Page 76 of Who's Playing You
It had taken me over a year to secure both apartments, but it made things easier for me for the times when I came to check on Scottie before I moved to New York full time. Likewise, it’d made things easier for when I installed the security cameras in her apartment. The place above hers is the one I’d stashed some supplies, which I now needed to grab, because after tonight, there was no need for the two apartments I was renting anymore, or for Scottie’s place either.
With that, I turned on the faucets in the kitchen and bathroom, turned the shower on and plugged all the drains. I shoved a wadded up T-shirt into the toilet, lifted the tank and finagled it so that the water kept running. I then walked out the front door, and locked it.
After I walked out of the building I drove home, and awaited her call.
32
SCOTTIE ANDERSON
Icouldn’t believe my bad luck. First Bessie died, and now I was homeless. All in the same fucking week.
My apartment had flooded, like literally flooded! Apparently my seemingly non-existent upstairs neighbor wasn’t so non-existent because he, or she, had left the water running before leaving and it not only flooded their place, but mine too and most likely the bottom apartment below mine as well.
The landlord had come out right away when I called him in hysterics. He told me that I needed to grab what I could and get out. He was calling his insurance company and God-knows-who to try to salvage what could be salvaged before the water seeped into the foundation or into the sheet rock or flooring, or something. I had stopped listening to him when he said I needed to leave and the fire department chief told me I didn’t have too much time.
Barely a minute after he told me I needed to get out, Nicholas called me. He said he had just gotten home and wanted to hear my voice. Well he heard my crying voice, because I was an utter mess when I picked up and then tried to explain to him what happened.
Being the amazing person he is, he told me not to worry, that he’d be here to help me in a few minutes. He showed up in less than ten minutes, wrapped me up in his muscular arms, and then he proceeded to pack up all of my things that weren’t already ruined.
Fortunately most of my precious belongings, as well as my electronics and clothes were all up off the floor and my closet had luckily been spared any major water damage so my clothes and shoes were fine for the most part.
Within half an hour, Nicholas had me packed up and had loaded up not only his car but his Escalade that I still had. “Come on, honey, follow me home, okay?” he’d said once we got everything that was worth taking. My few pieces of furniture hadn’t been worth much anyway, and were now water-logged making them nothing but trash. My bedroom furniture and mattress were all ruined too, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.
Nicholas had just hugged me and told me it was fine, that we’d figure it out on Monday when he’d call the insurance company for me. Fortunately I had home coverage insurance for my belongings in case of fire or, like now, water damage. It’d been an additional $120 a year to my car insurance, so at the time I’d said, “Why not?” because I had a lot of my art supplies and easels in the apartment from time to time and they were expensive.
I had taken one last look at my apartment building before I pulled into the street and followed Nicholas up the hill to his house. This was certainly not how I had imagined the start of our weekend to go. This weekend was supposed to be our trip away, but with this evening’s developments, I just wasn’t sure what to do.
I’m sure Praveen or Mindy, or any of the girls for that matter, would let me crash in one of their spare bedrooms or couch. Ihadn’t even had the chance to call any of them however, because Nicholas had called me in the middle of the crisis, and he’d simply swooped in to the rescue right away. But once I got to his house, I would need to call Praveen and see if I could go stay with her tonight.
“Do you want me to bring everything in, sweetheart, or just wait until tomorrow to grab the rest? I already have all of your necessities in the house,” Nicholas asked me once he opened my driver’s side door after I parked in his driveway.
“Oh. Well,” I began. “Let’s just leave it. I’m going to call Praveen and see if I can stay with her and I’ll get a storage unit or something to put all my stuff in for the time being until I can figure out what I’ll do next. I appreciate your help, Nicholas, but I’ll get all my stuff out of your cars by tomorrow. I’m so sorry to inconvenience you,” I gave him my sorriest face because I felt awful for having dragged him into my bad luck.
“What are you talking about?” he gaped at me.
“Wha-what?” I just stammered. “I just meant… I hate to put you out, and my measly belongings are now taking up two of your SUVs and I’ve been using your car this week and…” but he cut me off before I could ramble much more.
“Honey. Look at me,” he wrapped his big hands over my shoulders and having his hands on me grounded me enough for me to let out a cleansing breath. “You are not inconveniencing me. In fact, put your stuff in all of my cars. I don’t give a shit. If anything, I’d prefer it. Have your choice, take whichever car you want,” he said and gestured to the number of cars that he had parked in the parking lot and inside his garage, which had two garage doors open only to reveal at least three more cars.
I mumbled, “I don’t think that will be necessary…” and drifted off.
“Secondly, you’re not calling Praveen.”
“I’m not?” I said on an almost gasp, because where the hell else was I going to go? And how dare he tell me what I would and would not be doing.
“I’d be so disappointed if you did,” he let that hang in the air and I instantly softened. “Baby, you’re staying here.” He’d now bent down so that we were at eye level. And don’t mind me, I was an emotional wreck and was on the verge of tears, and here was this man who just swooped in and was making all my problems disappear.
“Nicholas. I can’t do that. I can’t put you out like that.”
“Put me out? Sweetheart,” he scoffed, “don’t insult me. The only way you’d put me out would be if you stayed somewhere else. So, that said, come on. Let’s grab your things and I’ll make you dinner while you take a long, hot shower to cleanse you of this stressful night.”
Within minutes, he’d basically single-handedly brought all of my things inside, and somehow spread them around. My Kitchen-Aid mixer was now on his kitchen counter along with my two favorite coffee mugs. My shoes were in his mudroom along with my coats which hung on the hooks. The few art supplies I had at my place along with my books, laptop and binders that had all of my official documents regarding the business side of my art - well, he’d put them all away in a room that looked like an unused office. Except nowmy thingswere on the desk and on the shelves.
He’d also brought my clothes upstairs and hung them in a bedroom closet. The closet of the main bedroom suite.
I stood in the doorway to the bedroom as he left my suitcase and duffel on the floor next to a dresser. “I’ll leave it to you toput these away how you like them,” he said as he gestured to the dresser and closet next to it.
I looked around the sparsely furnished room, which much like the rest of the house, had the bare necessities. “It’s the only bed in the house,” he began to explain. “As you know, I haven’t gotten around to furnishing more. If you’re not comfortable sharing a bed with me, I’ll take the couch downstairs.” He said it like it was the most no big deal thing to ever take place.
