Stuck With You: A Sweet Romantic Comedy

Part 10

Bianca

Most of my furniture was ruined and half my belongings were already stuffed in boxes. The other half were spread around in an attempt to get them dry before they molded.

"You can store your stuff in my attic," Liberty told me when I called to tell her the bad news.

Liberty lived in a little Victorian cottage, crammed to the gills with books and cats. I wasn't sure how she was going to find space for all my boxes in her attic, but she had always been good at shoehorning things in, so I decided not to question her offer.

"Can I store myself in your spare bedroom?" I asked. "Rob and Camille are coming home, and I'm staying in their room."

Liberty didn't answer for a minute, which surprised me. When I'd first gotten flooded out, going to Liberty's had been the original plan. I'd only nixed it when I did the math and determined it would add an hour and a half to my commute.

"My spare bedroom is occupied at the moment," Liberty said.

"Don't tell me Dumas, Poe, and Kipling have put their paws down and demanded their own space."

Dumas, Poe, and Kipling are Liberty's cats. They rule the roost.

"No," said Liberty. "Adam's using it."

"Adam? Why?"

"Well, you know how he and Pia had moved in together?"

Pia was Adam's latest girlfriend, and the first one he'd deigned to cohabit with. He and I had shared similar views on the merits of maintaining one's own space; at least we had up until Pia came along.

I'd expected, when I'd heard the news Adam was moving in with Pia, that Liberty would be upset, but it hadn't seemed to faze her. She'd been too enamored with Professor McNotty to concern herself with Adam's love life.

"Adam and Pia broke up?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Let me guess: Pia kept the apartment, now Adam is homeless, and you swoop in like a lady knight in shining armor?"

"Something like that."

"You do know that Adam takes you very much for granted?"

"I don't see it that way. I'm just helping out a friend."

I'd have pressed my point, but I wasn't in a very strong position to argue that Liberty was always bailing Adam out when I'd just assumed that I could come crash in her spare bedroom anytime I wanted.

"You could sleep on the couch," said Liberty. "Or I could put down an air mattress on the floor in my room. The more the merrier."

"That's alright," I said. "It's an insanely long commute from your house, anyway. I'll figure out a way to fit myself in here with Rob and Camille until I find a new place."

Despite the inconvenience to me, Adam moving in with Liberty was a welcome development, as far as I was concerned. Adam and Liberty were clearly meant for each other, but it sure was taking them a long time to figure out what the rest of their near-and-dear had known for quite a while.

"How are things going with Professor McHotty?" I asked. "Was he impressed by the makeover?"

"Things are going really great!" said Liberty. "He asked me on a date!"

"Oh?"

"We're going to a concert in the park together."

"Oh?"

"Bianca! Why do you have to keep saying, 'oh?' like that?"

Liberty is pretty even-keeled, but she'd clearly been expecting a more enthusiastic response to the news that she had a date with Professor McHotty.