Loving Her

Letting my best friend, Keith, talk me in to putting an ad online for a roommate was something I never thought I would do. If I weren’t such an introvert, I would have told him not to worry about it. But when he said it would make it easier for me since I wouldn’t have to go out searching and asking random people, I felt like it was the best idea in the world. With the increase in rent, I really didn’t want to waste time finding someone. I never imagined my ad would attract the girl of my dreams.

♥♥♥

I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing. Not bothering to sit up, I reach over and grab it off my nightstand. “Yeah?” There is no playing off that I just woke up out of a dead sleep, my voice sounds too raspy.

“H…hello?”, says a female voice.

I pull the phone away from my ear and wipe my eyes, so I can look at the number. Someone must be playing a prank on me because I don’t have any female friends. It’s an unknown number. I put the phone back to my ear, “Who is this?”

“Oh, my name is Riza. I saw your ad saying you were looking for a roommate and to call this number. Sorry about calling so early by the way.”

Hearing her name wakes me up a little more and I sit up. Interesting. I knew a girl with her name in high school. Had no idea the name was so common.

“Are you still there? Did I call at a bad time?”

“No, I mean yeah, I’m still here. You said your name is Riza?”

She chuckles, “Yes. Are you still looking for a roommate, or did you already find one?”

“I’m still trying to find one.”

“Good! Can I come by to look at it today? I’m in between places at the moment and kind of need to speed up the process of finding a place.”

My hand runs down my face before I answer her. I had no expectations of having someone come over today. I’m going to need some time to clean up. I look over at my clock, it’s 7:30am. “That’s fine. Is 12’o clock good for you?”

“That’s perfect.”

“I’ll text you the address then. Oh, and my name’s Lou.”

“I know. Your name was on the ad.”, she laughs.

“Right. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Bye Lou.”

Hanging up the phone, nervousness begins to wash over me. Maybe it was the way she said my name? Or it could be that a complete stranger is coming to my house? Now that I think about it, putting an ad online may not have been a bright idea. If anything goes wrong, I’ll make sure to kill Keith right after.

I get out of bed and head for the bathroom. I’ll clean myself up first and this place second. I turn the water on in the shower and slide my boxers off, and a thought comes to mind. Hope she won’t mind having to share a bathroom with me. I’ll need to make sure I start bringing my clothes to the bathroom with me. The thought of someone being unfortunate enough to see me naked makes me chuckle. I’ll make sure to lay down some rules. Starting to feel like I’m jumping ahead of myself here.

Once I’m out the shower, I rush through my regular routine so I can get started on cleaning this place.

…

I turn the vacuum cleaner off and look to the clock on the wall. 11:40. Still have twenty minutes before she’ll be here. Maybe I should take another shower. Wasn’t really planning on getting as dirty as I did, but this place was a disaster.

Before I can make up my mind, there’s a knock on my door. She must be one of those people that always show up early. Guess that could be a good thing. I leave the vacuum in the middle of the room and head for the door. When I get to it, butterflies start to flap around in my stomach.

Random thoughts begin running through my mind. What if she’s crazy? What if she doesn’t like this place? What if she doesn’t like me? What if we…

Another knock on the door interrupts my interrogation of what if’s. I open the door. This cannot be right. So, Riza isn’t such a common name after all. My eyes are wide as I continue to stare at the girl, no woman, standing on the outside of my door.

I can’t keep my eyes from scanning her from head to toe. With her hair pulled back in a bun, to her caramel skin that’s showing through her low-cut top, she is every bit of beautiful as the last time I saw her. The girl that I secretly admired for four years of my life. She clears her throat, and my eyes trail back up to her face, locking with her brown ones.

“You’re Lou, right?”, she smiles at me with a confused look on her face.

Whatever confidence that I might have been able to scrape up this morning, has now jumped ship. She doesn’t even remember me. I haven’t changed that much since high school. I’m definitely in better shape now, and my hair is longer, but I still look the same outside of that. I know we weren’t close friends, but we basically had every class together from freshman year until we graduated. How could she not remember me?

I let out a deep sigh and decide to play along with not knowing who she is, “Yeah, I’m Lou. You must be Riza?” I try to force a smile, but who knows how scary it probably looks.

She gives a small laugh, “Can I come in, or is this as far as I go?”

“Y…yeah, come on in.”, I step to the side and open the door wider so she can pass me. The scent of strawberries fills my nose as she walks in. Shutting the door, I watch her as she walks into the middle of the living room looking around the apartment. I clear my throat to get her attention, “It’s not huge, but it is a decent size for two people.”

She turns to me and chuckles, “Well, it’s a good thing size doesn’t really matter to me.”, she sighs, “Look, I’m not going to lie to you, I’m in a hurry to find a new place and it seems like you’re in a hurry to find a roommate.”, she walks back over to me, “If you’ll have me I would love to be it.”

Sweat begins to form on my forehead with her closeness. She’s making me feel more awkward than I already am. I nervously smile at her, “Sure…but there are some rules we would need to set, if you’re okay with that.”

“Whatever you say I’ll agree to do it, I promise.”

I cock an eyebrow at her, “Why are you in such a rush to move in with a stranger? I could be a psychotic killer or something along the lines of that.”

She takes a step back from me and looks around the place again, “Your place definitely doesn’t scream psychotic or killer. And trust me I’ve dealt with much worse.”, she laughs, “So what do you say?”

I had a crush on this girl for years, she doesn’t remember, she seems like she’s running away from something to jump into living with me without even seeing the rest of the apartment, and she’s eager to agree to any rules I set. This is not a good idea. “Sure!”