one-bedroom apartment with one bathroom?”
“Never mind. You’re right.”
She shook her head and looked down at her computer.
“I didn’t think you’d have the time. That’s why I didn’t ask. I know you’re busy. And they had a slot open today, so I was able to book the appointment this morning after they had a cancellation.”
“Where are you moving that they can only squeeze you in if there’s a cancellation?”
“It’s a new building about ten minutes from my work.
I drive by it to get here, and I saw signs up that they had units.
I looked them up, but they do viewings by appointment only.
They look really nice from the outside and in the pictures.
I know you’re letting me crash here, but I need my own place. ”
“Have I been giving you the impression that I need you to move out?” she asked and closed her computer.
“You haven’t. You never do.” Harlow shook her head and slipped her keys into her pocket. “You always tell me I can stay as long as I want, but I still need my own place. I’m ready. I’ve got stuff in storage that I’d like to see again, and like I said, they could fit me in today.”
“Do you want me to go? If you don’t, that’s fine. I only want to go if you want me to.”
Harlow hesitated but nodded and said, “Sure. Let’s go. We can check it out and maybe look up another place nearby to see if they’ll let me look around without an appointment. Then, we can just grab dinner and bring it here. Sound good?”
“Okay. Yeah. Let me put my shoes on, and we’ll go.”
◆◆◆
It took forty-five minutes, like Harlow had said it would, but that was in no traffic at all, which meant that on the weekdays, it would easily take over an hour to see one another.
Considering she had gotten so used to Harlow being around already, Larissa hated the idea of her not being in the next room or even about fifteen minutes away, which was how long it had taken her to get to Harlow’s place or vice versa before the breakup.
It had also been twenty-six minutes in traffic, usually, but this would be harder and would give them less time together.
This would be the farthest apart they had lived from one another since meeting each other, outside of Harlow’s trip in college.
Larissa chewed on that thought and why it was bothering her so much as they went inside.
They’d both grown up around the university they would later attend, so trips back home during college had been less than an hour, and Harlow had moved closer to Larissa once she had gotten back from her yearlong trip.
That trip hadn’t stopped being at the forefront of Larissa’s mind since it had come up again the other day after their last interview with Maia and Winter.
Larissa had never cared that Harlow hadn’t graduated.
That had been Harlow’s choice, and she’d always respected it, but it had still been strange to her.
Harlow had been one year away from graduating with a degree in political science when her girlfriend of not-all-that-long, who’d been about to graduate herself, had asked Harlow to travel with her.
She’d expected Harlow to say no. The two of them had actually been talking about getting a place together off-campus.
She’d been struggling with grad school at that point, not leaving her apartment or the library for more than running errands, and Harlow had needed a roommate to save money on rent, so they’d started talking about how it would be nice for Larissa to have her around more and help her have some fun and for Harlow because Larissa could foot most of the bill thanks to her parents.
Harlow hadn’t been happy about that because, as she had told Larissa then, she had too much pride for handouts, but Larissa had worked up a spreadsheet showing that she would still be paying her share or paying in different ways, like doing the cooking for them, since Larissa hadn’t ever been good at that.
Instead, Larissa had sat down to watch a movie with her one night, and Harlow had told her that she would be leaving and that she’d already started packing.
Larissa had been able to pivot her plans easily enough, but she’d missed her.
Harlow had been gone for almost twelve months to the day and hadn’t even come back for the holidays.
Yes, they had talked on the phone, but it hadn’t been the same.
That had been the longest amount of time they’d ever spent apart.
Even when Harlow had been in a relationship and living with someone else, they’d still made time for each other, but with Larissa’s need to finish both a book she couldn’t get out of her mind, her actual dissertation that mattered for her degree, and Harlow possibly moving over an hour away and likely getting into another relationship soon in addition to being busy with her own job, things would get harder.
“What do you think?” Harlow asked her once they were inside the unit. “Nice, huh?” She hurried into the somewhat spacious kitchen. “Check out the new appliances.”
“All brand-new,” the leasing agent said.
