City Love(63)

“Visitors isn’t a thing. Anyone can have over whomever they want. Isn’t that part of the roommate code?”

“Totally. I mean, that’s how I feel. Do you think Rosanna will be okay with it?”

“She should be. Her fancy man can’t avoid this place forever. I’m predicting some reckless sleepovers in her near future.”

“I wouldn’t exactly describe Rosanna as reckless.”

“Not yet. But you will.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m loving my freedom. But it’s weird that Sadie and Rosanna are on the boyfriend track while I can’t even figure out my feelings for Jude. The last thing I expected in this scenario was to be the one questioning how I feel about a boy while my two roommates fall in lust harder than ever.

Rosanna comes out in a matching heather-gray tee-and-shorts set that’s straight out of high school gym class. The tee says PROPERTY OF LINCOLN HIGH PHYS ED. Way to be original, Lincoln High. She zooms to the kitchen in such a fit of zest I expect her to slam out a hundred jumping jacks. “Could anyone else use a snack?” she asks, yanking open the freezer door. “I’m having a Popsicle.”

“Cherry for me, thanks,” Sadie says.

“Grape, please!” I yell for no reason.

Rosanna brings us our Popsicles, plus a lime one for her. She plops down on the pouf I bought yesterday. It’s apple green and, in my humble opinion, really ties the room together.

“Austin’s bunking with us this weekend,” I inform Rosanna. “It’s like sleepaway camp for sexy men. How cute is that?”

Rosanna’s eyes practically pop out of her head. “Oh my god, really?” She gapes at Sadie. “He’s spending the night already?”

“No, we’re not . . . he’ll be sleeping with me, but we’re not sleeping together.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Yeah. I know we just met, but it feels like I’ve known him forever. He’s not some random guy. Don’t worry. You can trust him.”


“You trust him, so we trust him.” I look at Rosanna for backup.

“I’m not worried. I’m just . . .”

“Freaking out that a man is staying with us?” I suggest.

Rosanna whips a pillow at me.

“Hey!” I yank my Popsicle out of the way in the nick of time.

“I’m not freaking out,” Rosanna insists. “I’ll even clean the bathroom again before he gets here.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Sadie says.

“I kind of do. Did the people who lived here before us have a problem with cleaning? I scrubbed those tiles for an hour and they’re still disgusting.”

“Austin won’t be judging us on cleanliness,” I say. “He’ll be too busy judging Sadie on her lady attributes.”

“Can we watch the movie now?” Sadie says.

“Someone hit the lights,” I order. Once I’m sprawled out on the couch, nothing short of a forklift can pry me up.

Our movie night selection is Unfaithful. It’s this film about a housewife who has an affair with a book dealer in Soho. Films that are beautiful and evocative in an understated way always resonate with me. Maybe I appreciate the balance since my lifestyle is more of the overblown Hollywood blockbuster type.

Unfaithful is the kind of movie screenwriters watch and probably kick themselves that they didn’t come up with the idea first. Connie Sumner, the main character, meets Paul Martel outside his building when they literally crash into each other during a windstorm. She scrapes her knee and it’s all bloody. He invites her to his place to take care of it. While she’s up there, she’s admiring his massive book collection. He tells her to pull a certain book out from the shelf, turn to a page number he’s memorized, and read the line he tells her. She reads, “‘Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.’”

I love that quote so much. It rings true with my wild and free summer. I’ve been giving advice (albeit unsolicited) to the girls from The Power of Now. Just tips on the importance of being in the Now and connecting with your immediate physical environment and creating meaningful interactions with others. Being in the Now helps you avoid obsessing over regrets from the past and feeling anxious about the future. Having recently wasted a bunch of time on a certain dumbass who shall remain nameless, I do not intend to waste one more second.

“Being present to fully enjoy every moment,” I comment on the quote. “Where have I heard that before?”

Sadie pauses the movie. “You do realize this is the third time I’ve paused the movie because you keep talking.”

“I can’t help it if there’s more to say.”

“Could we say it after the movie?”

“Then I might forget.”

“Or we might be up until three trying to watch this. Some of us need to go to bed.”

“Oh, please. As if you two aren’t jacked up on enough boy adventure adrenaline to stay awake for a week straight.”

“She has a point,” Rosanna says.

“Agreed,” Sadie relents. “Either we’ll be up all night trying to watch this in between commentaries, or you’ll keep us up with your snoring anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”