After picking up her tote bag out of her small locker, Alicia made her way over to the elevator and pressed the button. It was time for her to go home. She tapped her foot impatiently, hoping she wouldn't run into Dezzi. It'd been a week since she slept with him and she was doing a good job of avoiding him at her internship. He had said that he was quitting soon, but she wondered if he had changed his mind.
The door opened and out came her manager, Ana, dressed stylishly in black coveralls and red lipstick. Her green eyes sparkled when she noticed Alicia standing there.
"Great job hooking up Electric's anniversary with that venue. It looked fantastic," Ana said.
"Thank you."
"You know, I wouldn't know what we'd do without you, Alicia. You're so young and in the know. You know all the coolest places, caterers and DJs. The board loved every second of the event. We really appreciate you," she said.
"Thanks Ana," Alicia nodded.
"So, got any plans today?" she asked.
"Nah, just heading home. You?" Alicia asked.
"Yeah, Nathan's picking me up and we're gonna go to our favorite Italian spot," Ana smiled.
Alicia smiled back before studying the floor. Nathan was Ana's boyfriend of 3 years. He recently proposed to her when they vacationed in Versailles. Alicia wondered what it was like to be dating a man for so long and everything be perfect. She knew she shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but she never had a boyfriend before so she didn't know what it felt like. Maxine was the only person she could look to for examples and she couldn't really do that either. Maxine tended to jump into relationships quickly but after a month or two, she always had a falling out with her partner. But here was Ana, engaged and seemingly happy. And she was only 26. Alicia couldn't imagine having a fiancé at such a young age. But she guessed people like her often got hitched young. Ana was slim, had pale skin, green eyes, perfect teeth, slender nose—men flocked to women like that and anything that was close to it.
Alicia hated thinking about things like that, but she was old enough to know that it was true. Her college years taught her that. Guys loved Maxine because she was light skin. Guys loved Alicia's old friend Suzette because she had hazel eyes and soft hair. Or Mindy because she was mixed. Anything close to whiteness, certain men adored and worshipped. That's probably what Rodney was like too. That's why he went after Maxine; she fit that aesthetic.
But lately, whenever she ran into him, he was always trying to hang around her and if she had to be honest...she did enjoy the time they spent together. They hadn't argued in a while. She guessed he really meant it when he apologized to her. Perhaps they were friends. She thought about last Friday night and how they kinda slow danced and her face became hot. She kept thinking about that moment a couple of times a day. When he first embraced her, her eyes rolled back into her head. It felt heaven. She had hide her face in his chest to keep from having a meltdown.
He must've been really drunk to have danced with her like that. But his fresh scent made her fingers weak and his broad shoulders felt so good to hold on to. He had to have been the sweetest, funniest man to have as a friend.
Some woman will surely be lucky to have him eventually. He couldn't have been the type to stay single for long. Yes, any day now...
She ignored the ache in her chest as she opened her front door. Maxine was in the kitchen coating some turkey legs with her secret sauce. Alicia sat down at their small dining table and watched her.
"Hi hi hi," Maxine flashed her gap-toothed grin.
"Hey," Alicia said.
She glanced at her phone, but didn't have any messages. Lately, she couldn't stop looking at it though. Friends had each other's phone numbers and social media accounts, but she and Rodney didn't have any form of contact at all. Yet she kept looking at her phone wistfully as if he would magically appear on the screen somehow. She chuckled sadly. Was she losing it?
Sometimes, she expected him to show up at her apartment, maybe throw rocks at her fire escape too, but it never came. He did it before, but he wanted an interview back then. He didn't need to do any of that now. Maybe then, they weren't friends. Maybe all those times they hung out, he was just being nice. He would've asked for her number and made scheduled plans to hang out by now.
"What's wrong?" Maxine asked.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. I've got a freelance gig I'm just thinking about."
Maxine paused, "Really? You sound...I don't know. You sure it's not Dezzi?"
Alicia chuckled dryly.
"Is it someone else?"
Alicia bit her lip before replying, "I...maybe..."
She wished she could've taken the word back. In no way did she want to talk about Rodney with her best friend, but she couldn't stop thinking about him. When did it happen that she started to see him differently? Quickly, Maxine placed her turkey legs in the oven before eagerly joining Alicia at the dining table.
"Who the hell is it omg!" Maxine asked.
"He's just some guy—"
"He's not just some guy! He's never 'just some guy' anytime a girl says that, now spill! How'd you meet him?"
"Through work," she lied, which technically wasn't a lie. "I had to interview him."
"Is he cute?"
"Girl, he's really fine, like totally out of my league."
"Don't say that about yourself! No one's out of your league. Did you sleep with him?"
"No!"
"Kiss him?" Maxine asked.
Alicia blushed. Trying to picture kissing Rodney was impossible. She couldn't picture it because she didn't think it would happen...
"You're such a school girl," Maxine laughed, "So, if you didn't do anything, what's up?"
"I hate him. I can't stand his scathing tone or his mocking laughter or the way he arches his eyebrow whenever he thinks he's right. He's arrogant and rude but...lately he hasn't been any of those things and it's messing with my head," Alicia explained.
"So, you're confused because you're starting to see him in a different light?"
Alicia nodded, "Maxine, I swear, on occasions he's hurt my feelings before, but then he was asking me about Dezzi and—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, he knows about Dezzi? You've been holding out on me, Alicia, with all this gossip on your new boo!" Maxine said. "How does he know about Dezzi? Oh, you said you interviewed him so he was at Lotus right?"
