The Greatest Lie Part 12

The intercom buzzed.

"Did you order in dinner already?" I asked.

Tran shook her head.

You don’t just take unexpected deliveries when you live on our part of Hennepin. In response to my brusque inquiry, the voice over the intercom announced, "Flowers for Miss Rivers."

The shivering delivery man had to lug the mass of blossoms up three flights of stairs to our squalid apartment. The bouquet filled our tiny rooms with a delicious, spicy aroma.

I found a card dangling beneath the canopy of fragrant blooms. It read:

"Thanks for joining me for breakfast. My apologies for not taking better care of you. Call me if I deserve another chance."

"Love, Alec."

I don’t want to sound like a poster child for the cut flower industry, but the arrival of my first bouquet of roses completely turned me around on Alec. My feelings of estrangement and resentment bordering on contempt were swept away in a wave of involuntary emotion. Despite myself, I felt a warm glow of appreciation.

One feels one must be beautiful and desirable to have warranted being presented such delicate and costly blossoms. I was mightily tempted to immediately call Alec and forgive him his transgressions of the night and the morning.

Tran demanded "You’re gonna call him, right?"

I replied "Of course I will, but not yet. He has to have a night of uncertainty and tension: penance for his sins of last night and this morning. He’ll be desperate by the time I call him tomorrow. I will reel him in like yo-yo: but you have to throw the yo-yo down and let it spin before you bring it back up again."

"You are right, but you are so cruel."

"Life’s cruel, Tran. Get back to work. I’ve got hours of work, and class first thing tomorrow. He can wait."

When I woke up the next morning, the heat in our apartment was off. Tran had stolen all of the covers and was splayed out over three-quarters of our lumpy, shared bed. I was freezing and miserable. I warmed myself against Tran's slumbering body, and she recoiled from the touch of my chilly bones against her warm flesh. God, it sucks to be poor.