Why Not Live?

Chapter Four - Vegetarian Spaghetti

Nathan POV

            After lunch, Charly continued to drag Nathan all over market street. They bought mostly fresh fruits and vegetables. Charly bounced around, in a way he was starting to realize, must be the normal for her.  Another thing he was coming to realize, was that Charly knew  everyone.

Like seriously, everyone.

It seemed like everybody on the streets waved, or called her name to say hi, or swooped in to hug her.  All of the shop owners seemed especially happy to see her.  There was even one particular man who had saved his best basket of strawberries for her, knowing that they were her favorite.  Nathan made a mental note of that as he was dragged on to pick up more things.

Finally, after they had officially loaded up on fresh tomatoes, onions, green peppers, garlic, assortments of home grown spices, strawberries, cheese, and a whole lot of other healthy stuff, they left and headed down the street to his apartment.   How does she know where I live? He wondered. You mentioned it in the coffee shop, idiot. Duh.

He stayed behind her as they passed his building.  Maybe they weren’t going to his house. “So,” he cleared his throat and stepped up to walk beside of her instead of behind.  Though the view from the back hadn’t been a bad one. “Where are we going?”

She didn’t look at him, but she smiled to herself. “My apartment. Not all these groceries were for you, you know.  And the day isn’t over yet.  You’re still stuck with me.”

Nathan’s eyes widened slightly, and he shook his head to throw off the thoughts trying to enter his head.  This isn’t like that. Definitely not like that.

Charly kept walking until she came to one of the old apartment buildings only a few blocks from his own.  Who knew she’d always lived this close.  He racked his brain, trying to remember seeing her before.  But her face didn’t appear in any memories before the park.

She opened the door and they stepped inside, where she headed straight for the elevator.  The lobby smelled a little musty, but Nathan didn’t pay much attention to it, seeing as Charly had grabbed his hand to pull him after her up the stairs.

“Why are we taking the stairs? Don’t you have an elevator?”

“We have an elevator, yes.  But I like the exercise I get from taking the stairs.  It’s refreshing.”

“Refreshing? That wouldn’t be my word of choice.  And you do realized we pretty much walked all over town this morning, right?”

She ignored him for the rest of their climb up four flights of stairs.  They finally pushed open the door to the fourth floor and emerged into a hallway that had the same musty smell as the lobby.  It’s walls were painted a dull brown, and the flooring was a light hard wood that looked like it hadn’t been swept in a while. Charly stopped suddenly, causing Nathan—who hadn’t been paying attention to where they were walking—to slam into her back.

“Oh!” exclaimed the poor older woman standing in front of them.

“Hello, Ms. Price!” Charly smiled.

“Well, hello, Charly dear,” The old woman, Ms. Price, answered with a bright smile of her own. She was even shorter than Charly, with a pile of white curls on her head and huge bright blue eyes.  Bright blue eyes that suddenly locked with Nathan’s, looking curious. “And who is your friend?” She asked Charly, while keeping her eyes on him.

Charly patted his face with the hand not holding his, which caught him by surprise. “This is Nathan Blake!”

“Ahh,” Ms. Price nodded knowingly and gave him a long look.