Woah.

I had a double take, blinking after I swung open the door to the roof access of my apartment complex. There was another woman up there, long wavy red hair and pale skin. She wasn't moving, frozen in time like me. It was the only reason I stopped at the door, afraid my next step would cause the universe to press the 'play' button again. I couldn't focus on the city view, my eyes were locked on her, a weird chill shook me before I shut the door quietly behind me.

/Come on, just relax, deep breath. Say something./

"Ahh, hey..."

She turned around so quickly it threw some of her hair off her shoulder, I flinched pretty bad. She had a lot of freckles, but her face was like stone, with a mix of discontent and irritation. My mouth was part way open, until I realized it was getting dry from the cold air. I swallowed and pulled together a smile. "I like your hair." It was true, running fingers through my own hair. It was just a short pixie cut, I dyed it purple a few days ago but it turned out way more neon colored than I wanted.

Her fingers curled a little more on the metal railing around the roof edge. "Thanks."

I felt a second wind, but I wasn't willing to take another step. She seemed pretty imposing. "Soooo, um, you live here I take it?" I was just trying to keep it casual.

"I do."

"Oh, cool. What floor?"

"Third floor."

I started nodding, but went with it. "Yeah? cool,"
/I already said that./
"I actually live a little ways east of here, off of Redbug. I rent out an apartment here though, I was just checking on it and stuff..."

"Must have a pretty good job to afford two places." The fact that she was at least keeping conversation helped me out big time. I perked up when she mentioned my job though.

"Oh yeah! I work as a weapon and armor designer, business has been pretty good since all of those American gladiators started moving up to Toronto for work. And aaaah..."
/I'm talking too much, let her talk./
"How about you?"

"I'm just a secretary for some normal organization."

"Well that's not so bad. Not nearly as dangerous, huh?" I was trying not to smile as much since I was starting to force it. I wanted to change the topic, but my throat was starting to tighten up at the idea of it. I decided to keep going and see if I was up to it later. "You have any roommates?"

"No, I live by myself." She turned around and looked back out at the city lights, I felt the blood in my arms sting from that. I took a tentative step forward, freezing afterwards in case she heard it. "Have you always lived here? Like in Toronto?"

"No, I moved up here when my job did."

I decided to let something slip so she got a taste of what I was trying to actually talk to her about. "Guessing you have the day off tomorrow? It's pretty late for you to be up here for one of those usual nine to five jobs, eh?"

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, then a minute. My second wave of confidence was gone, my chest was burning. I took a sharp breath and another step forward, I could feel the trembling in my voice. "Hey hey, I uh, hehe, uh...I mean, do you-are you looking for a roommate? I could help you look, I've got a lot of people that..."

/Oh geez this isn't helping, just stop. Stop talking./

"I...sorry I'm getting all flustered and...I'm-"
/Say it. Go on. She looks like she likes honesty./
"I'm nervous."

I could finally take a normal breath after she turned back towards me. Now that I was closer I could get a better look at her too., I got absorbed in the details of her.

"...why are you smiling?"

I snapped my head up and my mental sailor curses racked in my head, I shot my eyes away from her after she asked. "Sorry, you have...you have really cool eyes. They're grey and..."
/It's still true, but come on, talk about something else./
"Do you have any pets at home? Seems like it'd be really lonely in an apartment by yourself."

She looked more captivated at that, looking right at me now, listening sincerely. I didn't really mind that she wasn't before, since I kind of screwed this all up anyway. Thankfully her replies were breaking my thought process.

"No, I don't have any pets."

/Is this the wrong way? I mean she's responding, but usually this isn't how it works, at least not on TV./
"Have you thought of getting one? I mean, unless you have any allergies."

She kept her grip on the railing pretty tight, I swallowed hard until she replied. "I don't have any allergies."

A small gust of air brushed over the roof, I crossed my arms tight over my jacket. "Oh, well, you know, there's a pet shelter like two blocks from this place. You could adopt a dog or a cat there."

