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“Ugh!” She yelled again. Her anger faded, slowly being replaced by a blind panic. “Now I need a place to live, and I can’t afford it! You know how fucking expensive this city is! I’ll have to move out over an hour away!”
She paused as the last of her anger left her.
“I should have gotten a higher paying job,” she muttered miserably.
“Wait, what?” Charlie said, pushing off from his car and walking in front of her. “This has nothing to do with your job.”
“Yes, it does! I can’t afford to live here on a teacher’s salary! I can’t afford anything!”
“But you like it. Doesn’t that matter?”
“It would if I had a home! But I don’t! You see how bad this place looks! And now it’s sold!”
She resumed her pacing. Her frantic mind was struggling to come up with a solution.
“You do have a home. You can stay with me.” Charlie said it as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“What? Charlie, I can’t stay with you forever. You have a life, and I … I can’t ask that of you. This would be permanent. I’m talking months.”
“I know what I’m offering.”
Violet stared at him, and then shook her head in disbelief. “But … I’d want furniture, and my own bed. I’d need a closet and -“
“I can make that work.”
“I… Why are you offering this?”
“Because …” he paused for a moment. “Because I’ve lived alone for a long time, and I’m tired of it. And because you’re my friend. Living together has been good for us. It doesn’t have to change.”
“But… you have furniture in your guest room.”
“I have an empty room. You can have it.”
“What if you have a date?”
Charlie shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’m … not dating.”
Violet sighed. “But…” She was struggling to come up with more reasons to say no.
“Violet,” he said, grabbing her shoulders. “Do you want to leave my house? Is it uncomfortable or bad for you?”
“No,” she said, honestly.
“Then, don’t leave.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “This is too much. I can’t ask this of you.”
Charlie sighed. “You need it to be even, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do, I-“
“I need help with certain bills then.” Charlie was blunt. “I need to save up for some bigger repairs, but the utilities are high, and it would be nice to have help.”
“You mean like the roof?”
Charlie sighed. “You saw it?”
“Yeah, I did. It’s going to need replacing soon.”
