Three Alarm Tenant. Christa Maurice
of living that life again. Lonely and anxious when he was on duty and lonely when he wasn’t. No, she couldn’t go through another Gary.
“So don’t. Listen, you’re renting an apartment to this guy, not marrying him. A little perspective, huh?”
“But should I have dinner with him?”
“You’re going Dutch treat, right? It’s dinner with a friend. A new friend. Honestly Katherine, you need to get out some. Meet new people. Going out for fast food doesn’t mean you’re committed to marry him or sleep with him, or even kiss him goodnight for that matter.”
“I don’t want to lead him on.”
“You’re not. Friends go out to dinner all the time. You’d go out to dinner with me once in a while if I didn’t have the rugrats to deal with. Take it easy and enjoy being single. You got engaged out of high school. Be free for a while. Gary’s been gone for a long time. You’ve got to let him go.”
“It’s not that. I mean, he's gone and nothing’s going to bring him back. I know that. It’s not Gary at all. I don’t feel strange about going out to dinner with a man. I feel strange having dinner with this man.”
“Strange like your intuition is trying to tell you something, or strange like you've lost all your one-on-one social skills?”
Katherine thought for a minute. For no apparent reason, she’d trusted Jack immediately after she’d gotten past being alone with him in the house. And she’d thought about that, too. When the door clicked closed behind him, she hadn’t been afraid of what he would do. She’d been more afraid of what she might do.
“I don’t think he's an ax murderer if that’s what you mean.”
“Okay. Just remember that this guy is a tenant, not a roommate. Get me?”
“I get you.” Katherine bit her lip. She didn’t want to get Pam, but she did.
“I gotta go before the kids tear the place apart. Are you going to give him the keys?”
“I want to call his employer first. The book said to check all references.”
“Okay, you do what the book says and call me tomorrow. I want to know what happens tonight. Bye.”
“Good-bye.” Katherine hung up the phone and finished the game of solitaire she had on her desk. She wasn’t sure she’d gotten what she wanted out of Pam. She’d called her brash friend hoping for some kind of set answer, not a ‘see what happens.’ But then earlier, when she’d called his landlord, she’d hoped to find out he always paid his rent late and trashed the place. And before calling Pam, she’d called all his personal references hoping for something she could use for a reason to keep him out of the apartment. He acted rashly, took chances, didn’t keep house well, something. Instead the first one, Kevin Marshall, had said he was solid and reliable and he knew how to do plumbing. The second had been an old lady whose plants he cared for when she went to Florida to visit her niece. She claimed her plants were healthier when she returned than they had been when she left. The last one had been Archer’s former owner who assured her Archer was well behaved, except for a tendency to tear up newspapers, and a good watch dog.
They should have been things she wanted to hear. So why was she looking for reasons not to rent to him, and even better, not go to dinner with him?
He was too good to be true. Just because he had friends who would vouch for him, and a landlord bemoaning his fate at losing him, did not change the fact that he was a glory hounding firefighter bound to get himself killed and leave her alone again. But that shouldn’t matter because he would just be a tenant, right? If something happened to him it would be sad, but not the end of the world. She’d just have to find a new tenant.
Katherine swept the cards together and rubber banded them together before dropping them into their place in her desk drawer. If she was going to dinner with a friend, she should get dressed.
She went into her bedroom and looked over her closet. Her clothing choices went straight from school clothes to weekend sweats with no lengthy stops in between. Her school wardrobe would be too dressy for fast food, even on Valentine’s Day. What would Jack think if she turned up in a dress for this not-date? She hadn’t bothered to keep a decent casual wardrobe since Gary died. As things wore out, she got rid of them. It didn’t seem important when she never went out.
In the end, she chose a black chenille turtleneck and the least worn jeans she owned. This was as dressed up as she was willing to get for fast food. Running a comb through her hair, she cast a longing glance at her makeup. No, no makeup. Not for a non-date with a potential tenant. Even though the magazine she'd just gotten out of the library claimed that a little definition to her eyes would change her whole look. She reached for the eye liner.
At that moment she heard a knock at the door. Katherine glanced at the clock beside the bed. He was prompt, too. She picked up her purse and coat and headed down the stairs.
“Hey! We match.” Jack announced as soon as she opened the door.
The soft navy jacket was back over a pair of excellently fitted black jeans. The V of the jacket revealed the round neck of a gray knit shirt, making her wonder how much time he'd spent on his wardrobe. Shrugging into her black wool coat, she said, “It must be the season. I bring out the black in my wardrobe.”
“Here, I’ll get the door.” He hurried to the passenger side of the truck while she locked up the house. “So where do you want to go? We’ve got every fast food joint known to man within fifteen minutes of here.”
“Wendy’s is fine with me.” Katherine climbed in. The truck smelled Armor All clean and the dashboard gleamed in the cab light. She didn’t even see dog hair on the seat. Did it always smell that way, or had he taken the time to clean it out? And if he had, what did that mean? That she probably should have put on eyeliner.
“East or west?” He closed the door and spoke through the open window.
“West.” From that side of town, she reasoned, it would be easy to get a bus home if she needed one. She wanted to be prepared for anything.
“West.” He went around the front of the truck and climbed in the other side. “There are two out that way.”
Katherine sighed, biting back frustration. None of his references had mentioned this facet of his personality. “There are? Are you an aficionado of fast food locations?”
“I did some overtime out there, so I paid attention to what was around in case it caught fire.” He turned to her in the dark cab. “So, which one? The one that’s further away is newer and seems to have better service, but the one that’s closer is quieter. That I did learn from eating too much fast food.” He winked.
Katherine's breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t remember why his incessant questioning had annoyed her. He sat an arm’s length away. The last time she’d been in this position, she’d leaned over and kissed the driver. She bit her lip and leaned back against the door to check the impulse.
“I don’t care. Either one.”
As soon as the words were out she regretted them. She didn’t know how far out this other restaurant was, or if the buses ran there. At worst, she decided she could get a taxi, but she didn’t know how much it would cost. Assuming he would, for some reason, abandon her. Then he certainly wouldn’t get the apartment.
“So,” Jack said.
She turned to him. He sat looking at her for a minute. His hair caught the light of the street lamp. A lock of it lay oddly and Katherine had to concentrate on not reaching over to brush it back into place. She smiled tightly.
He smiled back and involved himself with backing the truck onto the street.
She sighed and waited. It wasn’t a date, she told herself. They were new friends commiserating about being alone on Valentine’s Day. But if that was the case, why were they sitting in an awkward, first date silence? Katherine