believe you will arrive back at your house at 9:30.” Aillie said.
“Yup, see you then.” London hung up without waiting for a response, then hurried out to the floor. The after work rush was soon to hit, and London wasn’t about to leave Sophie with all the work.
She met Sophie at the registers just as she was finishing with a customer. London waited until Sophie had handed over the shopping bag with the customer’s items, before offering a thank you under her breath. Sophie waved to the customer as she walked out of the store and then turned back to London.
“So, everything’s cool, then.”
“Yeah, I think I was freaking out over nothing. Aillie’s at home…” London stopped and corrected herself. “I mean Aillie’s at my home, watching movies. I can’t say I expected that but so far ze seems okay.”
“That’s the third time I’ve heard you use the third-gender pronoun.”
“Um, yeah. Aillie…” London trailed off, staring off into the distance of the mall space. “I don’t know how to explain Ailleianne. All I’ve got is that my new tenant doesn’t really fit into a gender. No, what did ze say. ‘Gender if of no concern’ to zim.” Her brow crinkled.
“But so far you’ve been okay with zim.”
“I haven’t known zim more than a week. But I don’t feel scared when I talked to zim. A little confused, but not scared.”
“I think you could do with some confusion in your life,” Sophie threw the comment back over her shoulder as she grabbed the returns she’d been dealing with. “But go with your gut.”
London nodded to herself, vowing to take Sophie’s words to heart. It was fine. She was sure of it; it’d be fine.
She hoped it would be fine.
*** *** *** ***
The rest of her workday went speedily as soon as she stopped worrying. Sophie worked the till and London busied herself by straightening up after customers and greeting incoming people to her store. This is what she was good at. She excelled at making small talk, and helping people find what they needed.
And then London went on lunch and her nerves returned. As soon as she’d finished her pre-packaged lunch, she found herself staring at the phone. London promised herself that she wouldn’t call home a second time. It was hard to resist checking in again. But two phone calls in one day was a bit much.
Sophie walked back to the office to grab her stuff at the end of her shift and found London snatching her hand back from the receiver. After London explained, Sophie ended up laughing at her for a full minute before relenting. “All right, I’ll drive by your place.”
“You can’t stop by.” London said at once, telling herself she really didn’t need it… even if she did want it. “Aillie’s probably already freaked.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll just drive by, make sure the house is still standing. Ze probably won’t even notice. Okay?”
London couldn’t stop the relieved smile that blossomed on her face. “Yes! Please! What would I do without you?”
“Let’s not even think about it. You owe me!” Sophie replied airily, gathering her purse and keys. London walked out to the sales floor, feeling much better.
Sophie’s call fifteen minutes later was heaven sent. Her house appeared fine. A flashing blinking light from the television told her all she needed to now. Her new tenant really was a couch potato.
*** *** *** ***
London had one last rush of people before she could start the closing procedures. And then somehow she was done with everything: the clothes were back on the racks, items around the registers were straightened, the money was counted and ready for deposit tomorrow morning. Finally, London grabbed her purse from the back room and headed through the back hallway to the staff parking lot, grateful to be on her own way to her house.
When London arrived home, it was to a scene very similar to what she’d left. Aillie was still sitting in the same spot, in almost the same position. How zis back could handle the strict position, she didn’t know. She offered a quick wave and made her way up the stairs to her room. Walking into her room, she noted that none of her stuff had been touched. The same mess on her nightstand greeted her, her lotions and perfumes and bottles stood in their same spots. She was happy to note that her tenant was pretty decent at keeping out of her stuff.
She busied herself, getting ready for bed. Her tenant wasn’t turning out so bad. She’d originally thought she’d just need help getting out of debt and hoped she’d only need someone (and their extra money) for a couple of months, and then she’d be ready to live by herself again. It was one of the reasons she hadn’t stipulated how long her tenant would stay. But perhaps if ze continued to be a decent tenant she’d suggest ze stay longer than the six months. She fell asleep, vowing to herself to have the conversation after work tomorrow.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get a full night’s sleep. She was awoken abruptly by explosions downstairs. It took her a few seconds to get her bearings, and listen to anything over her too-loud heart.
There couldn’t be explosions in her house. She’d feel them. She listened to the low voices that pricked the spaces between the sounds of explosions. Finally she recognized it; it was another movie.
Was Aillie a night owl? That could explain zis weird mannerisms. Ze obviously didn’t understand how to get along with people.
Well, ze wasn’t going to get along with London if ze thought it was appropriate to blast the loudest movie at whatever-the-hell o’clock at night it was.
She looked over to her alarm clock on her night table. One am? It was only one in the morning? She’d been asleep for a measly two hours.
London got out of bed and stomped her way downstairs to the living room. As she reached the bottom, she confronted Aillie, sitting in the exact same space ze’d been before, gaze fixated on the television screen.
“Dude, it’s nighttime! Does it have to be so loud?”
“I did not touch the volume.”
London ignored zim and stomped over to the remote. She viciously stabbed at the remote, lowering it to a more acceptable volume.
“I did not touch the volume,” ze reiterated.
“Fine!” She snarled, “but it still doesn’t need to be that loud. Do you hear anything that loud now?”
She stood, hands on her hips, waiting for zim to respond.
Ze cocked his head to the side, seemingly listening. “No. It is very quiet now. A man two houses down is snoring. There are three children in that house who are whispering. But there is a significant lack of noise at this time of the 24-hour cycle.”
“That’s right. It’s night. Go to bed. You can get up tomorrow and watch more.”
“Okay.”
Ze agreed, immediately standing and making for zis room. London stared at him, wondering if this was some sort of power struggle between them or if ze was really just that
