“So it turns out that my lease ends today, not on Monday like I thought.”
Maggie at down into the booth next to Rachel, rather than across.
“Really? You have to sit here?” Rachel moved her water closer to her, and pushed herself into the corner.
“Yes. You’re warm. And I can lean on you for support in my time of need.”
Maggie leant up against Rachel and sighed loudly.
“So what are you gonna do? You’re packed, right?”
Maggie didn’t answer.
“You’re packed, right? Maggie?”
Maggie sat up and faced Rachel and put on her pouting puppy face. Rachel was not amused but she also knew where this was headed and knew the sort of relationship they had. She was packing Maggie today, then. So much for getting any of her own work done.
“Do you at least have boxes?”
Maggie gave Rachel a thumbs up. They ate breakfast while Maggie listed all the ways she specifically wanted to categorize her books, and they took turns coming up with creative names for the various categories which they would write on the outside of the box so they knew how to unpack them again.
Before they arrived at Maggie’s house, as they were walking up the stairs and Maggie was pulling out her key, she said “So I think Anders is going to help me, too. He said he’d be here in a little. He has a truck, so…”
Rachel had no idea who Anders was, but the fact that Maggie had waited until now to mention him was suspicious. He arrived on time, a few minutes after they’d entered the house and Rachel’s will to live had left her as she looked at the unpacked mess that was strewn all over every floor of every room. Maggie did, as she’d said, at least have boxes.
“I have to be out by midnight. It was supposed to be this morning but my landlord is a sweetie.”
Maggie was taping a box together, so, so slowly, and Rachel was getting frustrated.
“Oh you mean you flirted with him?”
Maggie gasped, and Anders chuckled a little. He was a thin, tall, blonde man who was wearing a beanie in late spring. Every so often he’d push it back to scratch his hair, which was clearly damp with sweat. Rachel thought he should just take the beanie off, he would be cuter without it, but maybe he was hiding a bald spot.