Chapter 3

Mark opened the door to the loft and was surprised to see a young woman sitting on the couch. He had never seen her before and she looked like she had been sitting there for a while.

"Um hi." Mark said as he came in.

"Oh hi." the girl said looking up. "You must be Mark." Roger poked his head out of his bedroom when he heard that.

"Did someone say Mark?" he asked. Then he saw Mark in the doorway and came all the way out of his room. "Hey you're home. Got any food?"

Mark just continued to stare at Roger who looked back confused. "What?" he said. Then he looked at Reggie. "Oh right. Mark this is Reggie Parker. Reggie that's Mark." Then he went back into his room.

"You must be new here." Mark said coming to sit beside Reggie on the couch.

"I just moved in across the hall today." she confirmed.

"What's Roger doing?" Mark wanted to know.

"He's going to yell at Benny the landlord because he hasn't come to fix my power yet."

Mark's eyes widened. "Roger's leaving the loft?" he asked incredulously. Then he jumped up and ran into Roger's room. "You're actually leaving the loft?" he repeated.

"Yes. Benny said he was coming to fix Reggie's power four hours ago. I'm going to hurry him up." Roger explained.

"But you're actually going to leave the loft?" Mark said again.

"Yes Mark. I told you I wasn't going to stay holed up here forever. I'm going to take it one-step at a time and I may as well start by helping a fellow Bohemian. Now back to my original question. Did you bring home any food?"

Mark laughed. "Yes Roger, I brought home some food. I'm just surprised to see that you are actually doing something other than lying around moping. And that you are going out for the first time in like eight months."

"Well it's your doing Mark." Roger informed him. "What happened early this morning really helped me. I wasn't being true to my promise to Mimi. Just when I was questioning that, Reggie came to the door. It just feels right to be up and about again." he explained.

"And I suppose it also doesn't hurt that Reggie is a pretty girl." Mark said with a smirk.

"Hey, after Mimi I need to be single for a long while. But if you think she's pretty, why don't you go for her?" Roger said.

"I can't just go for her like that. I don't even know her. It wouldn't be right."

"But Mark she's perfect for you. Reggie's smart just like you and she came here to escape a boring college life like you did. She's new around here, just offer to show her the sights and stuff and you two can have a conversation and you'll see how alike you really are." Roger told him.

"I guess I could do that. But tonight I'm going to see if Maureen will come over here and cook us some dinner." Mark said.

"Why Maureen?" Roger wanted to know.

"Because she cooks better than either one of us." was the reply. Roger had to admit he was right. Maureen and Collins were the best cooks out of all of them, but Collins was out of town now. Therefore, Maureen would have to do.

"So there'll be food ready when I get back?" he asked.

"If you hurry up and get out of here, maybe there will."

Roger laughed. "Okay, okay I'm going. Oh and you need to invite Reggie to stay for dinner."

Mark turned to leave them room. "Alright." he agreed.

Twenty minutes later, Roger had left and Reggie accepted the offer to stay for dinner. Maureen came in with her arms full of pots, and pans.

"What's all this for?" Mark asked as he came to help her. "We have pots and pans here."

Maureen giggled. "Marky, some of those pans were washed by Roger. And we all know that his favorite method of washing dishes is wiping a wet sock over the dishes that are the dirtiest and blowing on the ones that look clean. I'd rather not get sick thank you."

Then Reggie emerged form the bathroom. "Hi Maureen." she said. "I thought I heard your voice."

"You probably heard it back when she was still outside." Mark muttered under his breath.

Maureen threw a balled up sock at Mark and turned to Regina. "Hey Reg." she said. "You staying for dinner? I'm making my specialty."

Mark swallowed a laugh. "What specialty would that be Maureen? And where did you get this sock?"

"First of all my specialty is vegetarian spaghetti and the sock was in the sink. So I'm guessing it was Roger's turn to wash dishes last night." Maureen said.

Mark walked into Roger's room muttering, "He's here all day and he can't even wash dishes properly. Jeez."

Maureen laughed again and turned to Reggie. "So how do you like the boys?"

"They're nice and funny." Reggie said. "Mark seems to be the one who keeps things running smoothly around here. But Roger's cool too."

"Yeah Mark always was the responsible one. You know I think you two have a lot in common." Maureen said. Just then, Mark came out of Roger's room scowling.

"You'd think that a grown man would know how to clean something properly." he complained to Maureen.

"Yes sweetie, a grown man would know how to clean things. However, we're talking about Roger. He's not like normal people when it comes to being responsible."

Mark laughed at that and went back to sit on the couch with Reggie. "So," he began. "How do you like it here so far?"

"Well it seems to be a little crazy out there. When I first got here, there was this lady outside yelling at a police officer when he told her to get up. It was so surreal." Reggie said.

"Oh that was Blanket Person." Mark explained. "She likes to yell at people. But if you want, I could show you around sometime. You know, so you would know where everything is and the safest way to get there."

Reggie smiled at how Mark was blushing. "I'd like that Mark. How about tomorrow. When do you get off work?"

"I get off at four tomorrow."

"Okay so I'll meet you here at four-thirty tomorrow." Reggie said.