Joanna and Dan stumbled in drunk and happy at nearly four o'clock, and as usual Laurie pretended to sleep through their bombastic arrival. All too typical, but of course Laurie was in no position to complain when she was sleeping rent-free in Joanna's living room. At least Dan hadn't sunk to ogling or harassing her when he thought she was asleep. He saved that for waking moments only.
"Okay, I'm off to water the bathroom floor!" Dan proclaimed, rushing off toward the bedroom.
"Quiet, you!" Joanna sing-songed as she stumbled out of her high heels, which she kicked over toward the closet door. "You'll wake Sleeping Beauty!"
"That girl could sleep through a tornado," Dan shot back from the master-bathroom, where Laurie could presently hear him peeing with the door open. "You've known that for months!"
"True," Joanna agreed. "I don't know how she does it!"
She doesn't, you moron,
Laurie thought, opening her eyes now that the coast was clear.
Feeling another wave of self-pity coming on, Laurie gazed out the window at the dark skyline and did her best to think of anything but the pathetic existence her life had become -- but it was no use.
It always seemed to hit the worst on Friday nights. A year earlier, she'd been a well-paid banker with a swanky apartment of her own and it wasn't at all unusual for her to just be stumbling in from a club or a party at this hour. A very late Saturday morning -- often well into the afternoon -- would follow, with a late brunch at her favorite yuppiefied coffee shop and maybe a flirtatious SMS-exchange with some guy she'd met the night before if she could recall whether he was cute, and possibly a date set for later in the week. The same thing often happened again that night. Then, on Monday, it would be back on with the tailored suit and leather pumps and off to handling more money than her parents had made in their entire lives.
Now, of course, all her tailored suits and her weekend party outfits were stuffed in a few boxes in Joanna's rarely-used dining room, which had doubled as Laurie's closet for the six long months since she'd been forced to give up her place. Pretty much everything that had made post-college life worth living was stuffed in a box in Joanna's dining room, while Joanna was still living it up on Friday and Saturday nights. Laurie could have joined her tonight, she reminded herself -- she wasn't
that
broke -- but the long shifts at the restaurant typically left her too tired to bother with fun, no matter how badly she missed it. Besides, it just wasn't so much fun anymore on the much-tighter budget she now lived on. And forget about dating: who wanted to tell a guy, "I used to be a banker but now I'm a waitress"?
The ubiquitous signs of Valentine's Day right around the corner hadn't helped Laurie's frame of mind any. Neither had living with Dan's crude, pathetic come-ons every time Joanna had her back turned -- everything from "anytime you want me to help you wash off that stale food smell, just ask!" to suggesting a threesome with Joanna ("Just once? You can even give me a list of where I can and can't put it!"). Watching her beloved sorority sister laugh it all off as "just a man being a man" was the worst of all. But Laurie had no other option until she found a better job. If she found one.
She'd never been a big Valentine's Day fan to begin with. Too many memories of seemingly all her friends walking the halls at school with teddy bears and flowers. Nowadays she just channeled all that distaste into energy to keep her pushing through the current nightmare.
"Everyone gets laid off once," the asshole at the bank had told her on the morning she'd found her life turned upside down. "It's not the end of the world. Think of it as a new beginning. You'll find something else."
But after three months of frantic searching, all she'd been able to find was a waitressing gig at a restaurant near Joanna's place. Joanna, her best friend from college, had insisted on taking her in rent-free at that point. "As long as you need to stay until you're back on your feet, Laurie," she'd said. "You'd do the same for me, after all." And so Laurie's entire life since then had consisted of sleeping on Joanna's couch, walking to and from the restaurant four blocks away, and churning out resumes and coverletters that were mostly ignored.
Laurie was not ungrateful to her friend. But she could have done without having to watch Joanna's life in the fast lane continue from a front row seat on the couch where her own was stalled. And she'd never understand what Joanna saw in that asshole Dan, who was still whooping it up in the bedroom while Joanna giggled at his antics.
Giving up on trying to get back to sleep, Laurie checked the clock. It was time to call the restaurant and see if they needed an alternate for the breakfast shift anyway. Friday night being what it was, anyone who wasn't too hung over to come fill in for those who were could really clean up, and Laurie had made a relative bundle that way of late. Sitting up, she found her iPhone on the coffee table and scrolled down to "work," and pressed on the number.
While listening to it ring, she looked absentmindedly back at the bedroom door -- and nearly dropped the phone in surprise. There, inside the door they had left ajar in their drunken abandon, was Dan standing over the bed, laughing at yet another of their stupid jokes.
He was stark naked, and waving his hard dick around like the magic wand he probably thought it was.
