Original Love

Erica's POV:
 
Pulling up to the building, she took a deep breath as she turned her car off and headed up the walk toward the manager’s apartment. Knocking twice on the door, she took a step back and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart as she waited for the man she had been talking to over the phone and by email for the last few weeks. She was officially there, in Baltimore, hundreds of miles away from Houston, her hometown. And hopefully all the memories of the past would drift away like the miles on her car did.
 
The door to the apartment opened and a short balding man appeared in the doorway with an annoyed look on his face. “Can I help you?”
 
“Um, yeah,” she replied, clearing her throat and trying to hide her nervousness. “I’m Erica Gott, we spoke on the phone a few times about the apartment I wanted to rent?”
 
“Ah yes,” the man said, sudden realization dawning his face. “Just give me a moment to grab your keys and some paper work and then I can show you were your place is.”
 
She just nodded as he left her standing there awkwardly in the hallway as he turned and shut the door to his apartment. The place was really nothing to look at but at least it was better than some of the other places around there, well at least from what she could tell from the websites. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst and it was within her price range so she really didn’t care just as long as she had running water and electricity and there were no gun shots or sirens filling the air all night long. She could deal with anything but that again.
 
Nearly ten minutes later, the door opened again and the man gave her a weird grin as he jingled a pair of keys in his hand. She took them when offered to her and then he told her to follow him as he began to walk back down the hallway towards the door. They took the sidewalk down towards the building next to the one they had just come out of and made a mental note to move her car once she finally found out just exactly where her new apartment was.
 
Following him inside the second building, he took her up a flight of stairs to the second floor and then stopped in front of a door marked with the number seven on it. The man put the key into the lock and wiggled it a bit until Erica finally heard the lock give and the door swung open. They both walked inside, entering a small kitchen area off of the main room and he flicked on a light revealing freshly painted white walls and the smell of different cleaners hanging in the air.
 
“So,” he said, pulling her back to the conversation. “If you could just sign the contract and rules then you’re all set.”
 
She nodded as she took the pen from him, only skimming the lines a little before scribbling her name on the dotted line. He smiled as he folded the papers back up and then put them in his shirt pocket and shook her hand as if that would seal the deal.
 
“Oh wait, what about the walls? Can I paint them?” She asked just as he was heading toward the door. She already had ideas popping into her head about the different colors and themes she could do with each room in the apartment and was nearly peeing herself at the thought of going out to pick out paint.
 
He gave a noticeable frown and she was ready to take that as a no as he looked around the place and shrugged. “I just painted the place but I guess you could repaint if you really want.”
 
She had to contain her squeal of excitement at that as she said bye to him as he turned to head back towards the door. Once she heard the door click shut, she went rushing towards the hallway that lead to the rest of the apartment to check it out. The website really didn’t do the place justice and wanted to see it for herself.
 
There were three doors that were down the hallway, the left one was the master bedroom with a closet and a decent sized window on the wall opposite the door. The middle room was a bathroom and the room on the right was the other bedroom which she would probably turn into her art studio with a futon on the off chance she might have guests. But that was probably unlikely. Her main focus now was finding a job and keeping to herself for a while. She needed this, to find herself once again and not let others try and make her someone she wasn’t. Now that she was in a different state, it meant a different start, a start to be someone new, someone she actually was, not the shell of a person she pretended to be for all those people back home. No. She was finally going to be herself. And what better place than there in Baltimore in her new apartment?
 
She had actually randomly chosen Baltimore as the place she was going to move to. All she did was cover her eyes with one hand and point to a city on a map with the other. And her finger happened to point to Baltimore. Now that was her lucky map framed in dark wood with plans to hang above her bed as a reminder of her new life. Hopefully it would bring her as much luck as she hoped it would. But only time would tell.
 
Speaking of her new lucky map, she suddenly remembered all her things in her car. She had a moving van that had all her stuff in it but she had kept all her most important things in her car with her on the drive over. Maybe it would be about time to bring her things in and start marking this place as her own.
 
Grabbing her keys, she walked out the door and locked it behind her, not knowing if it was a good enough neighbor hood to keep her door unlocked for short periods of time yet. But that wasn’t the moment to think about that at the moment, her most important belongings were in her car begging to be brought inside to see the new place.
 
Opening the back door to her car, she grabbed the first two boxes there and then carried them up to her place. Setting them in the main room, she repeated the process a few more times before all her things from her car were inside. Going through the boxes, she found all her art supplies, sketchbooks, easel, paintbrushes, camera, her favorite pillow, her lucky map, a blanket, and a suitcase full of clothes she might have needed on the trip over. She had skipped the hotel idea and lived in her car for the three day trip it took her to get to Baltimore. And the moving truck wasn’t going to be there until tomorrow so she was going to have to spend another night using her sleeping bag and pillow, not that she minded much. It would be her first night in her new apartment and she didn’t know if she was even going to get a lot of sleep that night. She was probably going to be too excited to possibly sleep and instead thinking of ideas of how to paint her new place.
 
Once all her art supplies were in the spare room and set up as best as they could be without the rest of her furniture, she made her way back to the kitchen. Thankfully the apartment came with its own fridge and stove so she didn’t need to get anything like that but they were both obviously empty and she figured that she probably go shopping before all her stuff arrived so she wasn’t bombarded with things to do and could just start unpacking right away. She was planning on finding a good pizza or Chinese place that night but she probably get some snacks and normal food anyway.
 
