souls of black | fever in, fever out

chapter 139: the new apartment

Sam closed the lid of the coffee maker and then she pressed the button at the front there with the pad of her thumb. She fetched up a sigh and then turned to the toaster for a couple of pieces for herself as well her teddy bear. She gave her hair a toss back and a shiver shot up her spine. Still damp from her shower the night before, but at least she slept well. In fact the more she thought back, she had slept her best in literal weeks. Eric's body comforted her as much as Genie's very presence did for her.
Eric himself padded then into the room with his arms stretched over his head. His smooth black hair spread over the crown of his head like a protective cap.
"'Morning, Sam," he greeted her in a broken voice.
"Good morning, Mr. Peterson," she returned the favor to him.
"Mr. Peterson... please. I am not a 'sir'."
"You're a 'sir' to me," she insisted. "Especially after what he did for me last night."
He then clapped his hands together.
"What's up?" she asked him.
"That reminds me I gotta call Chuck," he told her.
"What for?"
"I might be late for our recording sessions in a couple of days." He took two steps over to the phone and picked the receiver off of the rest. "I hope not."
"I'll stuff you into an envelope and mail you back to San Francisco on express if I have to," she vowed to him as she reached for a clean plate in the cupboard over her head.
"It'd be a pretty big envelope," he confessed as he held the phone up to his ear and pressed the buttons with the pad of his thumb.
"Would you like some toast?" she offered him.
"Oh, yes please!" he said and then he turned towards the phone. "Hey, Chuck, it's Eric. Just calling to say I'm at Sam's place right now. I'll be back in San Fran in about a day or so. She kind of needs a little comfort right about now that's why I'm here. Anyways, I'll talk to you soon." He hung up right then and ran his fingers through his dark hair.
A knock on the door caught them both off guard.
"That better be Marla and Belinda," she quipped, "I almost feel bad for staying here as long as I have."
"At least you're taking care of the place," he pointed out as he picked out a mug for himself.
"Still—this is their place," she insisted as she opened the door. "I have moments where I feel like I'm free loading with them." No one there, except for a little bright scarlet red envelope taped to the door panel. She turned it over and she recognized Scarlett's name scrawled on the front, and her heart skipped several beats at the very sight of it.
"What's that?" Eric asked her.
"Oh, pay day!" she declared.
"No shit!"
She shut the door and a swath of that fresh brewed coffee swept over her once she did that. She slid her finger underneath the back flap of the envelope and she revealed a check for forty five hundred seventy dollars.
"Whoa," she breathed out and she showed it to him, to which he gaped at her.
"Well, well, well, Miss Money Bags," he teased her with his hands pressed to his hands.
"I don't think I've seen that much money in check form before," she confessed. "My last paycheck was for about half of that." She gaped at him and he raised his eyebrows at her.
"You're making bank now," he said.
"I can put down a deposit for a new place now," she declared with a light fluttery feeling in her chest. "I was kind of waiting until I had a steady flow coming in like that. I could have done it like two weeks ago but I wanted to make sure. But I can actually do it for real now!"
"Where you going?" he asked her as the coffee maker gave off its finishing signal. He picked up his mug and poured himself a cup full of coffee. "You take cream? I can't remember if you take your coffee black or not."
"I do take cream! And I'm looking at the place right across the hall from here. I want to be near Marla and Belinda, and I like it here in Hell's Kitchen, too."
"Not too much of a move, either," he pointed out.
"That, too! I'm gonna need help, though."
"I'll help," he offered her with a poke of his head from behind the cupboard.
"Help when you can, Eric," she told him with a wave of her hand. "I've gotta do something with this check first and then talk to the landlady, and then get my bed and my couch out of here. So—no rush."
She stepped back into the kitchen as those pieces of toast popped up from the toaster against the wall.
"Okay, it's also now time to call up Aurora," she told him.
"What do you need to call her for?" Eric asked her.
"A little house warming of sorts," she replied, and she picked the phone off the wall and she dialed that familiar number. "I also have to talk to her about something else that's kind of important, too."
She held the phone up to her ear as well. It rang three times before the machine picked up.
"Hi, Aurora—it's Sam. I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be moving into my new place pretty soon here. I'm thinking I'll be right across the hall from Marla and Belinda's place so you can find it easily. I'll keep you posted in the meantime. I'll talk to you soon—and so give those kids a hug for me. Bye bye." She hung up right there and Eric held out his arms before him.
"I'll call Lars later on and see if he can help me, too."
"Lars might be a little guy but he and I can get that couch outta here," he assured her as he held her close to him. "Now, how do you like your toast?"
"A little bit of butter and some jelly. Where's Genie, by the way? I gotta feed her."
"I think she's still asleep—and how. I slid my feet out from underneath her and she never stirred or squawked at me."