Joanna was sprawled on the bed, still in her underwear, looking up adoringly at him and laughing at his antics. Laurie was immediately filled with a contradictory mix of annoyance and embarrassment and titillation and...envy, she realized to her surprise. Arrogant jerk though he was, Laurie now saw Dan did have a nice body, and she found herself enjoying her illicit glimpse at it. He also had some kind of bond with Joanna, whatever that might be, and right now they were enjoying a delicious private moment of the type Laurie hadn't even allowed herself to imagine in all those long months.
It occurred to her, all at once, that the last time she'd even seen a guy nude had been well before the layoff. Intimacy was just one of dozens of things she had put on the back burner and left to smolder there. And here it was almost Valentine's Day, too, an influence no matter how she hated it...
Laurie whipped her glance away as Lois, the night manager at the restaurant, answered the phone. Crouching back down on the couch in case either of the lovebirds noticed they'd left the door open, she replied, "Hi Lois, it's Laurie. Will you be needing me for the breakfast rush?"
Twelve hours later, armed with two shifts' worth of tips and a wonderfully rekindled hunger that hadn't quit all day, Laurie emerged from the fitting room at her favorite thrift boutique in a long, flared, burgundy-colored dress. Admiring herself in the shop's full-length mirror, she was excruciatingly aware that she smelled like breakfast and lunch combined and felt like nine months' worth of underemployment and unemployment. But the dress was undeniably a great fit and a welcome reprieve for Valentine's Day, and it added to the pleasant tickle her glimpse at Dan had inspired.
"Oh, that's beautiful," said the saleslady who had greeted Laurie some minutes before. "Perfect for the fourteenth! Have you got a hot date for it?"
"No," Laurie admitted. "But seeing myself in this, I think I could probably get one." She welcomed back the sense of self-confidence that had once served her so well back at the bank, before everything had fallen apart.
"Excellent attitude," the other woman said. "Shall I ring that up for you?"
Broke though she was, Laurie couldn't resist. "Yes please," she said after one final look in the mirror, with a smile that surprised her.
Dan was perched on the couch -- her couch -- with his usual cocky grin as Laurie let herself in. "Laurie!" he said in mock surprise. "Surprised to see you home so early!" Laurie could only wonder if he'd still be looking so smug if she were to tell him just what she had seen last night. But, to her pleasant surprise, his barbs no longer stung with the memory of all that. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you smell like potatoes. More of 'em than usual!"
"Thank you, Dan," she said with effortless pleasure, turning to hang her coat in the closet so he wouldn't see if she blushed with the memory of last night. "Potatoes are a very healthy food, after all."
"I could certainly eat you up!" Dan said, "If you didn't look so tired, anyway." His gaze had always had a way of making Laurie feel naked in her boring work clothes -- until now that she had seen him naked. Amazing how much less intimidating a bully is when you've seen him waving his dick around like a toy, she mused as she turned back to face him.
"You'd be tired, too, Dan," Laurie said, not turning to face him. "Trust me on that." The little bastard was probably just waiting for Joanna to change for yet another night on the town, too, just like the wild nights she had known before last year.
As if reading her mind, Dan continued, "Quick, why don't you put on something cuter and come join us? We'll even wait for you to shower -- I mean, we'd have to! I don't want anyone in my party smelling like potatoes." In a stage-whisper he added, "And my offer stands to help wash you, you know."
Laurie was saved from the nasty remark she felt forming on her lips when Joanna blossomed forth from the kitchen in a glitzy dress and her trademark makeup, and her blonde hair swept up in an absurd 'do that Dan appeared to love. "Leave her alone, Dan. How much would
you
want to go out when you'd been on your feet all afternoon already?"
Laurie turned around to thank her friend, and saw a young man she didn't know just behind Joanna. "Well, hello," she said. "Sorry, Joanna, I didn't know you had company."
"Oh, this is Dan's cousin, Jerry," Joanna said. "He's also job hunting."
"Welcome to the club," Laurie said, shaking hands with Jerry. He was cute and, surprisingly for a cousin of Dan's apparently rather shy. She liked him immediately, particularly his blue eyes, in which she was sure she saw her own frustration reflected. "I wish I could be encouraging about the job market, but...well, I'm sleeping on Joanna's couch, aren't I?"
"Pleased to meet you," Jerry said. "And I admire your candor."
"Don't listen to her, Jerry," Dan piped up. "She's gainfully employed the same way all liberal arts grads are, as a waitress."
"No shame in that," Jerry said. "English major here."
"Economics," Laurie replied. "Lots of good it's done me lately. But waiting tables isn't all bad."
"Speaking of restaurants," Dan repeated, "We're all going out for dinner and then maybe a club. Want to join us, Laurie?"
