Classifieds

When Angela glided through her apartment building, she didn’t know if she was more concerned for her home or for someone that she had just met. Her thoughts ranged from a burned kitchen to a burned William. The stairs seemed to be easier to climb today as she breezed up them to her floor and to her apartment door where she could briefly smell something burning. Her body went rigid and even more panic flooded her. The white door appeared normal, but she was sure that behind it lay a wreckage of burned pots and pans. Angela cautiously and very slowly reached for the door and opened it softly. Before she knew it she was tackled to the ground by a very skinny body.

“William! I know it’s rude not to say hi first but why in the world did you tackle me to ground?” she said, her voice muffled from under him.

“I don’t know but I’m just so glad you’re home. Some of those appliances are so scary!” he said getting off of her and offering her his hand to help her up.

“You should have asked me how to use them, I wouldn’t have minded” she replied taking his hand and following him inside. She looked around in awe; it looked as when she left it this morning, except the kitchen. The saucepans were piled in the sink and the stove was covered in what looked to be the macaroni and cheese William had attempted to make.

“I put the fire out; it was tiny so the smoke detector didn’t go off.”

“Well, that’s good. It would be very bad if we burned down the house, considering we don’t have any extras. Not that I would know about anyway.”

“If all else fails you could go back with me to Illinois.”

“I don’t think we’ll need to go back to Illinois, just stay away from the stove for now. I’ll try to teach you how to cook, if you want to learn of course. If not you’d have to stick to a diet of saltines and juice.”

“Wow, sounds worse than prison…”

“And you would happen to know what they serve in prisons?” she questioned with a laugh.

“No, that’s why I said it sounds worse than prison, implying that I do not know exactly.” William replied knowingly while making his way across the apartment and to the kitchen to clean up the mess he made throughout the day.

“If you say so Mr. Beckett, you’re so technical.”

“Thank you Ms. Brown.” he said with swift grace. An awkward silence suddenly mulled over them and neither of them knew what to say. To kill the silence, William graciously brought up another topic, “So, how was your day? Did anything interesting happen?”

“My day was nothing new really, except that I bumped into mystery guy, again.”

“Did he ask you out on a date again? Did you say yes? Please tell me you said yes because it would be really nice to see you go out with someone instead of staying here all alone” he said quickly as he started to wash the pots that were in the sink.

“Well, he did ask me out again and yes I did decide to go out with him, after what you told me last night.”

“Well, at least it didn’t take a whole lot of energy to convince you. I’m glad you’re taking a chance on this guy, it seems like he really likes you.” he commented, shyly.

“What about you, did you have a girlfriend back home?” Angela said as she rinsed the dished

“No, I didn’t. There was this girl I always liked, but she either had a boyfriend or I was just too shy to ask her out. Oh well, I heard she wasn’t that great anyways.” he sighed

“I hope you like my cousin, she’s really nice”

“If she’s like you, then I’m sure I’ll like her.” he grinned up at her.

“We’re alike in some ways, but she’s more outgoing, and I’m not.” she replied with a smile as well as she finished up the last of the pots and watched him as he tried to clean the mess on the stove he had made. Angela couldn’t help but suppress a giggle when she saw that he was having the most difficult time trying to scrape off the excess pasta that was practically super glued to the stove.

“Good god, what did you do to make the macaroni stick like that, super glue it?”

“Not that I know of!” replied William as he sat down on the couch exhausted.

“It sure seems like it, but luckily, my mother used to cook like that all the time, so I know how to clean stuff like that fairly easily.” she plopped down next to him.

“Did she really? What was she like, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just been a while a I guess since I’ve thought about her,” she paused, then continued, “My mom was really nice and she really did try to make things work for us after her and my dad divorced when I was little. They had a bunch of problems and he beat her even when he knew she was sick. So, she filed for divorce, got custody of me and we pretty much tried to make ends meet my entire life. Mom was getting better with all the treatments, even though they were costing us tons and her insurance could only cover about a fourth of it. So I got a job, this was by the time I was sixteen, and we managed to keep the apartment and everything. Then while I went to college she worked another job just so we could pay for it. I spent my last year of college without her, and it was intense since I wasn’t used to not having someone live with me I guess.”

“Wow, I’m so sorry Angela,” William said, outstretching his arms to give her a hug. She hugged him back and they sat there hugging for a bit until Angela pulled away from the hug.

“Thank you, but I’m fine, it’s just been different without her I guess,” Angela said

“I understand, sort of.”

“Yes, well, that’s basically my life’s story. That’s probably the most exciting thing about me, besides the fact that I have over five hundred books scattered throughout the apartment and that I’m obsessed with the game Uno.”

“I love that game!”

“You do? I have it if you want to play,” she said surprised by his enthusiasm for a game she thought no one liked. She got up and went to the hall closet which had about three games in it and withdrew the deck of cards and sat opposite of William so that the coffee table was between them

“We should make a bet to make the game more interesting!” William exclaimed.

“Okay, what are the stakes?”

“Loser has to clean the kitchen”

“William, honey, you already do, but sure, bring it,” she smiled as shuffled the cards and dealt like a pro.