Again with a polite nod after she had relinquished the keys, and told him that if he required anymore help to simply knock, Ms. Hall disappeared back into her apartment. And with that sank against the wood of her closed door, closing her eyes and held back on a small misplaced laugh as she bit down onto her fingers, trying her best not to break into tears once again. So it was just like that.... Jess considered, finally rising to her feet at the urge faded to the back, out with the old and in with the new. Marie was gone... cleaned up and placed in a box, just like her belongings and sent back to her children, none of them wanting the apartment – they had their own homes, their own families nestled in the suburban sprawls of elsewhere.
The room abandoned, but now even that was changed, soon the emptiness besides her would be filled.
Regardless if it was the same or not, it was time to move on.
What in the hell had gotten into her?
She had to wonder, sitting and waiting for Mr. Mather on the stairs, playing with a loose thread on her light sweaters' sleeve, acting completely like a moony little schoolgirl in retrospect. But it was how she greeted most of the new tenants, to make sure everything was in accordance to their liking, any requests of repairs to be made to her, only to deter the closeted Do-It-Yourselfer that lurked in everyone.
Perhaps she would have offered to help him unload his boxes but he had already turned her down once. He enjoyed his privacy – nothing illegal in that, considering he had told her that initial piece of information when they had spoken on the telephone, hence his interest in a room so out of place from all the others.
It couldn't be helped, the builders at one point had the wonderful – if slightly misplaced idea of making a massive studio on the top floor.
And the owner had the wonderful – if not more based on greed than creativity - to split it into two larger versions of the apartments down below.
He had voiced his approval, in those hesitant tones that reminded her so much of a new student facing an unfamiliar room of strangers, when she had first shown him the newly emptied room that still stank of the fresh paint she had applied a day or so before. Just to the landlord's orders - and with the school letting out for break and her work as the building's superintendent - many more orders would be waiting to run her ragged. There always was when the school let out – that was when the most work arrived from the landlord, as Mr. Pavili would wish to have as much maintenance completed in those few months before she would be dragged back to the classroom.
Leaving the frugal owner yet again with a poor replacement for the remainder of the year, as it always has been for the past six years or so.
But still, Issiac Mather did indeed show up to view the space - not many before him did, and it had been strange that he had called a day before the ad had been placed. Sometimes word had a habit of traveling fast, perhaps nothing more than a friend of a friend passed along the news of the vacancy - still it wasn't her place to ask. And only after hastily completing her duty as counter for the game of dutch the children were playing, did she show Mr. Mathers the room, much to her younger charges apparent and very vocal disapproval.
Yet regardless of the atmosphere that spoke of neighbors knowing neighbors - perhaps too well in a few cases of those idle busybodies on the second floor - he still signed the lease without further comment and paid for the year.
Definitely a new thing for their landlord - who had to go banging on at least three doors out of the twenty in the building at the end of every month - but most likely not something Mr. Pavili would be complaining about. He had merely smiled to Jessica after Mr. Mather had left, patted her back and said: "Where ever this fellow came from, I hope he brings more like him." Anyone who kept steady with rent was good in his book - the fact that he had paid in advance probably placed him over the Pavili's own children in importance.
Well, he was certainly different than what she was used to, and she did hope he would take her up on the offer of dinner - if she was able to work up the gall to go back outside and ask.
But he did like his privacy...
Well, she did need the leftovers.