“Stainless steel everything. Easy to keep clean. The building is only a year old, and you would be the first tenant in this unit since we just finished with this half of the property. We’ve got a lot of people interested.
This area is really booming,” he added to his sales pitch.
“Looks great,” Harlow stated. “There’s a pool, right?”
“Yes, indoor. It’s in the main building, but there’s an indoor walkway that takes you there.
It’s open from eight in the morning until ten at night.
You can have guests, but the limit is four, and if you want to have a party or something, you can reserve it, but the open times are still the same to respect the other residents’ spaces. ”
“I doubt I’ll be having parties, but Larissa here might want to go for a swim with me. Lou, you there?” Harlow asked, looking at her in confusion.
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry.” She smiled at Harlow. “You’re going to start swimming?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. My last place didn’t have a pool. This one does. And a gym, right?” Harlow asked the guy.
“Yes, I can take you there on the way back to the office. It’s new as well.
Tons of equipment, and it’s open a little earlier than the pool.
You also have a washer and dryer in-unit here behind that closet door, and a balcony off the bedroom.
No grills unless they’re electric, but we have outdoor gas and charcoal grills you can use.
They’re a free-for-all, so first come, first served, but we have six of them in total, and they’re rarely in use all at once.
On the holiday weekends, you do want to stake your claim early to be safe. ”
“Right. Cool,” Harlow replied. “Want to check out the bedroom with me?” she asked Larissa.
“Okay,” she said, silently calculating the best route to get from her place to this apartment on a day with traffic.
She could take the side streets to avoid a backup where two highways met, and that might save her a little time, but she’d get stuck at lights then. She would have to pull up the options on her computer and see what the best choice would be to use regularly.
“I like it,” Harlow said once they were alone in the bedroom. “I know the bathroom isn’t in the room like a master, technically, but I kind of like that. If someone is staying over and sleeping on my couch, they don’t have to wake me up just to pee in the middle of the night, you know?”
“Yeah,” she replied without offering much else.
“Do you not like it? You’re being weirdly quiet.”
“I like it.”
“B-u-t?” Harlow asked, lengthening the word.
“Nothing.”
“You’re lying,” Harlow said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s just really far away, Harlow. It’s at least an hour on the days when there’s traffic; maybe longer.”
“From your place?”
Larissa nodded.
“I know. But it’s much closer to my office and the city.
I’m not saying that I’m going to look for another job anytime soon, but if I do, there are more options for me here than by your place.
So, it’s a new building with all the amenities, and it’s closer to work and possibilities. I think I need to at least apply.”
“No, I know. You’re right. It’s very nice.”
“Yeah? You think so?”
“Doesn’t matter what I think. You’d be the one living here.”
“But I’d want you to come over and hang out. I don’t want you to hate this place.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever hated an apartment before. It’s just an apartment. As long as it’s not haunted or something, we should be fine.”
She smiled and put on a brave face for her best friend, despite worrying that she’d see Harlow less and less.
“It’s brand-new, so I don’t think there are former tenants to haunt the place.”
“You don’t know what was on this ground before they built the apartment building.”
“Shit. You’re right. Want to Google that when we get back to your place with dinner? If it could be haunted, I want to know before I sign a lease.”
“Sure.” She laughed. “And you should apply. It’s nice.”
“Would you come here to swim?”
“Drive an hour here to do something I don’t really like and drive an hour home after? Probably not.” She chuckled.
“You’re just mad that your parents made you lifeguard in the summers as a teenager, so you couldn’t really enjoy it. I, however, never learned, and we always said that–”
“That if we had a pool at either of our places, I’d teach you,” Larissa finished for her. “How are you this old and you don’t know how to swim?”
“I can do the basics, but I’ve always wanted to learn for real.”
“For all that swimming you never do?” she joked.
“How are we doing in here, ladies?” the leasing agent asked, walking into the bedroom. “I’ve got someone else I need to meet downstairs, if you don’t mind. We’re back-to-back today.”
“We’re all good,” Harlow replied. “I’m going to apply online. Is there anything I need to do or know first?”