New York, New Man

Chapter 9

Eliza flopped helplessly onto her bed. "What is it now? Still your job? I thought Alexander was helping you now," Angelica said as she ran a brush through her thick dark hair.

"No, I'm just..." Eliza weighed her options. She could tell Angelica about her slight crush on Alexander and face the possibility of a furious older sister or keep quiet and out of trouble. "Just tired."

Angelica nodded, spritzing herself with a perfume that smelled of roses.

Peggy was sitting with her legs bunched up beneath her on the sofa, Maria's head gently resting on her thigh as she comfortably sprawled out. "So, Maria," Peggy piped up.

Maria lifted her head and sat up, shifting her body to face Peggy.

"Yeah?"

"Uh, tonight I have this trip for Bio class," Peggy explained. "We're going upstate and camping in the forest for a night. You'll be fine here without me?"

Maria bobbed her head attentively.

"You sure? I can always cancel," Peggy twirled a strand of hair around her manicured finger.

"No, it's fine. I'll be fine."

Peggy smiled and pulled Maria into a tight hug, softly patting her shoulder.

"Alex, he's not answering calls, texts, nothing. I am worried about him," Laf sat with Alexander outside in the quad before classes started that morning. Adrienne sitting so close to Laf she was practically in his lap.

"I don't know, is he in any of your classes?" Alexander suggested.

"No."

"Wait, who are we saying about, mon amour?" Adrienne butted in.

"Herc. And it's talking about, not saying about," Laf corrected her gently.

"C'est deroutant," Adrienne mumbled.

Laf nodded and broke off into his own quiet conversation with her, leaving Alexander to just sort of sip his morning coffee and stare at the trees. There were other students walking to and from buildings and cars and overpriced apartments.

Eliza wasn't at Starbucks when Alexander got there after class. Instead, another young woman with strawberry blonde hair and rosy cheeks was behind the counter. "Hi, uh, you're the new trainee, right?" the girl greeted Alexander.

"Yeah. Uh, where's Eliza?"

"Oh, Elizabeth texted me, said she was sick," the girl sighed hazily. "I'm Abigail Smith, but you can call me Abby."

She held her hand out at a rather odd angle and Alex just tried to shake it as best he could.

"Now from what I've heard, you're not the best with actually making stuff."

Alexander chuckled. "Yeah, I'm still kinda-"

"Well, me neither. But you still gotta do it." Abby cut him off.

Alexander's jaw hung open. Great. Fantastic. This was a ginormous disaster waiting to happen.

At 9 pm, Abby decided she was tired enough and would go ahead and close. Alexander was exhausted and mildly frustrated. He wanted to ask Abby if they were allowed to do that, but he knew he was going to get some snarky reply, so he just went with it.

Alexander trudged home, tired and smelling like dark roast coffee. And wishing John was there.

He had barely sat down when his phone buzzed. A text from an unfamiliar number. It read, "Hi Alex it's Maria can I come over to your place thanks".