Page 7 of Cocky Nerd
“Well. I can be whatever I want to be, depending on how I choose to allot my time andresources.”
“Well. Good foryou.”
We’ve reached the non-descript front of the small condo that my apartment unit is in, on Fulton Street. The front door has a black metal security door in front of it. It’s not a pretty façade, but I really lucked out when my roommate Callie asked me if I wanted to live with her. She works at the restaurant part-time when she needs to supplement her graphic designbusiness.
“This is me,” I say, as I unlock the securitydoor.
Johnny looks around, as if I’ve brought him to some dark alley in Chinatown. It’s actually a great street. There are two trees on the sidewalk in front of our building! It’s not Pacific Heights, but it’s an up and comingneighborhood.
“It’s really nice inside,” I say, defensively. “And we have access to the backyard, it’s reallysweet.”
“Good,” he says, as he keeps an eye out formuggers.
I roll my eyes. “You don’t have to come up if you don’t wantto.”
“I do. I promised Monty I’d check up onyou.”
He calls my brother Monty. “Really? He asked you to check up onme?”
“He was concerned about a recent incident. With aphotographer.”
I drop my keys. “He told you aboutthat?”
Johnny picks up my keys and hands them to me. “He didn’t go into any detail, he just said that your Mom mentioned you had an uncomfortable experience with aphotographer.”
“I can’t believe she told Nathan.” I unlock the inner door and lead him up the narrow stairwell to the main living area. “It wasn’t that bad, he just tried to touch me and I left, end of story. I guess I was just lucky that it never happenedbefore.”
“It’s not okay that it happened to you at all, Olivia,” he says. “I’m sorry that itdid.”
I kind of love that he’s being protective of me. My brother always has been, but I guess Johnny never felt he could show it when Nathan was around.Hmm.Whaddyaknow.
We reach the living room area. “Sorry it’s a little messy.” I open the curtains to let more light in. I pick up various items of clothing and footwear, dishes that are on the hardwoodfloor.
We have quite nice furniture, it’s just covered with Callie’s design magazines and notebooks and our discardedapparel.
“Callie and I—that’s my roommate—we’re both pretty busy, so you know, not a lot of time to tidy up unfortunately. Can I get you something todrink?”
“No thank you,” he says, scanning the room. “Twobedroom?”
“Yes. We share a bathroom, but it’s big. Laundry downstairs. Backyard access. Patio. It’s a greatlocation.”
He nods. “How can you live likethis?”
“Excuse me? This is an amazing apartment. It’s $3695 a month, that’s less than most two bedrooms in the area and there are only two units in the building. This is an amazing apartment, you just don’t know because you’ve never lived on your own in a big city. Haveyou?”
He shakes his head. “It is a sweet unit, I don’t mean to insult your home. It’s just that you’re a beautiful intelligent talented woman—why have you deliberately chosen to live as mediocre a life aspossible?”
“What? My life is notmediocre.”
“You’re resistinggreatness.”
“You’re about to be ejected from my not at all mediocreapartment.”
“I want you to have the life that you deserve why does that botheryou?”
“Because I have ears and I can hear what you’re saying to me. You do realize you said all that out loudright?”
“Olivia, I’d like to have my housekeeper come to clean this place up—at no cost to you, ofcourse.”
