Pt. 14: Desolation
JUSQU'AU BOUTISTE
Avery was one of Carter's best friends, despite having only known him for a year. Given that, it was a big disappointment when he learned that Avery had resigned from Warren & Hines. The office was not going to be the same without him. Fortunately, Avery still lived in the same neighborhood, and he always carved out some time for lunch, a workout, or just lending an attentive ear. Carter pulled into the front of Avery's condo building, parking his blue BMW in an empty space, distanced very far from any other vehicles. The car was six months old and had already endured a series of mishaps, including some deep scratches and a broken brake light. Hearing the alarm from his car and assured it was secured, Carter passed by Avery's much older vehicle on the way to the building. Like his, Avery's vehicle had been put through the ringer. That was par for the course. The surrounding neighborhoods were full of terrible drivers.
Before Carter could alert Avery that he had arrived, a short, young woman wearing a yellow sundress emerged from the building, holding the door open for him. Carter watched as she strutted towards a silver Audi. As she opened the car door, a strong gust of wind swept through the parking lot, hoisting her dress to her waist. It was only for a few seconds, but Carter noticed that she was wearing a carmine thong. The young woman quickly repositioned her dress below her waist and stepped into the car. Carter stormed into the building. As was often the case with Avery, Carter opted to walk the fourteen stairs to the second floor, rather than wait for the aging elevator. Opening the stairway door, there was a short hallway with one door on each side. Sitting perpendicular to that hallway was another hallway, peppered with apartment doors. Carter turned left and took short strides down the hallway. Avery's apartment was at the end.
Standing in front of the apartment, Carter noticed a collection of stabled papers taped onto the metal door. Carter did not stare at them for very long, but the word eviction was present, boldly, in numerous paragraphs. Pressing the button to ring the bell, Carter tried intently not to read the notice upon the door. It likely contained nothing but unwelcome news. Avery swung the door open seconds later. When he did, the taped paperwork descended to the floor at Avery's feet. Standing the same height as Carter, Avery was leisurely dressed, wearing a black gym shirt and matching black and silver shorts. He stared down at the papers at his feet for what seemed like an eternity before reaching to collect them. Carter did not immediately make any mention of them. Once they were gathered from the floor, Avery stepped aside, and Carter entered, passing Avery on his way into the apartment.
"Hey dude," Carter said. His blue eyes instantly noticed a massive collection of used dishes on the dining room table. Many of them were still soiled with uneaten food, some of which had begun to grow mold.
"What's up?" Avery replied, taking a quick glance at the paperwork he held. Like his friend, Avery's earthy brown eyes directly identified the word eviction repeated several times.
"Are you ready to go?" Carter questioned, turning to the living room. Surprisingly, the living room was clean. A slate grey sheet covered the long couch against the wall, along with a sunken pillow and Avery's navy-blue comforter.
"Yeah. Let me just get my socks and shoes on, and we can go," Avery said, slowly walking towards him. Avery's attention continued to be focused on the notice.
"You need to hire a maid," Carter joked, attempting to make light of the current situation. Avery did not answer him. A full minute passed before Avery gave him any acknowledgement.
"Yeah. I'm sorry about the mess. I just haven't been in the mood to clean lately," he said, tossing the papers onto his computer desk. Avery walked towards the bedroom and opened the door. In response, Carter snuck over to the computer desk and read more of the notice. It was not a threat of eviction, as he hoped; it was a declaration of eviction for failure to pay rent. Avery emerged from the bedroom, carrying a pair of black socks. Carter turned to face him.
"Hey, I saw the thing on your door. Is everything okay?" He asked while Avery clothed his large feet, one by one.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine," he responded. Carter knew otherwise and did not understand why Avery was refuting it. Perhaps he was avoiding possible embarrassment.
"How's Jenna?"
"She's good. We talked yesterday. She'll be here tonight around eight. We're going to have dinner at the Curtain Call and just talk about stuff," he said, walking by Carter to the closet near the front door. Sliding it open caused sharp metal edges to shriek into the apartment. Reaching into the closet, he removed a pair of black and silver running shoes. Carter himself wore a pair of tan slacks, a red collared shirt, and a pair of brown loafers. He hoped that Avery would be dressed appropriately, as the restaurant to which they were going was of some repute.
"That's good. So, does it look like the two of you will be reconciling?" Carter questioned.
"It looks that way. I certainly hope so," Avery said, sitting in his computer chair. As he laced up his sneakers, Carter cleared his throat and looked back at the papers on Avery's desk.
"Is that what you really want to do? Get back together with Jenna?"
"I think so. I mean, yeah. We've had some productive conversations over the past months, and I think the distance has really helped us to work on ourselves," he said, finishing with one shoe and lacing up the other.
"And you're sure she wants the same thing?"
"She's been a little less committal to resuming the relationship, but that's how she was when we first started dating, so I'm not worried about it."
"Cool. Hey, do you mind if I grab some water?" Carter asked, pointing his finger to the kitchen.
"Yeah, go ahead," he answered. As Carter walked away, Avery called out to him.
"Wait! Don't use the Brita. That filter's, like, three months old. There's some bottled water in the fridge. Grab me one, too," Avery replied. As Carter strode towards the kitchen, his nostrils were assaulted by a multitude of unpleasant smells. The source of the odor was the sink, which was overflowing. On the counter tops were old boxes of pizza. Some of the boxes were only partially consumed. Carter sighed loudly, shaking his head from side to side.
"You should really think about getting a maid, dude," he shouted out to Avery. "I hope you're planning on cleaning up before Jenna gets here."
"I don't need a damn maid!" Avery responded. Opening the fridge, Carter was astounded at what he saw. Save for a few bottles of water, a very old half-empty gallon of milk, and an orange box of baking soda sitting in the back of the middle shelve, the refrigerator was completely empty. Pulling two bottles of water from it, Carter closed it and exited the kitchen.
"It looks like you haven't gone grocery shopping, either," Carter commented, turning the plastic cap on the bottle to break the seal.
"Yeah. I haven't really done much of anything lately," Avery replied. His eyes roamed the surface of his computer desk, searching for something.
"What are you looking for?"
"My wallet. It's not where I normally put it," Avery said. After peering into the cubby holes on his bookshelf atop his desk, Avery started shuffling things around on the desk, shoving the eviction notice onto the floor. Carter watched as it descended. Avery seemed to be completely uninterested in what it said, which only served to further concern Carter.
"Do you remember where you put it last?"
"I thought I put it right here," he answered, pointing to a spot on the bookshelf. "This is where I usually put it."
"Well, what did you do after our workout yesterday?" Carter questioned, walking towards the desk. To his right was a calendar, which had not been moved from February. Each day was marked out with a black X until Valentine's Day. That day was circled in red marker. After that, nothing. Carter removed the thumbnail holding the calendar against the wall. Skipping all the way to June, where the last week of May was also present, he nailed it back in place.
