My Guest in Apartment 10B

James Percy Spencer

The alarm was set to PM instead of AM.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." She quickly jumped into the shower and rushed through her morning routine blindingly, and in the process had stubbed her toe. "Ow!"

To top it all off, the faucet was still dripping. Frustrated beyond measure, she pushed a pail under the faucet and continued to dress herself.

"Of all the days..." muttering under her breath, she shoved some essentials into a large bag, combing her hair in one swift sweep, not giving a care that it dampened the shirt underneath.

Her feet thudded angrily against the steps and she spotted her open laptop on the counter. "James? James! I need this, sorry." She slapped it shut and slid it into her bag.

She gave the room one quick sweep stepping towards the door.

"Oh! Fuck, my phone!" Arabella ran back to her bedroom and took the phone off the nightstand. She eyed her laptop charger and took it with her.

She hadn't been having a good day, and as she stared at the building's façade, she took a deep breath and walked in. She was greeted by Macy, the receptionist with a lovely British accent. Macy had been assigned by Human Resources to give her a tour.

Although she was actually late, the tour could potentially be her excuse. Gaily, she allowed Macy to lead her around. Macy gave her information about the people she would be working with on that floor. Most of the information however, sounded suspiciously like office gossip.

"Hello!" Macy waved impatiently at a petite woman and rapped on the table to get her attention.

Startled, the woman removed her headphones and glanced from Macy to Arabella, surprise and embarrassment coloring her face. "Sorry," she waved to the both of them. "How may I help you?"

"This is Arabella, she is to be your workspace mate." Macy introduced her graciously. "This is Claudine."

Arabella extended a hand, "I'm the new assistant copywriter,"

Claudine extended a closed fist. "Hello Arabella, assistant to the copywriter." She smiled warmly, and Arabella closed her hand, and met her with a fist bump.

Between making her first friend and meeting her sparring bosses, daunting Karen and sleazy Bob, the rest of the day went by in a blur.

Arabella found herself dozing off on the MTA, exhausted. She had spent the whole day rattled as she tried to keep up with the frantic pace. Thankfully, however, she was told that her job could be done from home, and only needed to report in for work as needed. She was glad to know that luck was still on her side.

But it turned out that luck was a fickle friend.

As soon as she had stepped out of the station nearest her home, a car drove into a puddle, soaking her coat and socks in filthy street gunk. She hadn't even noticed that it had rained.

Only small-town girls get splashed in city streets, and she wasn't a small-town girl. Her hometown had lots of modern shops, the streets were wide and blackened in asphalt, and everyone didn't exactly know everyone. Granted, the people in her hometown were not small-town nice, but they weren't big-city rude.

Her barefoot patter left moist feet marks on the cool tiles, and she threw her shoes in an empty pail under the sink, shivering as a cool wind softly blew through her hair. She checked her watch, and found that it was still early, but not early enough to have a conversation with her invisible roommate. James was probably off to god-knows-where and would be back at six in the evening as he usually was.

After she was done scrubbing the grime and dirt from her shoes, she hung them upside down and treated herself to a hot shower.

Twisting the knob, she noticed that there might have been a silver lining to her bad day. The faucet that had been leaking for days had incredibly stopped dripping.