Homeless

Waiting nervously for her friend to answer, Veronica paced around her front room.

"Hey," Nellie was sounding more and more cheerful these days.

She and Rick were speaking more now. Though she still hadn't decided what she was going to do about the marriage, she wasn't nearly as depressed as she'd been when it first happened.

After asking her about how she'd been doing and Nellie filling her in on her latest conversation with Rick, which didn't offer anything new, she got to her real reason for calling. She'd already told her about the awkward way she found out how much younger Noah was. Nellie didn't seem to agree with Veronica about how inappropriate it would be to do anything social with him out of the gym.

"Veronica, you act like you've never had lunch or gone to a movie with a male friend," had been Nellie's response to Veronica's mortification over having invited an almost twenty-year-old to have a drink with her.

Ever since then, Nellie had assured and reassured Veronica that continuing her workouts with him was perfectly acceptable. Only Nellie couldn't know, because Veronica had yet to admit it even to herself, that she enjoyed her time around Noah a little too much. She was sure it was nothing more than loneliness, and right now, he was hands down the best and only company she could count on, on a nightly basis. With nothing else going on in her life, how could she not look forward to seeing him?

"I didn't work out today."

"Why?" Nellie knew she hadn't missed a day since she'd gone back, and she was more than ecstatic about the amount of weight Veronica had already lost.

"Noah wasn't there yesterday, and he just called to tell me he wouldn't be again. I would've gone in anyway, but the storm is so bad I figured why chance it? Maybe I'll work out a little here at home instead."

"Why hasn't he been there?"

Veronica was counting on her asking that. "His roof is all messed up, and he's spent the last few days working on it. He's sleeping at the gym until his roof is fixed, but with the storm not letting up, that might take some time."

"The gym?" Nellie sounded as incredulous as she felt when she first heard about it.

"Yeah, I guess he has no place else to stay."

"Is that place even heated? It's been freezing these last couple of nights."

Veronica felt her stomach knot up as she walked by one of the extra rooms in her heated home with the comfortable bed. "No, it's not. But he said he'd take extra blankets."

"Oh man, that's gotta be brutal. Poor guy."

"I know, right?"

"Yeah, doesn't he have family he can stay with?"

The knot grew even bigger, making Veronica chew her nail in indecision. "No, I don't think he does. He mentioned having foster parents once, but I'm guessing he's too old to have any now. Nel ..." God, she couldn't even bring herself to say it.

"What?"

"I, uh, was thinking of asking him if he would want to stay in one of the extra rooms here at my place. You know, just until his roof is fixed. You think that would be too weird?"

Nellie was quiet for a moment, and Veronica almost wished she'd say "yes." It would make her feel so much better that she was in this big warm house with extra rooms, but it would be just too inappropriate for her to even offer. "I don't think so, Veronica. They say it's only supposed to get colder in the next week. I mean if he thinks it's weird, he can just say 'no,' right? It's not like you're offering your bed; he'd have his own private bedroom."

Just the thought of her offering him her bed heated her face. "It's too late tonight. Maybe I'll mention it tomorrow when he calls. He's supposed to call to let me know if he's going to make it to the gym or not."

Nellie agreed and it was settled. She'd mention it to him the next time she spoke to him.

That night she hardly slept. Every bolt of lightning that lit up her room, followed by the thunder that shook her windows, made her feel worse and worse. Even with her heater on a timer, there were moments when she shivered under her blankets.

The next day, she chided herself all day. There was no way she'd back down from bringing it up that evening when he called. The worst thing that could happen, and maybe it'd be a good thing, was he'd pass on her offer. But at least then she'd have a clear conscience, and she'd be able to sleep. Yawning most of the day because of the lack of sleep she'd gotten gave her all the more reason she had to at least make the offer. She wasn't going through another night like last night again.

When her phone finally rang early that evening, her heart jumped to her throat. She took a deep breath before answering and felt that familiar stir in her belly when she heard his voice again. "Veronica?"

"Yes?"

"I'll be there tonight."

Feeling a tiny bit of disappointment, she asked, "Oh, did you get your roof fixed?"

"No. I decided to just wait until these storms pass. This one is supposed to be done by the end of the week, but there's another one blowing in next week. I'm just gonna have to wait it out. Even once the storms let up, it'll be a while before I can go back there. So I figure I may as well keep working. Lord knows I'm gonna need the money."

"Oh."

This changed things. When she first considered having him stay at her place, she thought it would be for just a few nights. That alone was nerve-wracking, but now he was talking over a week maybe more. "Okay, so I might be a little late. I didn't think you'd be going in. I need to get ready."

She hoped he didn't put too much thought into the fact that she hadn't planned on going in unless he was there. Tonight was about as rainy as Monday had been when she happily drove there in the rain and all for her workout—with him. Thinking that he wouldn't be there tonight, she just hadn't felt like going in tonight.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, this was beginning to feel dangerously close to a crush—a crush on her much younger trainer—just another reason why she really should think through offering her place up to him.

Immediately after hanging up with him, she called Nellie. She explained how the situation had changed and again waited for Nellie to discourage her from doing it. Of course, she did just the opposite. "Wow. I feel so bad for him. Fixing a bad roof is no easy feat, and this is just the beginning of winter. Maybe you can offer to rent the room out to him, since it's possible he'll be there a while."

Feeling her insides tighten, Veronica took a deep breath. "I don't know about all that, Nellie. I wasn't looking for a roommate. I just felt bad for him."

"You should feel bad for him. Winter just started and he's homeless."

Leave it to Nellie make it sound so terrible. "Well, when you put it like that, Nel. Geez."

She heard Nellie giggle. "Just think. You'll have a new roomie in time for the holidays."

Veronica rolled her eyes. "He hasn't said 'yes' yet."

"Oh, I think he will." Nellie sounded too pleased. If Veronica didn't know any better, she was probably relieved that just maybe Veronica wouldn't be alone during the first holiday season since her mom died, not that last year had been very pleasant with her mom so sick.

She'd already been so incredibly nervous about bringing up her offer to Noah over the phone. Now not only would she be offering him a place to stay in his time of need but she was practically asking him to move in with her, and she'd be doing it in person. Super!