Listening to Laurie

   Fuad opened up his apartment door to find Laurie standing there with two suitcases and a knapsack.

   “It’s two in the morning.”

   “You said you’d help me.” Laurie stepped in with her luggage and inspected the apartment. She made her way to the doorless bedroom.

   “I meant, like, to help you find shelter. A woman’s shelter.”

   “That’s not practical.” Laurie opened his closet, and then his dresser drawers. She began to unpack her things.    

   “When you said you needed help I thought you meant someone to listen to you.”

   “Listening is doing, Fuad. Do you understand? If you’re not altered by what I say, then you’re not listening, you’re just waiting for your turn to talk. You understand?”

   “It’s very late. I have to work tomorrow. This morning. I have to go to work today. I need sleep.”

   “I can’t sleep. I’m too excited. I’m talking control of my life.”

   “What about this Chad? This Chad, you said you live with. What happened? Did you fight? Did he hit you?”

   “Chad? No, Chad? Chad would never hit me.”

   “Did you argue?”

   “No. We didn’t have an argument. This isn’t about Chad. This is about me. I’m doing this for me. I need to be somewhere else. And now I’ve met you.”

   “We just had coffee. That’s all. I don’t know you.”

   “You will. Sit down. I can unpack all this later. We have time. I don’t think we should sleep together right away. That comes with trust.”

   Fuad sat opposite her on the couch. “I have to work tomorrow.”

   “Today, I know.” Laurie moved to be right beside him. Leg against leg. She wrapped her arms around his slumped shoulders and petted his tired head. “Fuad, I know it was only coffee but I’ve done nothing but think about you since I saw you in the mall.”

   Fuad couldn’t follow most of what she said after that.

   At work Patricia was changing the suits on two mannequins in the display window. Fuad was on his third coffee before lunch.

   “Oh, she’s going to eat you up, Fuad.”

   “She’s put all her things with my things. She brought two suitcases.”

   “And you met for the first time in the food court yesterday? She must be in trouble with the boyfriend.”

   “I know, that’s what I thought, but she doesn’t say. They don’t fight, he doesn’t hit her. I don’t know if they’re faithful.”

   “She doesn’t sound like it. Did you tell Norman about her?”

   Norman was inside the shop measuring the pant leg of a customer.

   “Oh, Norman said she wants to sleep with me. He says I’m her pretty boy.”

   “Did she say that?”

   “No, no. When she met me, she said I had a kind face.”

   “You do. You do have a kind face. That was nice of her.”

   “Yeah, but two AM. She’s knocking on my door at two AM. I don’t even know her.”

   “How did she know where you lived?”

   “She asked for my cell and she put her phone number in my cell. Then she gave me hers and told me to put my number in. She said she liked talking to me. And could we talk again sometime? You know. I thought she wanted to go for coffee again. Sure. She asked if it would be alright to call me if she wanted to talk? Sure. And I give her her phone back and she hands it to me again and says you forgot to put your address. And nobody’s ever said that to me before and I thought okay. And I put in my address.”

   “Aw, Fuad. You’re too nice. So, what’s she doing now?”

   “I don’t know. She had everything unpacked when I left. Maybe she’s decorating. She told me to pick bacon when I come home.”

   “You didn’t tell her you’re a vegan?”

   Fuad shook his head.

   “Get rid of her. Throw her out. No, wait, I’m not telling you what to do. I think you should get rid of her. Norman thinks you should sleep with her. Get a third opinion and make up your own mind. Oh, and lunch is coming up. I wouldn’t sit in the food court anymore. You want to grab something and hide in the backroom before another maneater finds you.”

   “That’s not helpful, Patricia.”

   At lunchtime Fuad called Laurie on his cell.

   “Hi, Laurie, I keep getting phone calls from some strange phone number. This Chad, what is his phone number? Okay, it’s not that phone number. It must be a telephone solicitor or something.”

   Fuad ended the call and called Chad.

   After Fuad left work Chad was waiting for him at his building’s entrance.

   “Fuad?”

   “Chad?”

   “Yeah, how do you do? Is she okay?”

   “I guess. I have been at work all day. I need your help. I don’t know what she’s doing.”

   “Well, that makes two of us. What’s going on?”

   “I don’t know. I only met her yesterday. Then she showed up last night. Do you know what she’s doing?”

   “No, I work afternoons. I’m supposed to be there now, but I want to make sure she’s alright.”

   “She was alright when I left.” Fuad started walking up the stairs to his apartment, motioning for Chad to follow.

   “I got home last night from work and she was all packed and was telling me how I never listen.”

   “Yes, she talked about listening. She didn’t talk about you. She didn’t tell me anything. She talked about listening, like, the concept of it.”

   “Yeah, she talks about a lot of concept stuff. Does that make sense?”

   “I don’t know. I don’t know what she’s doing.”

    “You and me both.”

   Fuad unlocked the apartment door and let Chad go in first.

   Laurie stood up from the couch. “Alright, before you say anything I’m with Fuad now.”

   “What’s going on?” Chad asked.

   “You don’t get it?”

   “No, no I don’t. I’m supposed to be at work.”

   “It’s about listening.”

   “I’m listening.”

   “No, you’re not.”

   “Okay, I’m not listening.”

   “That’s right. See? That’s what I’m saying.”

   “What are you doing?”

   “I’m with Fuad.”

   “I don’t understand.”

   “I was with you, and now I’m with Fuad.”

   “Okay, that doesn’t make any sense.”

   “I met Fuad yesterday, and today I’m with Fuad.”

   “I don’t get it.”

   “Fine. Fine.” Laurie threw her hands up and then grabbed her suitcases. She quickly and emphatically emptied the bedroom closet and dresser and crammed her things back into the suitcases. She was jamming her last few things into her knapsack.

   “That’s my towel.” Fuad interrupted.

   Laurie pulled the towel back out of her knapsack and threw it on the bed. “Fine.” She marched out of the apartment.

   “The car’s in the visitors’ parking.” Chad called after her.

   “Is she going to be okay?” Fuad asked.

   “I don’t know, but you probably want to just leave things the way they are.”