Phil
I hear a knock at the door while I was watching The Breakfast Club again. For some reason the movie really reminds me of Omera, we would watch it a lot when she still lived here.
I walk towards the door, I'm not expecting any visitors so my curiosity made me walk a bit faster. I swing the door open and come face to face with a girl with short brown hair.
"Hello," I say with confusion, there is something familiar about her.
"Hello, I'm here to talk to Omera," she responds with a big smile.
"Oh um she doesn't live here anymore," I explain, something about this girl makes me think of Omera, I'm thinking it's her clothes. She looks like how Omera dressed four years ago.
"Are you a friend of hers?" I ask.
"Oh yes, my name is Tia," she introduces with a small smile. The name sounds familiar, I do remember Omera telling me about a person named Tia.
"I think I've heard of you but my memory is a bit fuzzy, I'm Phil," I explain to her, I want her to tell me more about herself but instead she perks up.
"Oh yes, Omera always talks about you," she tells me, this makes me smile as well, "I just came by after I heard the news," she pouts slightly.
"What news?" I ask her with furrowed eyebrows. Did something bad happen with her? I eagerly wait for the mystery woman to tell me something.
"You haven't heard? She's getting married." Tia says, she speaks with a little softness in her voice, a bit like Omera. The pleasant memories make me feel more comfortable with this girl.
"Oh yeah, I have heard that." I sigh in relief, good thing it isn't bad news. I realize we've been talking in my door step this whole time. "Come in,"
"Thanks," she smiles as she passes me, I furrow my eyebrows. She even smells like Omera does, do all girl buy the same expensive perfume?
"I heard a lot about you two," Tia says with a little chuckle, I look at her with confusion but I'm glad she didn't sit in the same spot Omera does, that would've have been way too much a coincidence.
"Oh? What have you heard?" I question her, she pretends to look around before leaning in to tell me.
"She was always talking about her roommate, which I think is you. She said she had wanted you to make a move but you never did." She explains to me and I'll admit I feel a bit of regret as I hear this. I don't respond however, I just let her continue on.
"Honestly when I heard she was getting married, I thought it was with her roommate. I guess you just didn't like her, huh? It's okay, she isn't the most appealing," she shrugs with a playful eye roll. I get confused with the slight insult Tia said at the end but I can't seem to stop myself with rambling.
"It's not that I didn't like her, it's just-" I stop myself from explaining, I don't owe this girl an explanation. I'm not going to pour out my feelings to a girl I just met and weirdly reminds me of Omera.
"You do like her," the girl softly speaks with a hand on her chest, looking at me with a pout. "You shouldn't interfere with her marriage though. Not that I expect you too, you don't look that selfish,"
I look away from her, "I wasn't going to, there is nothing between just like you said, we're just roommates,"
—
Hours later, Tia is still in my apartment helping me cook a bit. I'll admit, the only thing Omera and Tia don't have in common is their cooking. Omera couldn't cook if her life depended on it but Tia effortlessly cooks an omelet with some weird sauce for both of us.
"Where did you even learn how to cook like this?" I ask her with amazement. She grabs a fork and grabs a piece of the omelet to feed it to me, I take the bite and I'm immediately in awe about how fluffy it is. Tia giggles at my amazement, clearly enjoying my expression.
"Well, my parents wouldn't really pay attention to me much, so I would hang out with the chef in my kitchen. She taught me how to do all of this." She responds with a genuine smile, she tries the omelet herself and the smile stays on her face.
"That's amazing, you should've taught Omera a few things. I always had to cook for her, it became a routine," I tell Tia, her smile turns into a small smirk as she hears this.
"Omera is something else, huh? She can't really do much for herself," Tia shrugs again.
"Yeah, but she's an amazing person, there are not much people like her. She's so genuine, I feel like everyone can fall in love with her." I explain to Tia as I continue eating, Tia smiles down at her feet.
"Don't say that stuff, it sounds like you're about to run over and ruin her marriage," she warns me, there seems to be something on her mind as she looks at me, maybe my little speech surprised her.
"I won't, trust me." I promise to her.
"I think Omera has many faces, no one sees her in the same way." Tia says in a quiet voice, still looking at her toes.
"What do you mean?"
"Some love her and others hate her." She says quickly with a shrug.
"Isn't that everyone?" I ask her, she looks at me with an eye roll. I look down at her omelet and she gibes me knowing smile before sliding the plate towards me.
"You're pretty cute, it's Omera's loss," she says quietly as she stares at me, I look towards her with raised eyebrows.
She doesn't let me respond though, just leans in and kisses me.
________
Unedited.
It's raining pretty hard today, I got the blues.
How was your day?
