Love Out of Order (Indigo Love Spectrum) Read Free Page A

vague.
    What guy? TELL ME NOW!!! she responded.
    After a hesitant moment, my fingers poised above the keypad, I decided that there was no point in trying to hide it. I typed in my reply, John .
    Archer? The transfer?
    Yeap.
    Oh. Really.
    I decided not to answer her last text.
    * * *
     
    Suse was waiting for me when I pulled into my parking lot. She looked more excited than I was. She was almost bouncing up and down in front of my apartment door.
    I found Suse’s enthusiasm contagious. “We don’t have much time!”
    I opened the door to my apartment. For once, I barely saw Tia’s mess. Tia was my roommate. She was light skinned and had curly, light brown hair and light brown eyes. She couldn’t have been much over five feet tall.
    It was amazing to me that such a small girl could create such a huge frustration. She left her dirty under wear in the bathroom after taking a shower. She left her clean underwear hanging over the shower rod to dry. She piled oatmeal- and pasta-encrusted bowls in the kitchen sink. And I was sick of seeing her books and clothes sprawled all over the living room. She talked too loudly on the phone. Her boyfriend, Terry, was practically a third roommate. And the two of them had the most obnoxiously loud sex. Astoria sometimes referred to them as “the porno stars.”
    “So . . . smells like your roommate’s been trying to cook again,” Suse said, wrinkling her nose. It did, and it made my stomach hurt.
    “ Yeah, I know. Come on, let’s go to my room,” I said, hurrying her into my room. I didn’t know if Tia was there or not—her not answering the door for Suse was no indi cation. She could have been in her room, passed out. If I didn’t answer the door, there was a very good chance it would never get answered. The main reason I hadn’t fought Terry having his own key was so I wouldn’t have to answer the door for him all the time.
    The apartment always smelled like old cheese except for my room, which constantly had a scented candle burning in it. I had given up on all efforts to keep the apartment clean. As soon as I had cleaned it—back when I was foolish enough to waste my time doing such a thing—she had made a mess again. Sometimes she made a mess while I was cleaning.
    In addition to giving up on keeping the apartment clean, I had given up on discussing any and all issues with Tia that I had with Tia. She would nod and smile, her eyes glazed over the whole time, not listening to a word I said. That glassy stare made me angrier than her mess; just knowing she wasn’t taking me seriously. And after our one-sided conversations, the place would be just as nasty as before, if not more so. And so I just lived and let live. And bided my time until May.
    “Who is this guy? You never even gave me a name,” Suse said, grinning.
    “John. He’s one of the transfers.” I hoped my tone came off airy, as intended, and not insanely hopeful, like I felt. “So, what should I wear?”
    S use was already in my closet. “So, tell me more about John.” She held up a skirt, frowned and then put it back in the closet.
    “Well, he’s tall. He’s got dark hair. He’s hot. He seems really funny from his comments in class. I’ve never had a real conversation with him before yesterday, though,” I said, deliberately leaving out any racially descriptive words.
    “Sounds like a catch,” Suse said, grinning.
    “Well, it’s just coffee at B and N. And Evidence. I don’t want to build it up too much and then get disappointed.”
    Suse nodded, scrutinizing a pair of jeans before tossing them back on the closet floor. “Denise, you either need to start hanging things up or start ironing.”
    “Eh.” I shrugged and went to find my makeup bag. I knew it was buried in one of the plastic containers stacked in the corner of my room.
    “It’s a miracle. I think I found something,” Suse said. She handed me a striped button-down shirt and a camisole. She then took my make-up bag away from