The Art of the Hustle

by Edward Mullen

  ***

  We arrived at the front door of her building. She took out a key card and swiped it against an electronic sensor. The sensor beeped and she opened the door.

  “Do you want to come up for a bit?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said casually.

  We entered the apartment and she flicked on the lights and tossed her keys on the kitchen counter.

  “Would you like a glass of wine?” she asked.

  “That would be great, thanks.”

  This girl was amazing; she was really pretty, had her own place, was easy to get along with, and she drank wine – very sophisticated. I had never drank wine before, but I was not about to turn down her offer.

  She poured two glasses of wine and brought them over to the couch.

  “Do you drink red?” she asked as she handed me my glass.

  “Yes, of course. Thank you,” I said. I was trying to mask the fact I had never drank wine before. I didn’t want to seem too childlike. I took a sip and tried not to grimace. It tasted like poison. I took another sip.

  “How’s the wine?” she asked.

  “It’s good, thanks,” I said. Something told me the truth would not be appropriate here. The wine tasted like nail polish remover. I was not sure why people drank this stuff, have they not heard of juice? I would have preferred juice, but this would have to do. I took another sip.

  “I can’t get over the view you have.”

  “I know, it’s nice right?”

  “I had a few issues with my view this past week.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I changed apartments recently so now I overlook a nice park.”

  “What was your view before?”

  “A dark and scary alley.”

  I proceeded to tell her about my situation over the last few months with Darrell, his dad, and the apartment. After all, I could hardly be blamed for that.

  “That sucks,” she said. “I can’t believe your friend did that to you.”

  “Yeah, it turns out he wasn’t much of a friend.”

  “Why was his dad so mad at you?”

  “Because Darrell had been lying to him. He told his dad I was stealing and being lazy, which was not true at all. It was everything he was doing. So once his dad heard these things, his natural instinct as a father was to protect his son.”

  “Look at it as a blessing in disguise. You don’t need to be around people like that; they’ll only bring you down.”

  “You’re right. I need to be around people like you.”

  “Exactly,” she said, as we looked into each other’s eyes. By now, we were both feeling the effects of the wine. I glanced down at her soft and full lips. I had kept our first kiss short and sweet, but this time I was not going to hold back.

  C H A P T E R

  F I F T E E N

  The next morning I woke up to the sound of traffic. It was much noisier downtown than my neighborhood.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Good morning.”

  “Did you sleep okay?”

  “Yes I did, thanks for letting me crash here last night. Your couch is actually more comfortable than my bed.”

  “I hope I wasn’t being too loud this morning. Did I wake you?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “I made coffee if you want some.”

  “No, thanks, I’m not a coffee drinker.”

  “Are you hungry at all? There are bagels in the fridge, I also have muffins, cereal, toast, you can help yourself, okay? I still need to get ready for work.”

  I crawled out of bed and reminisced about the wonderful night we shared. Finally, something was going right for me. After folding the blanket she had given me last night, I went over to the smorgasbord of food. I felt like a king.

  “So, what are you going to do today?” she called out from the bathroom.

  “I need to look for a job. I’ll probably be downtown later if you want to hang out after work.”

  “Sure.”

  I finished my bagel and grabbed a muffin for the road. I walked her to the mall where she worked as a server at a pancake house.

  “Have a good day at work, I’ll see you later,” I said.

  After I dropped her off, I walked the five kilometers back to my apartment. I arrived back at my home a little before noon. I jumped in the shower and got dressed in my applying-for-jobs outfit.

  I went up the street to the internet café, printed out another two dozen résumés, and placed them neatly in a folder. I ate my muffin to power up on carbs before I made my way back downtown once again. I handed out my résumé to a few places along the way, but my main destination was the two-block stretch in the downtown shopping district and the mall.