Page 12 of Make Room for Love

Isabel set her phone aside and put on her apron. “Tell me more about this big DJ set you’re doing this weekend.”

“Oh, it’s one of those all-day parties at Volume, and I’m going on at eight a.m.”

“Congratulations. People really stay out until eight a.m.? I feel old.” Isabel took a package of instant ramen—chicken flavor today—out of the pantry.

“Youareold. You don’t think it’s romantic to dance while the sun comes up?”

“I see the sunrise when I’m working in the winter all the time. I’m?—”

“Okay, okay, we get it,” Cat said. Isabel didn’t need her to be on video to know she was rolling her eyes. “You have a job where you work regular hours and have health insurance. You don’t have to rub it in.”

“Hey, you know I’m proud of you. I know it’s a big deal. Can I come in the morning instead of being there all night?”

“Yes, they do let old people in. You’ll get a senior discount. Seriously, though, it’d be great to see you. I’m playing some of my own stuff, too.”

The joke was hitting too close to home. Soon, Isabel would be older than Alexa ever got to be. “That’s great,” she said, distracted. “Yeah, I’ll be there this time. Send me the ticket link.”

“I will. No pressure. I mean, if you need to rescue another damsel in distress, I’d understand.”

Isabel bristled more than she should have. “It’s not like that.”

“Not like what?”

Isabel checked the pot on the stove. The water was boiling. She dropped in the ramen and dumped in the contents of the flavor packet. “It’s not like that,” she said again.

“Okay. How is she, by the way? Mira, right?”

“How’s my roommate? I don’t know. I don’t see her much.” She was giving Mira some union organizing practice tomorrow. But that would take an hour at most, and she’d do it for anyone.

“Well, that’s good, right? You didn’t want a roommate in the first place.”

Isabel cracked an egg into the ramen broth, and then another. The egg whites turned opaque as they swirled.

A few weeks ago, she would have said yes to Cat’s question easily. But she was getting used to Mira being around. Mira had a smile for her whenever they saw each other, and sometimes Isabel was even moved to smile back. Mira cooked and worked on her laptop and occasionally took her calls, and she was doing something with the plants that made them less dead. She still left her books and hair clips scattered everywhere, which irritated Isabel less these days than it ought to.

If all those signs of life disappeared… The apartment might feel lonely. Maybe she had been lonely all along before Mira arrived.

Isabel pushed the idea aside. She was fine on her own. “I guess. It’s only for a few months.” A few months until she had to pack up everything she owned and leave the apartment she’d lived in for half of her adult life.

“Where’s Mira going to go?”

“Not my problem.” Isabel stirred the eggs and noodles with a pair of chopsticks. “How’s Grace?”

“She’s busy with wedding planning, obviously. Have you talked to her since the last time you asked me?”

“No.” Isabel stirred her ramen vehemently.

“Okay. So you’re still making me the go-between for the two of you. She’s fine, but kind of stressed.”

Isabel was stressing out Grace, and she was stressing out Cat, too, but there was nothing she could say to fix it. “Is her fiancé not helping her with the wedding planning?”

“Kevin is helping her plenty.” Cat sighed. “Isabel, I think you need to?—”

Isabel winced. “Okay, okay, you’re right. Don’t tell Grace I asked that. I’m glad Kevin is… I’m glad things are going well for them.” Alexa’s death had torn them all apart. Even talking to Cat, Alexa’s widower’s sister, was getting harder. Every subject was full of landmines.

“Okay, you don’t need to apologize tome,” Cat said. A long silence followed. “What are you doing these days, now that you’re not working all the time?”

“Not much. Going to physical therapy. Walking around. Watching TV. Reading.” None of these things helped her relax. They gave her too much time to think and made her restless. She had the constant sense that she was supposed to be doing something else.

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