"Well yeah—"
"Who was it? I didn't really see you talking to anybody, but Dezzi," Maxine said.
Alicia clammed up, "Well, I don't think it matters since I haven't seen him for a week."
"Oh, come on! What's his name? Let's search him up on Insta," Maxine said.
"I—uh—" Alicia started when her phone started to ring.
She shot up from her chair and anxiously rose to get her phone, moving away from Maxine. When Maxine pouted at her, she shooed her away.
"Hello? Yes, this is she speaking...you have been requested to do what?" Alicia asked. "...Really? But...that can't be...are you serious?"
Maxine stepped up to her, whispering, "What's going on?"
"Are you serious? Who told you to do this?" Alicia asked. "My job? My job asked you to do it—oh my God! When can you come...oh my God, thank you!"
She hung up and turned to Maxine, "Do you know the walk-in mini library I've been talking about? My fucking job hired a team to put it together!"
"Whaaaa, you're kidding! Did Ana get permission from the director or something?" Maxine asked.
"I don't know, but I've been telling her about saving up for this. We both like reading and so she probably got the team together and put them up to this. She was giving me so many compliments earlier today. Finally, I'm being seen and heard," Alicia said.
"Girl, they might promote you now!" Maxine said, jumping up and down.
***
The team came the following day and began to tear down her wall. Excitedly, Alicia and Maxine watched them. She was allowed to look over their plans a little bit though she didn't understand any of it. Because her room was a mess, she had to sleep over in Maxine's room.
"When will the construction be done?" she asked one of the workers.
"In two weeks. In time for your birthday," he said.
It was a little odd that a stranger knew her birthday, but perhaps Ana mentioned it would be a birthday present too. Whatever the case may be, two weeks came and went and the renovations to her room was complete. The walk-in library was built. Several white shelves covered an entire wall that was about 8 feet high. The opposite wall was a pastel green and she imagined eventually putting a daybed up against that wall.
She took a day off from her internship to celebrate her birthday with her mom and Maxine by having a spa day before going to dinner, but she couldn't wait to go to Electric the next day. She could hardly sleep.
As soon as she got into the office, she speed walked over to Ana's door and knocked.
"Come in," Ana called.
"I love it!" Alicia entered ecstatically.
"Love what?" Ana asked.
"My new mini library. It looks amazing," she said.
"Oh, you finally hired someone to do the job? I know last time we spoke about it, you said you were saving up to get it done," Ana said.
Alicia paused, perplexed. Ana's eyes returned to her computer screen as she sipped her tea, appearing distracted. She didn't seem to be sharing Alicia's joy.
"No, you guys—Electric hired someone to do it. You guys did it...for my birthday...right?" Alicia said.
"Oh, your birthday was this month? Happy belated!" Ana said.
"Your birthday passed? I had no idea," Dezzi popped his head in. "But wow, congrats—"
"What're you talking about? Didn't you guys do this?" Alicia asked Ana.
"Huh? Why would we do something like that for an intern...?" Ana said.
Alicia paused and slowly her eyes grew large.
"Hun, hiring a team to do a job like that would cost our magazine thousands of dollars. I know they wouldn't do it for me, maybe for our CEO, but—although we appreciate our interns—you'd have to be really important and work here for a long time to get a gift like that," Ana said.
Alicia blinked, at a loss for words. Slowly, she nodded. She cracked her knuckles and started to back away from Ana's desk.
"Of course...of course, I'm just an intern here. I don't know why I would think—"
"Oh, I didn't mean it like that, Alicia. We value you very much, it's just that we can't afford to do something like that, but it's great that you received that gift," Ana said.
"Right, right. Excuse me. Sorry to bother you," Alicia said.
She turned around and moved past Dezzi.
***
On her lunch break, she took the train home. Who the hell did she let into her apartment that wasn't hired by her internship? She could've been hurt because she let strangers in.
Tears watered her eyes as she unlocked her door and ran into her room. She wanted to be angry at this mysterious person. The anger would've distracted her from the fact that her internship knew nothing about her. At the hospital Maxine worked at, whenever Maxine's birthday came around, they surprised her with a cake and sang happy birthday to her. If it wasn't for her mom and Maxine, she wouldn't have celebrated her birthday. No one ever blew up her phone when her special day came. Maxine's phone was always ringing like crazy, but not hers. But this one person, this stranger, remembered. She wanted to be angry, but she couldn't be.
She hid away from the world, pulling back the sliding door and entering her library. Her back slid against the door as she sat on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. Tears rolled down her face. She wanted to leave her internship so badly. They barely paid her enough and didn't value her at all. She couldn't believe she thought they did this for her when they couldn't even give her a full-time job. She was so stupid.
Something was sticking out on the bottom shelf nearest to her, a yellow paper. It was a copy of the plans she briefly looked at earlier. She reached out and picked it up, caressing the paper as her tears dropped down to the copy. She smiled sadly. Ana was right, at least someone was nice enough to give her something beautiful like a mini library. She wished she could thank them.
As she started to crumple up the paper, something caught her eye at the bottom of it. It was someone's initials.
R.G.
Hello, for the few of you who continue to read this, thank you so much! I really enjoy updating this story every week so it means the world that someone out there is paying attention. - Bas :)