Dirty Laundry.
"You sure I can't come in?" he asked.
Mindy looked up at him, leaning against the doorway, and longed to say yes. It would be so easy to pull him inside, lock the door, and get both of them out of their crumpled travel clothes as quickly as possible. Surely the world and its complications could wait while she enjoyed this.
She shook her head. "You know what flights do to me, Danny. My brain thinks it's in New York while my body's still in LA. Apart from my bladder, which I think is somewhere around Memphis. I just want to unwind, do my laundry, take some melatonin and get an early night. Or a late night. I'm not sure any more."
He hid the disappointment well, and that was very like him. The mask slipped over quickly so you never saw the real him for more than a few seconds.
"OK, sure," he said. "Well, I'll call you in the morning."
He turned to go.
"Danny, wait," She put a hand on his shoulder and he turned back. "Look, I know how you are. You're going to go hide in your Catholic pride and lick your wounded feelings. Look, I want to invite you in more than anything, but this isn't the time. I still haven't spoken to Cliff, and I've had enough of feeling like I'm the cheater. Are you okay to wait?" She moved closer and whispered in his ear. "I promise I'll make it worth your while."
He gave her that crooked grin, and the urge to pull him into the apartment was almost uncontrollable. "I guess I can take a raincheck," he said, with a flirtatious chuckle in his voice. "Hey, I'm not in the office tomorrow. Mrs Rinaldi across the street is moving into a retirement home, and she arranges the flowers at my church before each Mass and I get the distinct feeling that if I don't haul a few couches for her I'm going to hell. I'll call you in the morning."
"You'd better, Danny Castellano," she planted a kiss on him that was shorter and less passionate than the one they had shared on the plane, but which had a promise tagged to the end.
When he was gone, she took her suitcase through to the bedroom, feeling drunk on happiness. She sobered up when she got to the bedroom and saw Cliff's jeans on the back of a chair. She remembered that he'd dressed casually when he'd come over on Sunday, but had brought his business suit in a dry cleaning bag so he could get dressed for work in the morning without doing the walk of shame. She'd teased him about being presumptuous.
This was a mess. No matter what happened it wasn't going to be pretty.
Mindy fought off the urge to just hop into bed and spend the evening watching old movies and failing not to think about what she'd have to say to Cliff. She had stuff that needed to be done before work, though. She hadn't been kidding with Danny about getting laundry done: the three outfits she had shortlisted for the morning all needed some parts cleaned, so she'd have to pop down to the laundry in the basement.
She changed into sweats, tipped everything machine-washable into an IKEA bag, and got out of the apartment.
–
Mindy had been hoping the laundry room would be empty: much better to sit and read Tumblr on her phone than have to make awkward conversation with a stranger who could see her dirty panties. As she was heading down the stairs she could hear a dryer running, worse luck. It was only when she stepped into the room that she realized ow bad her luck was today.
A pretty redhead sat in the corner, reading a book titled It's Called a Breakup Because it's Broken. She looked up when Mindy walked in and her curiosity was instantly replaced with cold hostility.
Guilt flooded over Mindy. "Hey, Heather."
Heather glared at her then went back to the book, raising the cover like a shield. Mindy considered trying again, but instead picked the furthest away washer in the room and started loading her stuff. The activity of loading the machine stopped the silence feeling awkward for a few minutes, but once the first load was under way she could feel the quiet hostility around her.
The discrete thing to do would have been to pop in headphones and listen to Bangerz while trying not to notice what a bad job Heather was doing of ignoring her. That was probably the smart thing to do, too. However, Mindy could no more sit in silence in a room with someone she knew than she could walk past a two for one offer at a gourmet cupcake stall.
"So," she began awkwardly. "How have you been?"
Heather looked up in anger and incredulity. "Shitty. My boyfriend dumped me for a good time girl who works in the same building as him. How about you?"
Mindy backed up a step. "Okay, maybe trying to talk to you was a mistake-"
"A mistake? No, Mindy, it's the smartest thing you've done since you called me on Josh's phone to tell me you were sleeping with him, then got me arrested."
"I didn't press charges!"
"A cop handcuffed me to your fireplace and you want to talk semantics?"
Mindy sighed and threw up her hands "Forget it, okay? I just wanted to try and build a bridge, but clearly you're not interested."
"Wait, you stole two of my boyfriends and you think you can take the moral higher ground? Mindy, you're not building a bridge here, you're trying to make yourself feel better. You don't get to have my boyfriend and my friendship at the same time."
"Well, right now I don't have either!"
The anger on Heather's face braked hard into surprise. "What?"
