by Kate McLay
Nancy’s expression was half flinch, half smile. "I sort of have left my old roommate in the lurch when I moved in with Jake. Let me give you her number. She's amazing! I'm sure you're just what she needs."
Chapter Four
"I can't talk more about this now, Mom. I'll call you back tonight." Alyssa was sitting at her desk in her office and trying to speak quietly. It wasn't yet lunch and her mother had already called twice.
"This is important, I'm sure you have time." Kim Barnes knew how to manage time. Both hers and her family’s. As the mother of seven children, she could put a field commander to shame when it came to ensuring order among her troops. As nervous as it made Alyssa to speak on the phone while she should be working, she couldn't just hang up. She’d make her mother feel horrible if she did. "Now, give me Nancy's number and I'll talk to her. I can't believe she'd just leave you like that."
'Like that' was not the full story. No matter how mad she was, Alyssa hadn't been able to tell her mother the complete truth. Mrs. Barnes would have blown a gasket at the thought of an unwed couple living together. And though Alyssa would never live with a man before marriage, she didn't judge Nancy for it. She knew everyone was entitled to their own beliefs. Her mother was not quite so open minded.
With such a strong-willed mother, sometimes it was better to omit things rather than face the consequences. Alyssa didn't like to think of what her family’s priest would say to that, but he wasn't in Chicago either.
Alyssa worked in a little office that had been a storage closet until she started. There were still shelves of paper towels and pens on the wall, but her desk fit and she had a door that closed. Of course, if she wanted the cool air from the air conditioning to reach her, she needed to keep the door open. But right now, she was shut in, trying to get her mother to hang up.
"Mom, I'm going to be okay. I put out an ad and I'm asking around at work. I think I'll find someone soon." The important thing was that she sounded confident. It had been more than a week since Nancy left and Alyssa had spoken to four different potential roommates.
One, Jamie, had actually been a guy, so he was right out. Caroline had insisted that she would pay in Bitcoin and that seemed sketchy. Kayla was nice, but she couldn't move in for another two months, and there was just something off about Brenda.
"Send me the ad so I can look it over." Mrs. Barnes insisted. "We wouldn't want one of those weirdos that live in the city to move in. What if she's a les—"
Alyssa nearly jumped when her desk phone rang, "My boss is calling, Mom. I'll call you when I'm on my lunch break. Love you!" Alyssa hung up her cell phone and reached for the phone on her desk, "Hello! Yes?"
"Hey Alyssa, I had some questions about that report you sent me. Can you drop by my office when you've got a minute?" Martha Raymond, the director of the Chicago BizzBuzz office and one of three company founders asked. She was about three hundred rungs above Alyssa on the corporate ladder, but had immediately taken a liking to her.
"Sure!" said Alyssa, a bit more animated than intended. Ending the call with her mother had done it. She wasn't up for another lecture on "those city values." Alyssa knew that her mother had a big heart, but she was sometimes too traditional, too set in her ways to understand that other people lived differently.
Pushing thoughts of her mother's values aside, Alyssa scooped up a notebook and pen and headed for Martha's office. It wasn't a long walk, BizzBuzz's Chicago office was still growing and they were crammed into a space that would be too small by Christmas. As director, Martha had one of the bigger offices, but even she couldn't fit much more than two guest chairs and a book case next to her desk and computer.
Martha was standing, looking out the window. When Alyssa had first met her, she'd been struck by her size. Martha was an inch over six feet tall and muscular to boot. Her eyes were brown and had always made Alyssa feel safe, comfortable. They almost seemed familiar. She wore her dirty blonde hair long, in waves past her shoulders, and liked to mix conservative skirt suits with outrageously vibrant blouses. Today, she wore navy with a gold, sparkly cheetah print silk top.
Alyssa took a seat on the other side of the desk and waited for Martha to sit. When she did, Martha didn't get straight down to business. "Are you alright?" She truly looked concerned. Alyssa had heard horror stories of other people's bosses at their first jobs, but Martha had never been anything but kind to her.
