“It’s up here on the right.” Mitch pointed to the tall building that he once called home. Avi nodded, but his attention was fixed on the bay across the street.
“Wow, you were right next to the ocean, huh?” he asked.
“Yeah, views are pretty good,” admitted Mitch. He would rather not acknowledge any of the merits of this place, but what option did he have? Lie, and have Avi see it for himself about 5 minutes later? No need for that. “Pull into this garage.”
“Sure.”
Part of Mitch was annoyed that it was such a beautiful September day: mild temperature, blue skies and large cumulus clouds above. It didn’t match at all what he was feeling. He begrudgingly accepted that not everything needed to be doom and gloom, and he may as well treat this as a new beginning.
But a little overcast gray would have been nice, if simply for effect.
At the entryway of the garage, Avi stopped at the gate. A gentleman in a neatly pressed uniform requested Avi’s information and which resident he was visiting, but ceased questioning when he spotted Mitch. “Hey Hector,” Mitch greeted. Hector perked up, and commented that it’d been a while since he’d seen him. With a wry smile, Mitch informed him that this would actually be the last time.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that!” Hector frowned. Goodbyes were exchanged, Avi was handed a badge for parking, and the gate was lifted for him to drive into the garage.
“God, this is so weird,” lamented Mitch.
“What is?” Avi asked while he followed signs and sought out the guest parking spot that he’d been assigned.
“I’ve seen Hector almost every day for over 2 years. Now I’m probably never going to see him again. You ever think about that? Final farewells?”
Avi’s lips pursed. “In retrospect, of course. I’ve had a few friends that have died. That last interaction tends to replay for a long while after, and never really goes away.”
“Fuck, that’s morbid,” Mitch commented under his breath, and Avi chuckled softly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up sad shit.”
“Sorry for making it sad,” Avi retorted while putting the car into park. “And I know that wasn’t the intent. Just. Never gave it much thought otherwise, that’s all.”
“You’re good,” Mitch waved him off with a smile. The engine was killed, and then it was silent. Remaining slumped, Mitch stared out the window at the concrete walls all around them, ignoring the way that Avi kept glancing over at him. But then came the garden variety of restless noises: stretching with accompanying groans and sighs, coughs, and so on. Mitch wanted to snap at him and tell him to shut the fuck up, but refrained; even if his anxiety was at critical mass, no offense was committed that warranted a verbal lashing.
“So we doing this?” Avi finally asked.
“No, we live here now.” Mitch rubbed his temples, then mumbled, “Give me a second.” After some hesitation, he pulled out his phone. Selecting the conversation with Calvin, he sent a message saying that he arrived and that someone was with him to help move the stuff out. He then followed that up with a request to please please not be a total dick.
‘Ok.’ came the response. Somehow, Mitch tapped into enough inner peace to keep from hurling his phone into the concrete.
Damn I knew he was rich but Calvin’s *RICH* RICH huh?
I too think about final goodbyes not necessarily in a person died way, Mitch. Bye Hector :<
Oh yeah, Calv’s a trust fund kid. For SURE the kind of person that gets an article written about him in Forbes about “how this 20 year old became a millionaire”, but the secrets are that is dad’s a real estate tycoon from Manhattan that gave him his first job at his firm and a huge loan to open some upscale boutique business, and that he didn’t have to pay rent when he lived across from the Boston Common in his dad’s unused penthouse suite.