"Cliff broke up with me," Mindy said, sitting down in one of the laundry room's crappy plastic chairs. "Clearly his opinion of me isn't much better than yours."
"What happened?"
"I was in LA for work, just got back tonight. I met up with one of my ex boyfriends while I was there, and Cliff found out about it. He said he couldn't trust me so he ended it."
Heather's expression softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I guess being dumped by Cliff Gilbert is another thing we have in common."
Mindy sighed, and the pause became more companionable. "I had this crazy idea about trying to win him back, returning to New York and laying on a charm offensive so he either had to start dating me again or move to another city."
Heather shrugged, like this plan had occurred to her before. "So are you going through with it?"
"What?"
"The charm offensive. Operation Cliff."
Mindy shifted weight a little uncomfortably. "Well, it's not quite that simple. I was planning to, and I even wrote him an email, but then things started happening with this guy-"
Heather let out a bark of laughter. Mindy looked up. "What?"
"I'm sorry, that's just so typical of you," Heather said. "Cliff's out of the picture for a couple of days and you already have a replacement lined up. Classic Mindy."
Mindy bristled. "What are you trying to say?"
"Just that you're the kind of girl who needs a guy. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just who you are."
"I do not need a guy! I am a strong independent woman and a survivor!"
"Yeah, you're both of those Beyonce songs, but you don't like being a single lady. Mindy, three months passed between Josh proving he was a dirtbag and me moving in here. How many guys did you date in that time? Four? Five?"
"Well at least I'm not the building psycho! Cliff may have dumped me because he didn't think he could trust me, but he dumped you because he couldn't stand you!"
She regretted it as soon as it was out of her mouth. After so many of Heather's shots had found their target, Mindy had pulled out the one weapon she had in her arsenal. Even so, it was a terrible, bitchy thing to say. She could see the pain of the comment on Heather's face. The dryer buzzing behind her broke the silence.
Heather turned to pull out her clothes into her basket. "Well, you won't have to put up with the building psycho much longer," she said. "I'll be out by the end of the month, can't afford city rent if I don't have a job."
"What happened?"
Heather laughed. "I used my work blackberry to send Cliff a few ill advised text messages. My boss fired me when he got the complaint."
"Wait, Cliff complained to your boss?" Mindy said, her earlier ire overtaken by sisterly feeling. "What a jerk!"
"Actually a Mrs Irene Kowalski complained. I'd got the 3 and the 6 the wrong way round in Cliff's number and so she was getting these drunken texts about her and a 'tandoori slut'. Whatever, it was a stupid thing to do and I paid the price. Seems like I always pay the price."
Heather gathered up her things, hoisting the basket without looking at Mindy. She was heading towards the door when Mindy called out.
"Heather, wait."
She looked back with an expression that was more tired than angry. "If you're angry about the tandoori slut comment-"
"You worked at a teeth whitening clinic, right? So you've got reception experience with patients, booking appointments, dealing with dirtbags from insurance companies, that kind of thing?"
Heather looked at her with confusion. "That kind of thing, yeah."
"Schumann and Associates are thinking of going from five days a week to seven. Betsy can't work Sundays and Beverley says working weekends would cut into her drinking time. I can't offer you full time hours, but it would be enough to keep the apartment while you find something better. What do you say?"
Confusion lost out to surprise. "Why are you being so nice?"
"Because I wasn't so nice. I was plotting to get together with Cliff while the two of you were still dating, I said that totally unfair thing about you being a psycho, basically I've been a bitch to you whether you deserved it or not. And just so we're clear, sometimes you did."
"All right then," Heather said. "I'll take the job. Thank you, seriously. And now I need to run this stuff upstairs."
"Just remember, no abusive messages from out work phones."
"Oh, no need for that. Cliff works in your building, right?"
Heather left, leaving Mindy feeling better but wondering what she'd done.
–
"Mindy, are you going to offer a job to everyone who beats you in a fight?" Jeremy said, looking over the job application.
"Jeremy, she did NOT beat me. And neither did Beverley. All right maybe Beverley did, but in both cases I overcame my differences to be the bigger woman."
"I want credit from you for all the jokes I'm not making at that last comment."
"Smug British jerk. Anyway, Heather is a great receptionist. I spoke to her old boss and he said they only got rid of her because of the woman who threatened legal action."
"That's hardly the kind of sentence that inspires confidence, but I'm sure she'll be fine. Anyway, less of the HR nonsense. How was LA? I haven't spoken to Danny yet, but did you guys have a good time?"
Mindy gave a half smile, then swallowed. Oh well, he'd find out sooner or later.
"Well..."