Page 55 of Finally Mine
“You’re going to be in amazing shape just from bringing groceries home,” Harper gasped. “I can’t believe we got the couch up here ourselves.”
Gloria laughed as she unpacked the last dish of her brand-new dinner service for four. “I can’t believe it’s mine. I can put something on the counter, and it will still be there when I come back. I can watch anything I want on TV. I can lounge around naked all day if I want!” She ticked the items off on her fingers.
Her own place. She’d been frugal with her paychecks and had saved up for the first month’s rent and security deposit with no one else’s help. She’d done it, snagging the creaky-floored apartment two floors above Dawson’s Pizza. Even now, the faint scents of basil and garlic could be detected on the breeze from the open windows.
She met Harper in the living room, and together they appreciated her view through the tall bow window. Main Street Benevolence bustled below. Across the street, the police station’s glass windows gleamed, and the door to Common Grounds Cafe opened and closed.
It was part of what she loved about this particular apartment. She was in the middle of all that was Benevolence. She was a part of it, even if it was only by proximity. And she loved it so fiercely it made her chest burn with something that felt suspiciously like pride.
“This is pretty perfect,” Harper said in approval.
Gloria couldn’t have agreed more. “Want a drink?”
“For the love of God, yes! Please!” Sophie’s voice was muffled by the box of kitchen miscellany that covered her face and chest. She dumped it unceremoniously in the middle of the kitchen floor, a characterless beige tile that Gloria had joyfully scrubbed clean ten minutes after she got the keys.
Sophie flopped down in a dining chair. “That’s literally the last thing. You’re all moved in.”
Gloria grabbed the six-pack of soda she’d stashed in her fridge and squashed the urge to pirouette around the boxes and bags. She’d do that when she was alone.
Harper jogged to her bag. “Wait, Gloria! Put the can down! We can’t let the first drink in your very own home be diet soda.”
She revealed a bottle of champagne with a flourish.
Sophie clapped her hands. “Nothing happier than the sound of champagne being uncorked!”
Harper helped herself to the meager collection of coffee mugs that Gloria had put away in the cabinet and poured.
“I’d like to make a toast,” Gloria told them, accepting a mug. “Thank you both so much. It means the world to me to be independent, but it’s even better to have you two as friends that I can depend on if I need to.” She’d never had that before. The fact that these two women had volunteered to lug her hodgepodge collection of belongings up three flights of stairs made Gloria feel like the luckiest woman in the world.
“Aw! Cheers!” Harper, then Sophie clinked their mugs to hers.
Sophie left shortly after to help Ty convince their son that he wasn’t a dog and did indeed pee inside unlike Bitsy. Harper stuck around to help with some of the unpacking.
“I really appreciate the help,” Gloria called, stacking glasses neatly in the cabinet next to the sink.
“I’m happy to help,” Harper said from the living room where she wrestled with the cords of Gloria’s small TV and a new-to-her DVD player. Gloria was sharing Wi-Fi with her neighbor and hadn’t sprung for cable. She didn’t want to overextend herself her first month living on her own now that she had rent and insurance and utilities to pay. It was the first time in her life she was making money, and she was determined to manage it carefully. No shopping sprees or filet mignon for her.
Gloria joined Harper in the living room and sank down on the couch. It was welcoming, soft, and a vibrant purple that added the perfect pop of color against the white walls and light oak floors.
“So, how’s Aldo doing since he came home?” She hugged a yellow throw pillow to her chest to ward off the automatic ache.
Harper frowned at the back of her TV. “He’s, uh, doing okay. I think the therapy is helping mentally. Physically he’s a beast.”
“He always was,” Gloria said wistfully.
Harper dropped the cord she was fighting with. “Listen, Gloria, I don’t know exactly what his problem is, but I hope you know that that’s what it is.Hisproblem. It has nothing to do with you.”
“I think I had got my hopes up a little too high that we could be something together. That I could be something to him,” Gloria confessed, picking at the tufted button on the pillow.
“Whoa! Let’s back that truck up real fast.” Harper grabbed her champagne mug and flopped down next to Gloria. “You can’t put your worth in someone else’s hands like that. Whether those hands are stroking you or hurting you. It doesn’t matter. Your value comes from inside. Whether you mean something to him or not has nothing to do with how inherently valuable you are.”
Spoken like someone who’d been through therapy,Gloria thought. Hmm.
“I get it,” she told her friend. “And I think I’m starting to believe it. I know I’ll beokaywithout Aldo Moretta, but I’d still like to at least give it a shot.” Or she had before their last encounter.
“Now you’re speaking my language,” Harper said.
“Is that how you felt about Luke?”