Alyssa smiled, "I'm fine." Lying was wrong, of course, but she wasn't going to spill all of her personal problems to a woman she didn't know. She pushed aside all of her roommate troubles and her mother's concerns, it was time to get down to work. If she slacked off here, she'd be in even worse shape than she already was.
But Martha didn't hold her long. After asking for some clarification on one of the reports that Alyssa had put together about user profiles, Martha mentioned that she'd be in Toronto for the next few days meeting with potential investors and that the report would be very useful for a Canadian expansion.
In less than ten minutes, Alyssa was free and headed back to her office. Once she was inside, she saw the light on her cell phone blinking, indicating that she had a voicemail. She cringed, expecting another message from her mom, but the number was unknown.
She almost left it for later, but then she thought that if she did, she'd completely forget. What if it was important?
Alyssa dialed the voicemail number and impatiently waited through the prompts to get to her mailbox. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally made it to the last option and pressed #1 to hear the message.
"Um, hi. Nancy gave me your number, she said that you were looking for a roommate.” She had a nice voice. Nice enough that Alyssa didn't immediately dismiss her because she was one of Nancy's friends. Once bitten and all that. “My name's Hannah and I'm also looking for a room. Um... yeah, if the room's still available, can you give me a call? Or text. Thanks, bye!" Despite the association with Nancy it couldn't hurt to meet with the nice sounding girl.
She shot off a text inviting her to meet up that night for coffee. If she was lucky, she'd have a roommate by morning.
Chapter Five
An avalanche of bad luck had Alyssa jogging down the street more than fifteen minutes late for her meeting with Hannah. First, she'd been held back at work, trapped in a phone call with a client in LA. Then, that call had ensured that she missed her normal train home. To make it even worse, the train she finally gotten on was delayed due to debris on the tracks. And finally, when she was sure it couldn't get any worse, the clouds opened up and dumped waterfalls of rain down on the Chicago streets.
Alyssa was drenched and running, having given up all hope of keeping any of the rain off of her. She'd left her umbrella at home and her jacket didn't have a hood.
By the time she made it to the coffee shop, she was so frazzled that she could barely think. She saw Hannah immediately. She would never know how she knew that the girl sitting by the window was Hannah, but it felt like a little zing of recognition when through her.
Hey, it's you, a part of her thought with a little smile.
She was pale and thin, probably close to Alyssa's own age of twenty-three. Her hair was dyed blonde, but her natural brown showed through at the roots and the color wasn't consistent, making her hair almost glow in the yellow light of the shop. That hair was cut short, and shaved in close on one side and hanging down to her chin on the other. Hannah was wearing a big, bulky cable knit sweater with an even bigger Army jacket over it. The jacket dwarfed her, making her appear almost childish.
Their eyes met across the room and Alyssa felt that zing again. She smiled and waved nervously, suddenly unsure of what to do and conscious that she was staring. Hannah smiled back and her entire face lit up. She transformed from sullen hipster to beautiful girl with that shift in expression.
Beautiful?
The rain must have been going to Alyssa's head. She didn't normally notice girls like that. Models and actresses, sure, who didn't notice the
m? And she could compliment clothes or a hairstyle with the best of them, but she rarely really looked at a girl. That was a little... well, it was a little too much for her.
She wasn't like that.
Not that she had a problem with... that.
Someone opened the door behind her and Alyssa realized that she was blocking the entrance. It kicked her into gear and she walked over to Hannah's table and offered her a hand. "Hi, I'm Alyssa. You called me earlier."
Hannah nodded and took the offered hand, her grip firm. "I'm so glad you could make it. Sorry about the weather."
Alyssa took her seat and shrugged out of her coat. She ran a hand through her auburn hair. She could already feel the frizz starting, even as the tips still dripped heavy drops of water down her shirt. "It's not your fault. Is it? You're not a wizard, right?"
Hannah raised her fist up to her mouth and coughed, suppressing a laugh. "No, I failed out of Hogwarts during my first year."
