Page 25 of Searching for Nova

She wants me to leave? Was this her plan all along? Ditch me when we got to her apartment?

I’m not leaving,I text back.I’ll just wait.

It could be longer than that. You should go. We’ll do this some other time.

I don’t text back. Instead, I get out of my Jeep and go up to the building. The door’s locked, but people keep coming out and letting other people in, making the locked door useless for security purposes.

“Thanks,” I say as a guy lets me in. He doesn’t even acknowledge me as he continues to the parking lot. I walk over to the elevator, then realize I don’t know her apartment number.

The elevator doors open and a woman walks out.

“Hey, do you know where Nova Morris lives?” I ask the woman. She ignores me and heads to the door.

Looking around, I see a wall of mailboxes and walk over to them. Each box is labeled with a name. I find Morris and see the number 312 next to it. Going up to the third floor, I hold my breath from the smell in the hallway. It’s a mix of cat pee, garlic, and burnt microwave popcorn. The hallway is dark and narrow, and as I walk down it, a memory flashes in my head of me when I was four. My mom used to drop me off at a building similar to this one when she went to work. I’d stay with this old lady who sat in her chair and smoked while watching soap operas. I’d play on the floor with the broken toys she kept in a cardboard box. I hated going there. That’s one of the memories I’ve tried to forget, but being here in this building brought it all back.

I stand in front of apartment 312 and am about to knock, but stop when I hear someone yelling. It sounds like an old man with a deep, gravelly voice.

“Did I say you could go out?” he says.

“I told you, I’m not going,” Nova says. “I told him to leave.”

“Next time you ask me before making plans,” the man says. “You hear me?”

Nova doesn’t answer, or if she does, she’s too quiet for me to hear.

So she wanted to go, but the man told her she couldn’t. Is that her grandpa? Why does he care if she goes out?

I knock on the door.

“Who the fuck is that?” the old man yells.

“Answer it and find out,” Nova says, sounding annoyed.

Loud, heavy footsteps make their way to the door. It swings open and I see a man with gray hair and a face covered in wrinkles looking up at me. He’s not that tall, maybe five foot seven. He’s wearing a red and black plaid shirt with a rip in the pocket, and dark, baggy jeans.

“Whatever you’re selling, we ain’t buying,” he grunts, getting ready to close the door in my face.

I press my hand against it, holding it open. “I’m here to see Nova.”

He looks me up and down. “What the hell you want with Nova?”

“We’re friends. We have plans for this afternoon.”

“Yeah, well, her plans got cancelled. Now get the hell out of here.”

“Ted, your lunch is ready!” I hear Nova yell.

“In a minute!” he yells back. “Get out of here,” he says to me. “And don’t be coming back. Nova ain’t got time for boys.”

“I’m just a friend,” I say, pushing against the door as he tries to close it. “And I need to see her.”

“What’s taking so long?” Nova comes up behind the old man, stopping when she sees me. “What are you doing here?”

“We have plans.”

“I told you I can’t go. Didn’t you see my text?”

“Yeah, and I don’t get it. You said you just had to clean up and then we’d leave.”

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