Page 8 of The Virgin's Baby
“Okay, I think we should double up here, Margo. Get a couple of roommates to share these expenses.” I got up to clean my bowl. “We can fit our beds in your room then two other girls can put twin beds into mine, and then we’ll be splitting things four ways, instead of just two. That way, I might be able to pay for my classes as well as my bills.”
The way her dark eyes lit up told me she thought I was on to something. “I’m cool with that. Why don’t you put up a poster at the college to see if we can hurry up and get someone?”
“Okay. I’ll poster all the cork boards at school.” After washing my bowl, I dried it and put it away. “And we should really do some deep cleaning to attract a couple of good girls. We don’t want messy people living with us.” Margo tended to be messy anyway, but we definitely didn’t need anyone else helping her with that.
Taking my lead, she washed and dried her bowl and then put it up too. “Okay, I’ll take the kitchen and living room while you move your bed and things into my bedroom. That way we’ll be ready to go as soon as possible.”
Getting to work, it took nearly the whole day to get the place in order and the poster made. Noticing that the time had gotten away from us, Margo took a seat on the sofa instead of heading out on her bike to apply for jobs. “Looks like this day is a loss for job hunting.”
I went to find my laptop and came back to give it to her. “Here. You can apply for jobs online too. No need to waste a day.” I sat down beside her, tapping in my password to allow her to use the computer. “I’ve already applied for everything I could find that’s within walking distance. Since I can’t ride a bike, I can’t apply for anything further than that.”
“Whoa,” she said as she looked stunned. “You can’t ride a bike? Now tell me why I don’t know that about you, Aspen.”
Shrugging, I said, “’Cause I haven’t told you about that. I’m not really into talking about myself. You know that.”
“And why is that, anyway?” She asked as she pushed the laptop to the other side of her.
She must’ve thought I was about to open up to her.Wrong.
I picked up the laptop and put it right back on her lap. “You worry about finding a job and not learning about me. I’m a bore anyway.”
The fact was I did believe my story was boring. Having just a father to raise me had left me sheltered. I didn’t have any cool stories to share about my rambunctious childhood. I never rebelled, so I didn’t have any great stories of how I put it to my dad and got my way. And I never got into any trouble, so I didn’t have any ‘that time I went to jail’ stories either.
I was a bore.
Margo was insistent though. “Come on. At least tell me why you never learned how to ride a bike. You said your dad made good money. You grew up in a nice home. You two drove nice cars. So, why didn’t you learn how to ride a bike?”
“I really don’t know. I guess Dad never thought about it. And I never asked.” Thinking back, I couldn’t recall a whole heck of a lot of times that Dad taught me anything.
He hadn’t taught me how to cook. When he was alive, he bought takeout all the time. Neither of us cooked. It wasn’t until after I realized that takeout costs way more than food you can make at home that I learned how to cook a little bit—enough to get by anyway.
Margo wasn’t satisfied. “So, what else do you not know how to do?”
I had to think on that a minute before I said, “I don’t know how to swim. I don’t know how to dance. I don’t know how to sew. There’re lots of things I don’t know. But I do know how to study hard and get good grades. I do know how to focus on one thing at a time and accomplish each goal I need to.” I’d had enough of her questions and I got up to leave. “And right now, my goal is to get us some roomies to share these bills with. I’ll be back in a little while. I’m going up to the college now.”
“I’ve just got one more question for you, Aspen,” she called out after me.
Stopping at the door, I turned to look at her. “What, Margo?” She’d exasperated me already.
Her dark brows raised. “Have you ever had sex?”
“Oh, God!” I pulled the door open to leave.
“Well, have you?” she shouted out after me.
“Margo, you are incorrigible.” I began to pull the door closed behind me.
Suddenly she was right there, holding onto it so I couldn’t close it. “No! Tell me the truth, Aspen. Are you a virgin?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said as I started walking away.
“You are, aren’t you?” she shouted.
“Hush, Margo. God!” My cheeks were hot with embarrassment. “Go back inside. The neighbors don’t need to know our business, girl.”
“OMG! I’ve gotta get you laid, girl!” she screeched.
Then I broke into a run to get the heck away from her. It mortified me that she’d yelled that for all the world to hear. Sometimes the girl could be so clueless.