"I'm more of a dog person."

I didn't want to chuckle, but I tried to sound enthusiastic. "Oh! Me too!"
/That may have been too loud./
"I, uh, know the clerk there, or at least the one that works the morning shift. I don't know if that would help you or anything but-"

"Look."

My breathing stopped. I don't think I was very good at hiding my anxiety after she said that, there was a chill in my skin, colder than the Toronto air at least.

She sighed sharply. "I know what you're trying to do here."

/Don't freak out, nothing's happening yet. Be honest./
"It figures, it isn't too hard to figure out what's going on here I guess, huh?"

"Not really."

She pulled her head back, looking away again, and I panicked. I took a big step forward. "Hey! Hey, look," I was desperate, and it worked at least. She turned back with a little less enthusiasm than before. I felt so many words trying to cram through my head and out my mouth I couldn't form anything coherent.

"I...keep...look back at me, please."

She took a hand off the railing to pull her hair back, I think she heard me shuffle during that, slowly moving it back to the railing before she had finished.

"Listen, what's your name?"

Thankfully I stopped mentally blabbering to myself to answer. "Sam."

"Sam." It felt unreal just hearing her say my name. "I'm scaring you, aren't I?"

"Y-Yeah." I couldn't help myself, I had to force some sort of smile to try and keep what little of a good mood was left. "This is all just...you really..."

I noticed a few subtle changes in her face, though it started to blur out when my eyes watered up. Great, now I was going to cry right here in front of her. This wasn't going well at all.

"I liked your idea, going to the pound to get a dog."

I blinked to try and clear the blurring out, a few tears ran down my face as consequence. There was no way to hide them anyway. "Really?"

She didn't nod, but her chin tilted down. "Yeah, I've always wanted a dog, never got around to getting one. You're right, it is lonely back at my place."

I tried not to sniff to make the crying less obvious, rubbing my face. "Oh totally! No, well I mean, I can take a few hours off tomorrow or whenever. My manager gives me a really flexible work schedule, seriously, I can drive us there and-"

"I've got a car. We can both drive there and meet during lunch."

The more she started talking about the plan, the easier it was to breath, let alone speak to her. "Yeah, definitely. That'd be so great, really." I wasn't sure if she would say anything after that, she wasn't a woman of many words. So I crossed my fingers and added, "I'd love to do that with you..."

"I'm glad you would."


I'm not religious, but I had to mentally thank someone when she stepped away from the ledge and climbed back over the railing.


"Tomorrow for lunch, how about that?" I asked to confirm, wiping my face when her face blurred up again.

"Tomorrow for lunch, I've got that day off." She said with a curt nod. "I'm Irenne, by the way." After giving her name, Irenne dug into her pants pocket, offering a small cloth normally used for cleaning glasses to me. I waved my hand to turn down the offer.

"It's nice to meet you, Irenne. Did uh, you want my number or something before I go? Anything?" There had to be something I could do, to help her out, to keep her from doing that again. Though I decided to keep the offers small. "There's a coffee machine in the room I rent out here, I could..."

Irenne rose her hand at me, so I shut my mouth, watching her face shift from a cold discontented mood to exhaustion. "Yeah, coffee sounds nice about now."

"It's the Keurig machine stuff, not really home brewed, is that okay?"

"Yeah."

I took a few steps back, almost not wanting to take my eyes off of her until I got to the door, holding it open for her.

"Thanks." She'd say, before stepping inside.

After I followed her in and shut the door behind us, walking with her to the staircase. At that point, after what happened, I was probably just as tired as she was. I didn't know if she wanted to talk, but I didn't want to hog up all the...sound space? Sure, that's a word.

Once we scaled the stairs and got up to the door, Irenne finally broke the silence while I was digging out my key. "Sam?"

I looked up, finding my key in my left pocket. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."