She was funny. Good. Nancy rarely thought Alyssa's jokes were funny. "That's probably for the best. It's not the safest environment for a child. Have you seen those staircases?"
This time, Hannah laughed in earnest. She was hiding a ray of sunshine within her and Alyssa had the strangest urge to coax it out so that the whole world could see it. She didn't know Hannah, but there was a cloud of sadness around her and Alyssa wanted to help, wanted to get to know her so that she could make it better. "How do you know Nancy?" Even though she already felt comfortable with Hannah, Alyssa wasn't going to risk another flaky situation.
But Hannah was already shaking her head, "I don't, not really. We worked together a few years ago and now just see each other around sometimes."
Good. That was good. If Alyssa saw Nancy again, she might just do something violent, like spit in her drink. She didn't want to have a roommate who would invite her over all the time. "Okay. The rent is $850 for each of us, and it doesn't include utilities and I don't have cable. It's like another $50 for internet. Does that sound like what you're looking for? And when did you want to move in?"
She knew she was laying it out there quickly, but she wanted to get past the little stuff. If none of that worked for Hannah, they could both just walk away without wasting each other's time.
Chapter Six
God damn it, she was cute. And a redhead. Hannah had always had a thing for redheads. She'd walked in the door, half soaking wet, and all Hannah could do was smile. Alyssa held herself like she'd give the rain a stern talking-to for inconveniencing her.
And once she'd gotten closer, Hannah had started flicking off the check marks in her mind. Red hair - check. Blue eyes - check. Full lips - check. Heart shaped face - check. That air of girl next door innocence that you knew was hiding an inner freak - check. Five minutes of talking and Hannah wanted to eat her up.
And all of the particulars of the apartment sounded perfect. She could afford it, and the pictures that Nancy had shown her had been good enough to give her an idea of the space.
"That all works for me," she said, answering Alyssa's question. "And I can move in as soon as you are ready. If you'll have me, I mean." She knew that she should be asking more, but in five minutes she felt comfortable with Alyssa, like she could trust her with anything and not be let down. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt that way about someone so quickly. It didn't make sense, but sometimes you just met someone and you knew.
Alyssa brightened and sat up straight, the movement jerky, almost like a jump. "Great! I'm looking for someone to move in as soon as possible. Oh, there's just one more thing." She said it like it would be a non-issue, like the apartment didn't allow iguanas or something.
"What?" Hannah had her hands wrapped around her coffee cup to keep her warm.
Alyssa's face scrunched up and she looked just a little apologetic. "No boys overnight. I know I'm an adult," she rolled her eyes as if she'd given this speech before, "But I'm just more comfortable if there's no... well, no boyfriends staying over. And if my mom heard, she'd have a heart attack and drive here at roughly the speed of light to drive me back to Iowa." She held up a hand and waved it around. "That's not what I want. Obviously."
"Boyfriends won't be a problem." And the suggestion was a gust of cold air over Hannah's attraction. This girl was straight. Bummer.
No, that was good. She was taking time off from dating. She didn't want to dive head first into another relationship and have it end up like it had with Morgan. Even thinking her name caused Alyssa to wince internally. She'd thought that Morgan had been straight at the beginning, and that she’d realized that she was bi or into a lesbian or something. Look at how that turned out.
Hannah wanted the next woman she dated to be sure of her sexuality. She didn't want to be some straight girl's lesbian phase. And she had no interest in 'turning' anyone.
"I'm not seeing anyone right now," she said. "It's why I need a new place. Me and my... well, I sort of walked in on h..."
Alyssa's hand covered her mouth as her jaw dropped open. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I can't believe he would do that to you," she interrupted before Hannah could get it all out.
"Thanks. And it was she." It was best to get the whole 'queer thing' out of the way before they ran into any goofy or violent misunderstandings. Hannah thought Alyssa seemed cool, but homophobes seemed like normal people until the hate came pouring out.
