TAKE IT EASY • TC ✔️

31: House Hunting

It took a long time for Lucia to grow tired of the view from the rooftop. Took a long time for her to realise that she had succumbed to the chill of the night air, took a long time for her to realise she'd rather not freeze herself to death.

So she slept on Saturday morning, slept through Saturday morning, and woke up in the early afternoon. Julius was still passed out on the pillow next to her, his tongue lolling out of his mouth comically, and he was snoring gently, little snuffled noises which made Lu giggle.

She wiggled her toes beneath the comforter. Rolled around a bit, stretching, trying to get rid of the crick in her neck from where she'd slept on it. Julius stirred at this, stretching himself out to the fullest extent, and Lucia reached out to pet his stomach.

"What did you think about the party?" she cooed, scratching the soft fur by his arms, and Julius rolled around happily under the attention, nuzzling into her hand. "It was good, wasn't it?" she said quietly, although she wasn't really talking to Julius any more. Lucia sat back against the headboard, petting him absent mindedly. She thought about several things, although a few of them were a bit fuzzy around the edges. She thought about Timothée's hand on her waist, hiding by the window, the bracelets on his wrists, talking to Saoirse, the rooftop. She thought about when he'd left her with a wish me luck! Thought about the fact that she had nodded, smiled, and done no such thing.

Which was horrible of her, really. It was a cruel thing to do, when he had seemed so excited, seemed so energetic about it. But she wished he'd stayed a little longer. Taken the time to sit down next to her, not just crouch. They could have had a nice, long conversation. Could have watched the lights of the city, could have sat there in silence and just been.

Julius rolled over onto his stomach and butted his head into Lu's shoulder, irritated that she'd stopped lavishing attention upon him. He did it again when she didn't respond, and Lucia glanced over at him. "What?"

Julius began to lick her ear, and Lu jerked away from him, laughing. "You are so weird," she scoffed, dipping down to kiss the top of his head before slipping out of bed. Julius trotted after her as she made her way to the kitchen, and began to eat his breakfast (plus a tiny piece of cheese, as Lu was in a particularly good mood). Lucia sat down at the table next to the remnants of yesterday's essay writing with a mug of instant coffee which looked and tasted like paint water. (She couldn't afford the nice stuff, let alone the machine with which to make it).

Lu stared out of the window, chin in her hands as she waited for the ersatz-like coffee to cool down enough for her to take a sip. She allowed herself to think about Marco, who hadn't crossed her mind since yesterday when she was putting on her pyjamas and went to look for her slippers under the bed, only to see the empty box with the lid askew. Let herself think about him sitting on the sofa, biting his nails. The look on his face when he'd spoken about Guilia. Let herself think about the door slamming shut behind him.

Lu drew her chair back and went to the home phone. Hopped up onto the counter, propped up her feet on one of the bar stools, and dialled Marco's number, which she'd written down in the phone book. Let her knees swish from side to side, held the cord in one hand and the phone to the other as she waited for him to pick up.

He didn't, not the first time, anyway. She left almost no time in between putting down the phone to end the call and putting his number into the rotary dial again. She'd tried calling him several times on her mobile, but they'd all gone to voicemail.

Maybe he'd be more willing to pick up if he couldn't tell who it was.

There was a crackle as the call connected, a faint buzz in the background simply because Lu's phone was old, and Marco's voice came through the handset. It was rough, gravelly, and consisted of one word.