Grabbing her phone, she searched for a grocery store on the map and then grabbed her bag and headed back out the door. Before she had moved all of her stuff inside, she had moved her car to its assigned parking spot with the number seven painted on the ground in front of her building and then got in and made her way a few blocks down the main road to the store. She had made a grocery list in her head as she drove so by the time she got there she had a good idea of what she needed so grabbed a cart and began the search to what she needed to get.
 
Figuring it was best to just go up and down each aisle, she grabbed the things off the shelf setting them in the squeaky cart and also grabbing things that she had forgotten about. As she was just finishing her list, she found herself down the beauty and personal care aisle and stood scanning the bottles trying to find what she needed. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear anyone approach her until they began talking.
 
“You know if you need help choosing condoms I happen to be an expert so if you have any questions you can just ask me.” She turned to see a tall guy standing next to her with a cocky smirk and his black blonde hair sticking in every direction. He was really tall and had to only be in his early twenties and had pretty dark brown eyes that danced with laughter as she just stood there staring at him.
 
She cleared her throat and looked away finally grabbing one of the bottles in front of her. Trying not to look at the boxes of condoms she happened to be standing next to. “I’m sure you are but I’m actually looking for Midol not condoms so you’re out of luck with your creepy pick up line.”
 
“I happen to be an expert in that area too,”
 
“I’m sure you are,” she muttered as she turned and walked away leaving him standing there.
 
Heading to the checkouts, she stacked all her items on the conveyer belt and waited patiently as the teenager standing behind the register rung her up. After she paid and all her things were in bags, she pushed her cart outside towards her car and began to pack them in her car.
 
As she was grabbing the last of the bags, she must not have had a good grip on one of the handles as the bag suddenly slipped out of her hand and began to fall. Before she could even think to react, a hand reached out and grabbed the bag, saving it before it could fall and break all of the eggs inside of it.
 
Looking up at the stranger as she took the bag from them, she was about to thank them when she saw who it was and frown slightly. “Oh, you.”
 
“Oh it was no problem grabbing your bag before you wasted four bucks on eggs because they all crushed. It was my pleasure,” The condom guy said with another smirk.
 
She rolled her eyes as she shoved the last of her bags in her car and slammed the door a little too hard. “Thank you, but you don’t need to be cocky about it.”
 
“You’re a feisty one aren’t you?” She just rolled her eyes as she took the cart and began to push it towards the corral where they kept them and he followed her. “So am I ever going to get a name from you or am I just going to have to keep calling you Midol girl?”
 
“Only if I get to call you condom boy,” She replied as she made her way back to her car and he continued to follow you. “It’s been nice chatting with you but I need to go, I’ve got things to do. But thanks for helping me with my bags,”
 
With that, Erica got into her car and then started it up. As she pulled out of her parking spot, she could see the guy smirking as he watched her drive away and just shook her head trying to forget about him. It was people exactly like that that made her move in the first place. Sure she didn’t know if he was really like that but from the way he was so cocky and sure of himself the whole time they were talking she had a feeling he might be like that.
 
Pulling into her parking space, she grabbed as many bags as she could and carried them back to her place, setting them down and making one last trip to get the rest. Once she was back in her apartment, she locked the door and then proceeded to put all of the things she had bought away.
 
Once she was finished, she grabbed her phone and looked up the nearest pizza place and then dialed to place her order. After she got the price and time it would be delivered she went to her room and opened her sleeping bag out on the floor and started up her laptop before changing into something more comfortable. She wasted some time in her studio, taping some of her drawings and photos up on the walls for now and opening her large sketchpad for her easel to the next empty page realizing she was going to need to find an art store soon since she was almost finished with it.
 
Grabbing one of her smaller sketchpads and camera, she went back to her room and set it down just as the doorbell rang and then went to go answer it grabbing her wallet since she knew it was just the pizza guy since she didn’t even know anyone there. Well, except condom boy and he didn’t know where she lived. Unless he was some kind of creepy stalker and followed her home to harass her some more.
 
With that thought, she pulled out her phone just in case it actually was him so she could call 911 quickly for stalking. But when she cautiously opened the door, she found that it was in fact just the pizza guy and paid for her food and then shut the door.
 
Going back to her room, she opened the box and grabbed a slice as she clicked a few things on her computer before selecting a movie in her iTunes. As the opening credits started to play, she was thankful that she had this sort of entertainment so she had some sort of sound in the apartment so she didn’t always have to remember exactly how alone she really was. Once she finished eating and the leftovers where in the fridge, she was back in her room with a bag of M&M’s starting up a new movie and opening her sketchpad.
 
Before she knew it, she was almost finished with a drawing just as she got halfway through the second movie. Scanning over her work, she gasped as she realized just exactly what she was drawing. Or better yet, who.
 
It was condom boy from the grocery store looking back at her almost perfect detail of what he looked like. He even had the smug grin on his face that she somehow already knew so well.
 
Scowling at the drawing, she flipped to the next page since the other one was already pretty much drawn and only needed a little more shading. But she wasn’t going back to it any time soon. That guy was cocky and annoying and if she saw him next time she had a feeling she might accidently slap him to wipe that cocky grin off his face. But she couldn’t help but admit he was cute, handsome really, and found herself paging back to look at the drawing once again and blushing before turning the page and beginning her next sketch.