Page 109 of Forgotten Pieces

“What’s the plan?” Cam asks as she hands me a martini in a huge ass coffee mug with the wordsGive me coffee or give me deathon it.

“Where the hell did this mug come from?”

“I bought it when I got the vodka. I figured it was less likely to break than a giant martini glass. And I knew you needed a good healthy size drink.”

“I’m gonna be passed out by two if I drink this whole thing.”

Laney looks at me as she takes a sip of her martini in a normal foam hotel cup. “I’ve seen you drink a lot more than that, you’ll be fine.” I roll my eyes at her but she continues with her plan. “I wrote a few places down in the French Quarter but I think it will be too expensive and too loud.”

“I lived in Manhattan, Laney. Loud and expensive was my lifestyle.”

“Well you are going to need a job before you can live the loud and expensive lifestyle again.”

I take a long sip of my martini. “You’re right. Did you find any of those?”

“Who do you think I am?” she jokes. “You didn’t flip to the next page.”

“Damn, Laney, I need you in my life. Can you move to New York and be my PA?” Cam asks.

I turn to Cam. “You can’t afford a PA.”

“A girl can dream.”

Laney clears her throat. “I looked at jobs so you could maybe find something close to where you end up living. This place isn’t the best for parking so if you could walk you don’t need to worry about your car as much.”

“You are hired as my PA the second I make enough money to afford one,” Cameron interjects.

“If I could figure out a way to live in a city like New York, you have a deal.”

“Yes!” Cam shouts, pumping her fist in the air.

“But I like my small-town life so I don’t think it will ever happen.”

“Dammit,” Cam mutters.

“Anyway, back to the house search,” I say to Laney.

She flips her notebook over to her apartment page and turns her computer toward me and Cam. “I figure we can look at a few places in the Quarter and then maybe head to Marigny. It’s close enough to the Quarter but not as crazy, at least that’s what I read.”

“Sounds good. Maybe I could find an apartment in the middle of the two neighborhoods and work in the Quarter and maybe on Frenchman. I’m sure it will be hard for me to find a management job, but at least I can bartend for a while.”

“Let me show you what I found.”

We look at a few listings and knock off a few that seem too much or just don’t fit my style. After about an hour we create a walking tour of places we can see. Luckily most of the management offices were eager to show apartments to us today.

We set out on foot, me with my giant ass mug of vodka, and hope to find somewhere decent I can call home.

* * *

“This is fucking hopeless,” I say as we sit at a bar on Frenchmen Street. “We are never going to find anything I can afford that isn’t run down with fucking rats.”

Laney looks at the bartender and orders three shots for us. “It’s our first day, we will find something.”

“You can’t take off that much time Laney.”

“I got a week off. This is more important.”

“What about you, Cam?”

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