My roommate was nothing like me.
She was from England, short with red hair, huge boobs and a fabulous personality. I, on the other hand, was thin, with long nearly black hair, average breasts and tended to be melancholy most of the time…at least lately.
Sonia was a good balance for me.
I arrived back to my apartment eager to tell her what happened.
“Hey, Sonia,” I said as I walked in the door and threw my keys on the table.
“Sup, bitch,” Sonia said.
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She had the coolest British accent and
‘bitch’ was her term of endearment for me.
“Ugh…where do I even begin?” I sighed.
“Why…what
happened?”
Sonia
opened a bottle of, ironically, Bitch brand wine and took out two stemless glasses from the cupboard. Our kitchen was retro, with big black and white checkered laminate flooring and yellow painted cabinets. The apartment was dated, but the retro style could almost pass for hip. Between the bright sunny kitchen and old-fashioned dark wood moldings and built-in shelving, I loved our apartment.
“You are never going to believe what happened to me today,” I said as I sat down and grabbed one of the glasses she poured.
“Okay, so I am in the diner and the most beautiful man I have literally ever seen walks in—”
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“Damn…why wasn’t I on shift? What did he look like?” Sonia asked as her eyes widened. She also worked at the diner part-time.
“Just…I don’t know…beautiful….tall, blue eyes, sexy hair…the whole nine…let me finish.”
Sonia nodded gulping down half her glass of red.
“This guy was staring at me for some reason. When I pretended to be busy, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was still following me. When I gave him his order, he barely said anything, just smiled and continued to look at me with these intense eyes.”
“Okay,” Sonia said as she poured more wine.
“The staring continued for a while and then I went into the kitchen and when I came out, he was abruptly booking it out of there. He didn’t even finish his bagel.” I took 41/727
a sip of wine, hoping for a quick buzz to calm my nerves.
“Hmn.” She poured me some more wine, even though I had barely had any yet.
It’s clear that this is becoming a “you had to be there” kind of story, since Sonia clearly wasn’t seeing the significance.
“There’s more. When I went to clean up his table and collect the money, there was a fifty-dollar bill. His check was only like five-bucks and he left me a fifty!”
“Wow.” Sonia’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah. I don’t know. I guess this kind of thing happens, but never to me. I don’t know why I can’t stop thinking about him. If he wasn’t so damn good looking, I might have
just
stopped
by
now,
but
he
was…so…ugh…” I sighed.
Sonia finished her wine and moved into the living room lying down on the couch. “Why is it so inconceivable that a handsome guy would walk into the diner, 42/727
take one look at you and want to leave you a nice tip? You’re gorgeous, luv. You know these encounters happen all of the time in the books we read.”
Sonia adjusted her bra and took another sip of wine. God, her boobs were huge.
The poor thing could barely stand up without tipping over. She was under five feet, which made the whole situation that much worse.
Sometimes, I couldn’t tell if she was tipsy from the wine or if her chest was defying gravity. I certainly didn’t have that problem.
“It’s not about the tip, Sonia…that only added to the mystery. What I can’t get over is the way I reacted when he was around, like a silly schoolgirl. My body was so aware of him. My uniform practically melted off of me.” I said.
Sonia smiled, “Hmn…I think you just need to get some. Well, maybe he’ll come in-to the diner again and you can find out more about him.”
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“I don’t think so. He didn’t strike me as someone who would frequent Stardust.
Trust me, if he comes in again, I will just about die.”
Sonia paused and looked down at the floor, then abruptly changed the subject. “I wasn’t sure whether to tell you this, but I saw Nate today.”
“What? Where?” I asked, freaking out.
“He was coming off the Red Line when I was getting on at Alewife.” She stared at me looking for my reaction.
Nate and I dated for almost a year and broke up three months ago. I met him on the train back when I was commuting to Simmons College. At first, I thought he was the most handsome, sensitive, artistic guy I had ever met. You could tell Nate anything and he genuinely listened. Being with Nate was so easy…during the early days. I hadn’t been used to guys that had feelings and who seemed genuinely interested in what I had to 44/727
offer on the inside. We had a great first few months and in many ways, he really introduced me to Boston, even though I had grown up here, showing me all of the mu-seums and taking me to concerts. Nate taught guitar at Berkeley College of Music.
We had bonded over the fact that we were both adopted. Eventually, we moved in together in an apartment near Fenway Park. It was during that time, I discovered Nate was an alcoholic. The sensitive guy I met slowly shown himself as someone I felt I didn’t know anymore. He was very good at hiding it from me in the beginning, but eventually wasn’t able to.
“What did he say to you?” I asked.
Sonia never knew Nate when we were dating, since I met her after we broke up, but she encountered him the couple of times he came to the apartment looking for me when I wasn’t home. He had somehow gotten my new address here.
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“He just said to tell you to call him.” Sonia handed me a card Nate had given her.
It was a new cell number on a Berkeley College of Music business card.
I stared at the card. “Hmn. Did he seem ok?”
“Yeah, I mean, he looked fine, just a little sad, maybe. He also said to tell you he was sorry about how everything turned out.” Sonia frowned.
“Well, I think it’s best to leave well enough alone don’t you?” I asked.
“Yes, I do. I never want you to have to go through that again.” Sonia didn’t say it, but we both knew what she meant.
One night when Nate was particularly hammered, he came home saw two empty wine glasses and accused me of having an affair with my friend Danny. Danny is gay, but Nate always insisted that he looked at me like he was interested, or that he could be bi, saying that Danny was pretending to be gay 46/727
just to be close to me. Danny and I did spend a lot of time together, enough for me to know he was definitely gay. When I continued to deny Nate’s accusations that night, he hit me so hard across the cheek that I had a bruise that lasted over a month. That was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back and I moved out a week later, staying with various friends, including Danny, until I found a place and met Sonia, who also helped me get the job at Max’s since she worked there part-time while going to nursing school.
Working at a diner was certainly not how I pictured my life at almost thirty. But I was lucky to have a good group of friends there and a place to bide my time while I figured out the next step. I have no real family guidance anymore and so my friends, like Sonia and Danny, were very important to me.
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My mother Margo Abraham adopted me as a baby, but died of cancer a little over a year ago. Mom never married, but didn’t want to miss out on having a child, so she visited an adoption agency when she was forty-two years old and after a three-year wait, was finally blessed with a newborn baby girl. She was my whole life and aside from her sister, my Aunt Reeni who lives in New York, I am virtually alone.
Thankfully, Mom had saved a lot of money over the years. She did well working for the city in the Mayor’s office so I have a little nest egg that I am reluctant to dive into and was even more reluctant to waste away on an expensive college so soon. I had a liberal arts degree from a small community college and wasted many years after high school and college working odd jobs, until I decided on special education as a career. But after Mom’s death, I decided until I could save enough money of my own and focus on my 48/727
studies, finishing grad school was not going to be happening in the near future.
“Are we going out tonight?” Sonia asked. She was antsy and went out practically every night, even if just out for coffee in the North End. I was a homebody and happy to stay home and watch movies most evenings.