Autumn in Philadelphia Trilogy

Saudade: The Apartment

There are several references and a small flashback taken from the short stories in the AiP series, Birthday Wishes & Valentine Kisses and Christmas to Last a Lifetime.

It's briefly mentioned what Jon did between college and getting hired at John Adams High. This is a nod to an unsold pilot Tony Quinn did with Michael Jacobs a few years before BMW called Black Sheep.

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It was 7 a.m. on his third day of vacation and Eli was at work.

Not because he had to be but because it was more peaceful than being at home.

Young, inexperienced interns ran around the station trying to impress the higher ups either by being too good at their jobs or schmoozing or both. The one assigned to him and his substitute had potential to be very good at what she did if she could ever get past the anxiety that caused her to stumble over herself in words and actions.

Despite the upheaval the interns caused, the misfiled papers, frequently spilled coffee, and getting lost to and from the bathroom, Eli would still rather be at the studio redirecting them than be at home.

Katherine had taken over his place the night before to do his packing for the trip to Philadelphia for him. The moment she stepped in the door she announced that the place was in need of a major overhaul of organization which had to be done before they left.

What caused this response he couldn't say. It wasn't like she hadn't been to his place before.

With Katherine in a cleaning frenzy and staying the night, he camped out at her place, playing Titanfall with Dylan and eating pizza. It was a nice reprieve from having to be on call 24/7 for his girlfriend whose demand for attention had only increased since their mutual vacation began.

The attention demand was an interesting change, he had to admit. And a very curious one.

Before spring break began, the intensity of her interest in him came and went, and Eli now saw a direct correlation to the time she spent with Jon. The more she was with Jon, the less interested in him she was. With his best friend temporarily out of the picture, her focus on him was concentrated and he didn't care for it.

However, it helped him understand Dylan's frustration fully. The teen often complained about his mother's focus being constantly on him, to the point it was overwhelming. He admitted that part of the reason he liked Eli being around so much was because it lifted that weight off him.

And what a weight it was.

Eli pushed away from his desk and put a foot on top of it. He clasped his hands behind his head and wrinkled his nose.

Katherine expected every moment he had devoted to her. Even in tasks for which there was no logical reason for him to be around, she insisted that he was. At one point, she instructed him to wait for her outside of the bathroom.

In her house.

It was a request he not only ignored but one that caused him to go for a walk around the block and reconsider his life choices.

He wasn't without sympathy for Katherine. He knew she spent most of her life feeling overlooked and unwanted, which was why she sunk her nails into whoever would pay even a little bit of attention to her and would become extremely jealous of anything that took that attention away from her.

He wasn't without sympathy, but she seriously needed to work through this extreme reaction to normal relationship dynamics with someone who could help. That reaction was, in part, what killed her relationship with Jon all those years ago.