Post by StoryGirl83 on Apr 4, 2009 21:26:47 GMT -5
Chapter Sixteen – Ask Leo
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Leo entered the break room. It had been a long morning and he was glad for the break. It had been a long time since he had felt so busy and he liked the feeling. He needed something more to occupy his time. He enjoyed teaching his nephew, but he wanted to do something that helped people more, maybe like his older son he could volunteer at the hospital, use some of the skills learned both in med school and on the battlefield a lifetime ago. He’d once wanted to be a doctor, but he’d gotten off that track, so very far off that track. Was one hundred and two, nearly one hundred and three too old to go back to back to medical school? He laughed at the thought, but it lingered in his mind. Did he dare?
“Chris?”
Leo looked up surprised. He realized that he wasn’t alone in the break room. One of the young ladies his son worked with was sitting curled up on one of the chairs sipping some coffee. “How are you doing?” Rose. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that was her name.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, but her voice was unsteady.
“Are you sure?” he asked, sure he was right.
Rose laughed nervously. “Yeah. I just . . . I have something to decide. It’s important so I don’t want to decide wrong.” She shrugged. “But you’ve never been unsure of your decisions, have you?”
“I think everyone is at some point or another,” Leo told her. “Some just hide it better than others. Can I help?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. It’s just . . . David.”
David? The guy who works here? He looked at her puzzled. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Rose laughed slightly. “Yeah, maybe. I don’t know what to do. Jody just tells me forget the whole thing and Brian says he doesn’t know any of us well enough to venture an opinion. I don’t trust anyone else at work enough to even ask. And you’re David’s friend . . . or closer to him that anyone else at work. Promise you won’t just side with David.”
I hardly know the guy, he thought as he nodded. “That I can promise.”
Her smile brightened and she climbed off her chair to get some coffee. Her back was to him as she talked. “You know that we’ve been dating a couple of months now. And I’ve known him since he started working here last year, of course.”
Leo didn’t know that, of course, but he wasn’t about to mention it. Chances were high that Chris did know these facts.
She turned around and lifted the cup to her lips. When she had taken a sip she said, “There were some problems in my apartment, and I have to wait a month before I can move back in. Since it’s my landlord’s fault, I’m not being charged. I stayed with my sister for the last two nights, but she’s got a two bedroom apartment, a husband, three kids, and a parakeet. It’s kind of cramped and noisy. The baby’s just two months old and he doesn’t sleep the night. And the twins are only two. They don’t always sleep the night through. I can’t go on staying there, not for a whole month.”
She talks too much, he stared at her, not sure where any of this was going.
She didn’t seem to notice his silence as she kept on talking. Apparently once she started, she just kept on going. “I mentioned this to David last night. And that was after only one night at my sisters. He suggested I move in with him, for the month or longer if I wish.” She sighed as she sat back down. “I’m not ready for longer, but I don’t know if it’s wise to even move in with him for a month. Jody thinks I should just tell him to forget it, but I like him. I really do, Chris. What do you think?”
What do I think? He considered this. “Is there a third option?”
“Not at present,” she mumbled before taking another sip of coffee. “My landlord just told me and the others in that particular building to find places to stay for the month while he gets it fixed.”
“What exactly happened to your apartment, anyway?”
She grimaced. “Someone rather annoyed at my landlord decided to destroy his property. Windows, doors, walls. He managed to make it through all four apartments in my building before someone called the cops and he was stopped.”
“Didn’t anyone notice the noise of breaking windows?” Leo asked trying to keep amusement out of his voice. He really shouldn’t be amused.
She shrugged. “One of my neighbors has been known to break windows on numerous occasions. People gotten deadened to the sound of breaking glass. The vandal was actually rather careful only to ruin things owned by the landlord, so the tenants’ property was unharmed. I didn’t lose anything, but I have no place to live. So it’s my sister’s or David’s.”
“What about Jody?”
She frowned up at him. “What about Jody?”
“Can you stay with her for a month?”
Rose laughed. “We’d probably drive each other mad after a week. She’s rather bad about keeping roommates. I think she’s without one right now.” She sighed. “Still I don’t think I should be suggesting such a thing.”
“She doesn’t think you should live with David. See if she’s willing to offer an alternative, because from the way you talk I don’t think you want to live with him either.”
“Perhaps not. I just . . . I don’t know that it would all that good for our relationship.”
He looked at her surprised. “How’s that?”
She shrugged. “I read. Stats say that couples who live together are a lot more likely to end a marriage in divorce if they even get that far. I’d really rather not put a handicap on this relationship before it’s even had a chance.”
He’d lived with Piper before marrying her. And while they had plenty of problems, that hadn’t even come into the equation. “I see.”
She laughed a little. “You don’t do you.”
He said nothing.
She smiled. “That’s okay. You helped. I hadn’t thought of asking Jody, but I imagine I’d get more sleep living with her for the month that I am with my sister. And if she’s no, I’ll think of something else. Thank you.” She smiled as she put her mug in the sink and headed out of the room, leaving Leo unsure what to think of the whole encounter.