Page 9 of Tasty Cherry

Everything about her was a revelation. She responded like I was the greatest lover to grace her bed.

Then I realized I was the only one who’d ever been there.

And now she’s gone.

I turn from the window. Not gone gone. Her suitcase is still on the floor, and her purse is sideways on the dresser, the contents spread out.

Including her phone.

Did she run for a coffee?

I smile. Now that would be a great way to start the day.

The shower beckons, so I take a quick rinse while I wait for her to return. But when I step out, she’s still not back.

Nor when I dress. Or when I sit on the edge of the bed with the dregs of my phone charge. I have no way to contact her.

I pace the room, wondering if I should simply leave.

An hour passes. Did she get lost?

Then I spot her keys in the mass of items by her purse.

She wouldn’t leave without those.

Or her wallet.

Where did she go?

I’m not one to go through a woman’s things, so I don’t pull out her ID or search for clues. I locate my shoes, tie the laces and do the only thing I can.

I leave, skulking through the lobby and across the parking lot, no wiser about what happened to Mila.

I might never know.

When I get home, Alfalfa, my big, clumsy black Labrador, bounds to the door. My sister Arya sits on the sofa, sipping coffee in a hoodie and sweatpants. “Walk of shame?”

I shrug, rubbing both of Alfalfa’s ears at the same time. “Been a while. I was due.”

“I take it you’re over that she-devil for real, then?” She sits up. “It wasn’t her, right? She didn’t come back and win you over? I’m not giving up my bedroom.”

I release Alfalfa, who trots beside me as I move to a chair facing her. “No. Someone passing through. I stayed in her hotel room.”

“Whew. I didn’t want to have to move. Again.”

Arya lived with me before I dated Haley, and during that eighteen-month stretch, she ended up moving out. I own a house on the edge of Boulder, not far from Smiley’s bar. Arya is a painter, a free spirit, often unemployed. Currently, she teaches an art class for toddlers, which pays approximately one half of the gas bill.

It’s fine. It’s just been me and her since Mom followed her dream to return to India. Arya and I wanted to stay in Boulder, although we go see her for Diwali and always try to make her birthday.

Dad still exists, but mainly as a phone call around Christmas. We haven’t seen him in person since Arya was two.

I promised Mom I would watch out for my sister. Never let the real world get her down.

But she couch surfed for over a year, and I let it happen. Haley ran my life, right up until she ran out of it.

I won’t make that mistake again.

Which is why it’s probably a good thing Mila was a one-nighter. She was cute. Passionate. The perfect bounce-back.

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