Chapter 14: 14. For Now I’ll Let Her Be Until She Starts To Feel The Frustration Building Up

RING! RING! RING!

Mike’s phone was already ringing with a lot of annoying noises when he woke up.

"WHO THE FUCK CALLED AT THIS FUCKING HOUR!!!" Mike screamed while banging the mattress next to him.

He checked his phone, and it turns out it’s not a call. It was a series of messages, delivered in the specific rapid-fire pattern of someone who had been awake for a while, working up to sending them, and then finally sent them all at once before they could change their mind.

The one who is sending the messages is Petricia, and he starts to read them in order.

"Good morning..."

"I wanted to clarify something before anything else happens worse... it’s about how last night was..."

"I think we should both just forget it happened."

"It’s fucking funny when she’s trying to deny the inevitable," Mike said while reading.

"I mean, obviously nothing happened, I just mean the conversation. And everything after. It was late and I was upset and I wasn’t thinking clearly."

"You were being kind, and I think I misread it. So let’s just say it was nothing."

"What the fuck did she mean by ’misread’...?" Mike raised his eyebrow. "It happens not in chat but in real life!"

"Please don’t make it weird... I’m not going to make it weird... I promise it won’t be weird as long as we can forget it happened."

"That’s it... good morning."

"She said it again." Mike laughed and read through them twice.

Then he looked at the ceiling for a moment. Then he smiled at it.

He typed back: "Good morning. Want coffee?"

Three minutes passed. Then: "That’s not what I was talking about, but still... I’m glad you can move on fast."

"I know," he sent. "But it’s what I’m offering. Office or yours?"

Another pause. "I’ll make my own, thank you."

"She fucking dodged the bullet..." Mike said with a disappointed look. "But, eh... it was already planted, so I’ll just have to wait until she keeps feeling all that frustration building up inside her."

"Sure," he sent, and put the phone on the desk.

"I need to find a new woman just to wait until she starts crawling onto me." Mike starts a little stretch. "Maybe I’ll try to touch grass more for today."

He got up, made his coffee, and stood on the balcony watching the street. The vendor cart appeared at 8:15. The nursing student from unit eight came out in her scrubs at 8:22, looking like someone who had worked the night shift and was now navigating the specific injustice of morning light.

He picked up his phone again and checked the system.

[DESIRE LEVEL: PETRICIA SCHNEIDER — 50/100]

"Yooo! That’s halfway done!"

[SIGNIFICANT INCREASE RECORDED.]

[CURRENT STATUS: SUBJECT IN RETREAT MODE. THIS IS NORMAL. RETREAT DOES NOT MEAN REVERSAL.]

[RETREAT MEANS SHE’S THINKING ABOUT IT.]

"Yeah, I know... no need to tell something obvious to the expert." Mike drank his coffee. "But still... you were quite silent when I was having my way to her."

"And of course, I don’t complain about it, in fact, I love that you stayed silent when I was busy."

[I’LL MAKE SURE TO SHOW PROGRESS AFTER YOU’RE DONE]

"Yeah, cool, that’s peak."

Fifty percent. He had gone from eleven to fifty in forty-eight hours.

In his previous life, he had spent weeks building to this point with people far less guarded.

But then, most of those situations hadn’t come with a Tuesday night, an empty apartment, a flower in a glass of water, and a woman who had been holding things together alone for five years finally letting someone sit close enough to feel the weight of them.

He set the cup down and went to shower. Wednesday was going to be a careful day for him.

...

Mike saw Petricia at ten.

He wasn’t looking for her, exactly. He had come downstairs to check the mailbox, which had been empty every day so far because he’d only registered this address in the last week and nothing moved that fast.

He checked it anyway. It was a habit.

Petricia was coming out of the office just as he was passing it.

She saw him and went very still for approximately one second, which was long enough to be visible and short enough that she could pretend it hadn’t happened.

’Yeah, she can’t even hide it...’ Mike thought, noticing her nervous expression.

"M-morning," she said, and her voice was still professional and had all the warmth of a building management notice.

"Morning," Mike said.

’Now... here’s where the plan started.’

’I’ll try to ignore her as much as I can until she starts to feel longing for me, and I know a married woman easily lowers her guard just by getting treated like that.’

’Prepare yourself... Petricia...’

He didn’t add anything to it. He just kept moving toward the mailbox, checked it with the full knowledge that it would be empty, and then turned back.

She was still in the hallway, sorting through a folder of papers she’d brought out of the office, which he was fairly sure she had not intended to bring out until she needed somewhere to look that wasn’t at him.

"How’s the water pressure this morning?" she asked, without looking up from the papers.

’See that?! She started it, not me.’

"Fine," he said.

"Good."

"The pipe made its noise again... as usual."

"You need to get used to that," she said.

"I know," he said. "I’ve started to find it reassuring."

She looked up then, briefly, and he caught the flash of something behind her professional expression before it closed again.

"I wanted to apologize," she said. "For last night... I was being—"

"You weren’t being anything," Mike said.

’She still fucking talks about it again and again... this is just her frustration talking it out!’

She looked at him.

"You were tired, and something frustrating happened, and you let yourself have a moment in your own home," he said. "That’s just being a person."

"I shouldn’t have—"

"Petricia." He said her name in a manner that was impactful yet not forceful, reflecting his ability to express himself when he wanted to make an impression. "Stop apologizing for existing."

The hallway was quiet for a moment.

She looked back at her papers and then back at him and then did something he didn’t expect. She laughed, short and slightly exhaled, like the apology had been wound up tight and she’d just cut the string on it.

"You’re very strange," she said. "It’s the first time I’ve seen a tenant like you."

"I’ve been told so many times about that," Mike said.

"And please... don’t mean it badly."

"I know," he said. "I didn’t take it that way."

She tucked the folder under her arm and looked at him with the expression that was closer to the one she’d worn at the restaurant than the landlady version. "There’s a plumber coming at two for the inspection in unit nine."

"If you hear noise from the ceiling again, maybe that’s why."

"Understood," Mike said.

"And," she said, "thank you... for the flower."

She paused. "It’s still alive."

"Good to know," he said.

She went back into the office. He went upstairs.

[DESIRE LEVEL: 52/100]

He noted the number and didn’t let himself do anything with it. Wednesday was a maintenance day.

The point wasn’t to push. But the point was to make Tuesday feel like something she could live alongside without it becoming a problem she had to solve.

In her messages, she had referred to it as nothing.

She had laughed at him in the hallway.

She had told him the flower was still alive.

All of those things meant she was thinking about it.