"Oh!" Alyssa's cheeks burned bright red. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to — that is, I'm totally okay with that!" Her voice had jumped up an octave and she was waving her hands madly as she talked. "I was the treasurer for my college Allies Against Homophobia. Well, in my junior year. I was just a member the other years."
Hannah laughed. "It's okay. I got it." She was so earnest in her declaration that Hannah felt immediately mollified. Usually farm-girl sweetness felt fake and saccharine, but Alyssa seemed to be the real deal.
It took a moment, but Alyssa stopped gesturing and lowered her hands. "I guess that means boyfriends won't be a problem." She kept talking before Hannah could say anything. "So, do you want to see the place? If you can pay - by check, right? You're not into cryptocurrency?" Her brows scrunched down into a comically serious expression.
"What?" Hannah had never heard the word. It sounded sci-fi and fake.
"Never mind." Alyssa shook her head, "Paying by check will work?"
Hannah nodded, "Of course. And how about Wednesday? If it all looks good, I can move in over next weekend?" She'd need to stay nearly another week with Morgan, but she didn't want to look like she was rushing into this.
"Okay, yeah. That's good." But Alyssa didn't seem as excited.
"Or I could check it out tomorrow?" It was already Thursday, but Hannah wasn't busy. "And move in this weekend?"
Alyssa brightened up, "That's perfect!"
It really was. They set up the time to meet and chatted some more before each of them had to leave. Hannah had a performance to run to and Alyssa was starting to look exhausted. Saying their goodbyes, they made a break for it when the rain finally let up.
Chapter Seven
Three days later, Alyssa had a roommate. Hannah had come by on Saturday to view the place and by Tuesday, all of her stuff was piled in her room, waiting to be unpacked. There was less of it than Alyssa would have expected, just two big suitcases and a guitar case.
Now that the pressure was off, she practically skipped down the hallway to her office. She no longer needed to worry that she wouldn't be able to afford rent! Her roommate actually seemed kind of cool! Maybe she'd actually make a real friend.
Okay, that got a little too real.
But it was the truth. In her time in the city, Alyssa hadn't made any friends. She'd thought that she and Nancy were headed down that road, but after the boyfriend fiasco, she never wanted to see Nancy again. And other than the occasional trip to a local bar with Nancy, she'd spent all of her time at home or at work. Well, most of her time at work. She'd felt guilty dipping out at 5:30 last week to go meet Hannah,
but it had been worth it.
With her roommate troubles settled, she could get back to focusing. There were probably a hundred other people in the city just as qualified as she was to do her job, and she wasn't going to risk losing out because she'd gotten distracted.
This time, when Martha called her down to meet, Alyssa was ready. She had the reports for Canadian engagement saved on her tablet, and a summary memorized. She also had a list of potential promos ready to suggest if Martha asked for them.
When she made it down the hall, a short blonde woman was kissing Martha goodbye. She smiled at Alyssa as she left and closed the door to the office behind her. Alyssa looked at the closed door for a long moment before swinging her head back to Martha who was busy shuffling papers on her desk and not looking at Alyssa.
Only when she tried to speak did Alyssa realize that her mouth had dropped open just a little bit. She snapped it shut and gave her head a little shake. "Who was that?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
When Martha's head snapped up and her eyes narrowed, Alyssa knew that she'd failed. "My wife, Lily. She was just dropping off some lunch since she had a meeting downtown." The tone wasn't confrontational, but it invited no questions.
Alyssa didn't have a problem with gay people. Not at all. She was an ally with a capital A. No, capitals on all the letters: ALLY. Aly the Ally. And at school, she'd had plenty of friends with girlfriends. That's what happened at a women's college. But a part of her was still shocked when she saw people living so... openly.
Her mother had always coached her to pray for those who strayed from the path of righteousness, that they might one day find happiness. But it wasn't until she moved out of her mother's house and had become ensconced in school that she realized that there was more than one path to righteousness, and that the people who didn't live the way her mother deemed appropriate weren't necessarily wrong.
