Things To Say Before I Go

Chapter 28: Nate

"Yo, King, can you fax me that expense report?" I gave him a thumbs up as he walked by. 

That was Dave, my new floor manager. He wasn't that bad of a guy, just very demanding and worked on his own time table. Hightower was an interesting company to work for. They were the biggest company in town and worked in a similar building to my old one. This time, however, I was only on the fourth floor. 

The people were nice, but not as welcoming as I would have hoped. That was kind of like my last job too. I didn't talk to anyone besides Jack and Mr. McDonald, and I only talked to him when I needed to. Despite being there for four months, I still hadn't decided if I really liked it or not. The work I was doing was pretty much the same, but I was hoping to maybe transfer departments. I finished filing out the expense report, signed my name at the bottom, faxed it out to Dave's office and grabbed my bag. 

************************

I ended up in that ranch house I was looking at online. It was nice, but it ended up being more space than I needed. I opened the door and tossed my bag down. It felt good to be home, but I did miss Mark. Instead, I now had a new roommate. Yeah, something I didn't notice online was that there was a tenant there looking for a roommate. Yeah, it was good to split the mortgage, which was an odd ordeal, but I wouldn't have been able to afford it by myself for very long. But, like I said before, I missed Mark. Not just because we had become best friends, but also because my new roommate was a complete asshole. 

His name was Richard, but I called him Dick, because I felt that more aptly fit him. He was a tall, muscular guy, but the kind of muscle that told you he went to the gym and only went long enough for it to show a little and then stopped going. He used an excessive amount of hair gel, which he never put away in the bathroom. This lack of attention to where he left things also spread throughout the house, because he had food and clothes left everywhere. If I didn't clean it up, let's just say you would've seen him on an episode of Hoarders. Probably my biggest problem with Dick was that he was such an asshole about women. I don't know how he did it,  but he had a new girlfriend almost every week and they would end up having such loud sex, it would drive me crazy. I grew accustomed to sleeping with earplugs. I didn't know what the women he was with saw in him, but I did my best to ignore them. I didn't meet them enough times to remember any of their names and I doubted Richard did either. I almost lost it on him one day when he asked me if I was gay. 

"Excuse me?" I had said. 

"Look, I'm not offended if you are, it's just I never see you with any women." 

"I have a girlfriend," I defended myself saying. "How have I never met her?" he asked suspiciously. 

Well because she lives in New York, I would never want you meeting her because you're an asshole, and knowing her, she'd probably punch you. But all I said was that she lived in New York. 

"Oh, okay," he said doubtfully. I figured I could get used to him, or if it really came to it, find another place to live. 

*************************

I sat down at my computer and started to scroll through Facebook. I didn't really use Facebook that much, I just did it when I got bored. Eventually, I gave up on trying to care about other people's lives and closed my laptop. 

I went out and got the mail from the box at the end of the street. I sifted through it as I made my way back to the house. Junk mail, junk mail, bill, bill, junk mail, package. It was an envelope with what felt like a book inside it. I turned it over. It was addressed to me...from Jess! I had no idea what she was sending me, but it was always good to hear from her. We Skyped a couple of days ago when I knew Richard wasn't going to be home, but who doesn't like getting presents?