The Summer Deal

Twenty six - The man with a rusted penis

What the hell?

I knocked on the door rapidly. "Noah!"

"In a minute!" I heard him yell from the other side. It was surprising to hear him beyond the soundproof walls, or maybe they weren't very soundproof here. Moments later, the doorknob rattled, and Noah opened the door completely and then leaned on it with his arms crossed. "Okay, I am up now. What do you want?"

I offered him chocolates with a shameless grin on my face. "Peace offering?"

"On a scale of one to ten, how drunk are you?"

I scowled but decided to answer honestly. "Three." He moved away and proceeded to close the door again. "Or a two-point-five. Maybe two! One point seven five as a minimum. I came down straight from twenty!"

He wasn't impressed. "I don't exactly believe you, but alright. Are you seriously offering me chocolates at two in the morning?"

"Well, you never took them from me last time..."

"The last time I faced you with your ass half-drunk or the time you made an anonymous call to the cops and sent my date to prison? Yeah. I clearly remember that."

"You shouldn't wallow about the past, Noah."

He sighed loudly, rubbing his face. "It's too late, Sarah. What do you want?"

"I told you. There's a drunk man in my bed, so I need a place to crash."

"So after you fuck a man, you come crawling to another? Who's the desperate one here now?"

The tone of his voice told me he wasn't exactly happy to see me. I cringed. "Are you letting me in or not?"

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

"What type of chocolates do you have with you."

My lips wobbled. Noah was such a good man. I didn't deserve him. No. Nope. I am not going to start crying in front of him again. "They're chocolates, Noah. They're the same."

"No. Absolutely not," he took a box from a grasp and showed me the label. I squinted but couldn't read. Those tiny words were blurred to me. Probably the effects of alcohol in my system. "You see this? It's Belgium chocolate with almonds and cashew." He grabbed two more boxes from my hand. "This one is Swiss with walnuts, and this one is pure dark chocolate."

"And your point is?"

"All three are my favorites, so I'm letting you pass for this time. I can take the rest of them, and I'm going to let you in," My smile brightened but dropped instantly when he said, "But no naughty business. You're going to have lots of fluids now."

He moved aside to let me in, and I picked up two bottles of beer from the floor. "Will they count as fluids?"

He snatched the bottles from me. "Get the fuck inside, Sarah."

"Alright! Alright!" I giggled and stopped when I saw the scene in front of me. "Wow. You sure know how to make yourself at home."

Noah's room was clean. Too clean, to be honest, with a perfectly made bed, dim lights, and closed windows with curtains drawn. The telly was on and muted. Nobody could believe there was a man living in it for days. The only thing out of place was a few bottles of water on the table and his wardrobe half open. I saw his old, dusty duffle bag inside it, and there was something green wrapped in a plastic sheet, hung with a coat hanger. It wasn't difficult to guess what it was seeing the patterns in the material.

He slid the wardrobe shut. "I don't have any dead body inside it, so you can stop peeking... unless you want to volunteer."

"Very funny, Noah," I said flatly and sat down on the floor in front of the bed, facing the telly with my knees hugging my chest. "Look at me. I'm laughing."