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“I was going to say charming,” he said. “But that would’ve been a lie.”
“Thanks for the effort.”
I led him into my bedroom, expecting Carla to be up and gone by now. But she was still a lump in her bed. I winced. It meant I would have to explain why I was moving out early. I was hoping to pack and leave without any questions.
But even worse was the fact that there was a lump in my bed, too.
I clenched my jaw. Thank God I wasn’t living here anymore.
I opened the closet and pulled down my two duffel bags that served as luggage, then began pulling clothes off of hangers and tossing them in my bag. Braden stood awkwardly in the doorway, then decided he was most helpful holding my bag open so I had a larger opening to toss clothes in.
Carla rolled over in her bed. “Vitaliy! It is too early! You make too much noise!”
Vitaliy groaned from my bed. “What…”
“It’s me, Carla,” I said with barely restrained annoyance.
“Oh. Oh!” She sat upright in bed, a fake apologetic look on her face. “I am sorry. For Vitaliy. He is…” She trailed off as she realized what I was doing. “You going somewhere?”
“Yep.”
She waited for me to say more. When I didn’t, she asked, “You move out?”
I ignored her as I moved from the closet to the dresser we shared. I opened one of my three drawers and quickly tossed clothes into the next duffel bag, which Braden dutifully held open next to me.
“You cannot move out,” Carla said quietly. “You pay rent first. For rest of time on lease.”
I had intended to ghost her. To move out and never speak to her again. But I couldn’t do that now.
I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was because Braden was there, either bolstering my courage or making me want to appear stronger than I was. But I rounded on Carla, the shitty roommate slash landlord I’d had since moving to New York.
“I’ll pay you what I owe for this month, but not the rest of my lease. And I’m only paying half of what I owe, since my bed is occupied half the time I come home!”
Carla’s jaw dropped. She swept her hand toward my bed and said, “Vitaliy only sleeps when you are not here!”
“What?” Vitaliy said, sitting up in bed and rubbing his bloodshot eyes. He still looked drunk from the night before.
“Go back to sleep,” I told him.
A rush of Ukrainian words poured from Carla’s mouth. Vitaliy rose from the bed, now alarmed as he looked at Braden and me. A dark expression filled his face, and he took a step forward.
Braden dropped the duffel bag and blocked his path in one smooth motion. Suddenly he looked a lot larger and more intimidating than before, like his muscles were puffed up in his polo shirt. His right hand curled into a fist, all the cords of his arm pulling taut as he readied himself. It was like watching a human transformer, changing from one thing to another.
“There’s no problem here,” Braden said calmly. “My friend is moving out. Unless you want there to be a problem.” His tone suggested that would be a bad idea.
Vitaliy did the math on the situation, then shrugged. He curled back up in bed under the covers, letting out a long sigh as he got comfortable. Carla began shouting at him, but he waved an annoyed hand at her.
I was glad Braden was blocking Carla’s view of me, because I couldn’t stop smiling as I finished packing.
It didn’t take long to gather the rest of my belongings. The bed sheets were mine too, but I was happy to leave them behind. Then it was just a matter of gathering my few things from the kitchen: two plates, some coffee mugs I’d collected over the years, and a frying pan. I started to leave, then remembered one other thing. I threw open the fridge and grabbed my cheese, eggs, and english muffins.
“We can buy more,” Braden said. “The eggs might break…”
“It’s the principle of the matter,” I replied. “These are mine, damnit.”
Braden patted me on the arm. “No arguments here. I’m just the bag boy.”
“And the muscle,” I said.
