The Last Time We Met - #Completed

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four 

The day after my father’s funeral, Natalie came to visit me about eight o’ clock in the morning with bags of ice cream, chips, and cookies in one hand, and about ten movies in the other. She called me last night apologizing for not being able to make it to the service, promising to make it up to me and there’s only one way to make up something like that up to me and she knows it: Junk food and Jerry Springer. She felt so bad and I felt bad for her feeling bad so we set up a date to eat and cry our hearts out together.

“Wow, this is quite the place Kingsley has here,” Natty comments on her way into the apartment. “The outside looks okay, I mean if you ignore the huge eyesore on the side, but the inside is really amazing. Kingsley must have thousands, maybe even millions.”

“Shut up, Natalie, what if he hears you? He’s just a few rooms away. And second, that huge eyesore on the side of the apartment is a beautiful mural. I like it.”

“Of course you would,” Natty said and followed me to the kitchen where we unloaded the groceries and searched for an ice cream scooper. When we couldn’t find one we settle on a large metal spoon and I did the honors of dishing up two bowls of double-fudge-extra-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream for the both of us.

“So are you sure you’re free today?” I asked her on our way back to the living room, where practically the only existing tv sat. She shoved season one into the Blu Ray player while I crossed my legs on the couch and fluffed a pillow behind me, watching in amusement as Natty tried to figure out how to work the technology.

“Don’t ask me,” I tell her when she gives me a questioning look. “I barely trust myself with a DVD.”  I shove a spoonful of cookie dough into my mouth and close my eyes while Natty swears away. I think she just about on the verge on throwing the stupid thing on the ground when Kingsley walked in with a curious look on his face.

“What’s going on here?” He asked, looking at me. Then he caught sight of Natty and smiled. “Don’t I know you? You look really familiar.”

Natty set down the blu ray player and turned around at the sound of Kingsley’s voice. When she saw him she gave me a look as if to say, “Good job, he’s even better than I remember,” and smiled back at Kingsley.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “I work for a well-known fashion magazine and you’ve done a couple of pieces for my boss. I’m the one who set up the interview for Jesse. We met about six weeks ago.”

Kingsley shifted his weight and looked away uncomfortable. I know he is feeling embarrassed of forgetting Natty in such a short period of time, especially because she’s so damn unforgettable, but Natty found it amusing.

“I’m Jesse’s best friend,” she continued on despite his hilarious facial expression. “If I remember correctly, I moved into your house right after you moved out. Even though Jesse moved to Colorado a while later, we became really good friends.”

“I see,” is all he says and walks towards the tv quickly, as if to change the conversation. Good, Natty could go on forever about the two of us, but I have to love her. She’s the only one, besides, strangely enough, Kingsley, who’s been there for me since my mother passed away, and now she’s here for me once again when I need her.

“We can’t get it to work,” I say, eyeing the evil invention like vermin. “Why do they make these things so complicated nowadays?”

“What are you? Eighty?” Kingsley observed the small black box for a while and laughed. Not just a little bit, but he laughed hysterically, almost like a mad man. I jumped back a little and let the spoon in my hand fall into the bowl in my lap. Natty looked a little freaked out herself and I could see in her eyes how she was beginning to question his sanity.