The Friend

Alicia

Alicia stepped out of the supermarket holding her brown paper bag of grocery items. Today she was working from home so that she could fix up her apartment and cook dinner.

As she raced back to her apartment, she bumped into her neighbor Carla. Carla lived one floor above her and worked as a software engineer for a tech company. The two girls were polar opposites in their work, but bonded over similar music and TV tastes.

"Hey Alicia! Are you headed home?" Carla smiled at her.

"Yeah, I'm going to make dinner," Alicia said.

"Ooo, yummy, yummy. How's Nathan?"

"He's fine," Alicia smiled. "I'm actually trying to surprise him with a special dinner tonight so I'm going to go home, clean up the place, cook, and get dressed up."

"Ugh! Couple goals. I wish I had someone so that I could do stuff like that," Carla said, "I ran into Sam the other day and we were talking about that Cartier watch Nathan gave you for Valentine's day a few months ago. If I can find a man like Nathan, someone loaded with dough, my life would be perfect! Anyways, I don't want to keep you from your plans. Have fun tonight!"

"Thanks Carla," Alicia said.

Alicia stopped by the wine store to get some Champagne before making her way up to her apartment. Nathan and she had been together for three years, but lived together for two. She met him when she was still in San Francisco. He was a director for one of the biggest TV advertising agencies out and was six years older than her. They met at a party in LA, dated and eventually moved back to New York together. They lived on the Upper West Side.

As she opened the front door, she saw one of Nathan's pants and shirt on the floor. She sighed and picked his clothes up, tossing it on the couch nearby. She made her way to the kitchen and noticed that he had left a couple plates of food on the counter. Flies surrounded his half-eaten sandwich. She placed her groceries down and started to clean up.

She will admit it. Nathan wasn't the cleanliest person ever. He called it being 'scatterbrained'. He was always in and out of meetings with execs that he never had time to pay attention to things around the house. Sometimes it bothered her that she always cleaned after him, but she was pretty use to it by now.

Besides, people like Carla and Sam always told her how they wished they had someone like him. They envied her. Often, they complained how dating apps were terrible and how all the good men were taken. No matter what, they advised her to stay with Nathan because it was hell out there for them.

As she stared at their messy apartment, a choking feeling took a hold of her and she felt suffocated.

She breathed. None of that mattered. Nathan would be coming home tonight and they'd celebrate her success.

Two years ago, she made the move from poetry editor to fiction editor at Soyland. She's been in the world of fiction ever since and now recently her short story was published in an upcoming issue at Granta. This was the first time ever she had published something anywhere. Nathan said that they should celebrate and so she decided to make a home cook meal for the both of them. He promised her that he'd take a half day to get back home in time.

***

After getting dressed up in a strapless black dress, she set the dinner table and shut the lights off. She lit two candles at the table and sat down. Nathan should be home any minute. It was six o' clock.

After thirty minutes went by, she texted him, but didn't get a response. Perhaps there was a lot of traffic on the road.

When an hour passed, she decided to open the champagne and drink it.