The Apartment on Tabor Road

After picking up the key, I turned around and drove back to building thirteen. My section sat across from the others which meant I had a hike to the laundry room. Still, I liked how the first floor unit felt tucked snugly away under the stairwell. The key slid into the lock and opened smoothly. The door needed a little push but that was okay. Upon entry, I sat down the box I had brought with me from the car and took a look around. The living room seemed smaller than the model I’d seen a few weeks before, and of course my furniture wouldn’t be as nice I remembered thinking. Still it was the first time I could afford a place on my own, and I wanted it to be perfect.

I figured I’d remove everything from the inside of the car that could be seen and worry about the stuff tucked away in the trunk the following morning. “No need to tire myself out on the first night.” I figured the TV would sit on the floor facing the bedroom wall which would be a nice place to line up the sofa. I thought it out as though there were hundreds of choices in that tiny little room. I looked at the paint and checked everything off on the list I needed to sign as part of my lease. I smiled and gave myself a pat on the back.

It wasn’t long before I wanted to unpack some of the things I’d boxed up, and found myself putting them away. Mom had made a special trip down the day before I was to move and bought tones of groceries. I wouldn’t starve the first month was a certainty that gave her comfort. The nonperishables filled the shelves in no time. I went back out to make another run.

“You need any help?”

A guy that had been polishing the wheels on his Nissan Z came over and offered a hand. I was happy to accept the offer.

“I’m Marco. Welcome to the neighborhood.” And just like that I’d met my first neighbor. With Marco’s help I got the things out of the trunk and managed to put most of it in its place leaving time to relax and make a few phone calls.

The obligatory call to mom that I was actually dying to make: “yes, the place if perfect. I love it.” A call to my best friend Josette: People actually thought that she and I were an item which we played up pretty well. When I came out to her, she said she’d already known, when she came out to me I told her “I figured.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You think people can tell?”

“No. Far from it, you are a very beautiful woman, it’d be the last thing on anyone’s mind” I told her.

“Then what” she demanded, jabbing me in the shoulder.

“We’ll I don’t attract women like you unless they have a few secrets.” I’d called her up after speaking with mom and invited her over the following evening to be my first guest.

“The furniture is supposed to be here around noon” I said. “You can come at six or so, that way the traffic will have died down a bit and it won’t be so hot.” I slid open the patio door and stepped outside. I could see a light had been turned on in Marco’s bedroom. “Hey I met one of the neighbors today, did I mention that?”

“Oh. That’s good.” There was something in her response that gave way to defeat.

“It was just some guy being nice. He happened to be waxing his car and came over to help me drag in a few boxes.”

“Was he cute?”

I paused, unsure that cute was the right word. “He’s past the cute phase.”

“Well. Is he good looking?”

“Yes.” I waited, knowing that a simple yes would not suffice. I could almost feel the tension building on the other end.

“That’s not an answer! What does he look like?”

I kind of laughed and described the guy as dark haired, “Italian, about thirty five, tall.”

“Corresponding male gay porn star?” Josette knew her gay boys better than I did.

“Talvin DeMachio.”

“You wish!”

“Let me finish, or Nino Bacci. Take your pick. Hairy too” I added.

“Did you do something with him” her voice had that high tone she gets when she was jealous.

“Of course not. He was outside without a shirt on. Or he got hot and took it off. Because I thought I saw him the first time he had one on. Anyway. Great body.”

Josette didn’t say anything at first which meant her mind was racing one way or another. “What if he likes you” she asked finally but didn’t wait for an answer “then you’ll start spending all your time humping some hairy italian guy and I won’t see you anymore.”

“That’s not true” I assured her while getting a full glimpse of Marco closing his blinds wearing nothing but a towel. “You know I would never do that. Plus I think you’re more his type than I am.”

“Really” she perked up.

“Ha ha, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight love.”

The next day I’d forgotten about Marco. Having spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get the perfect fit from a couch that was slightly too long for the space available, I was a little preoccupied. The edge stuck out about an inch or two into the doorway. I decided that no one would notice and continued putting things in their place. When Josette arrived, I was settled in. Except for a couple of boxes that I stashed away in the walk in, everything was in its place.

I stepped outside after buzzing her through the front gate and waited for her car. Marco saw me standing at the end of the walk from his bedroom window and called down. “Eric. How’s the unpacking going?”

“Good. I’m done” I told him. Feeling a little uncomfortable yelling. He must have sensed that and said he’d be down. I was kind of glad because it would give Josette a chance to check him out. He was wearing a pair of black court shorts with a muscle T and sneakers. He also had his basketball with him and dribbled a couple of times on the stairs.

“When you going to invite me over for dinner” he laughed about half way down. I met him in the middle of the street.

“I don’t think you want any of my cooking, I only heat and eat.”

“I’m just shitting with you man. You play?” Barrap. Barrapp.

“I shoot a little. I don’t think I’d be much competition though.” Barrapp, KaTink, KaTink.

“There’s a court about three blocks up off Tabor Road, games are on Sundays if you’re ever interested.”

“Thanks” I noticed Josette had parked and started in our direction. Marco noticed also, and stopped dribbling.

“Damn, man check this out.” The look on his face had changed, from comrade to something else. “Oh shit, I would luv to get some of that!” Josette wore a little spaghetti strap summer number with a floral pattern. The dress accented her hour glass shape and brought out the gold in her hair. “He man, you like white girls” he asked. I kind of laughed to myself and gave a vague non answer.

“Eric.” My friend called out and Marco fell silent feeling no doubt that he had put a foot in his mouth. Josette put on a show by kissing me full on the lips.

“This is Marco, my neighbor” I told her.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Wow. I didn’t know Eric had such good taste in Women. Maybe he’ll have to tell me his secret.” The complement was well received. We chatted for a minute, and then Josette excused herself to go inside, anxious to see what I’d done with the place. I told her that the door was open and to give me a second. We watched her disappear inside. I’m sure she knew that we’d be talking about her.

“Hey, look I’m sorry I didn’t realize that was your girl.”

“No big deal. We’re just friends.”

Marco laughed, not seeming to believe the line of truth I’d feed him. “You are one lucky son of a mother. You going to hit that tonight?” The remark caught me off guard but I soon learned that it would be perhaps one of many. Marco was nothing, if not blunt. “She ever get into anything wild?”

“What do you mean?” I honestly had no idea of what he meant by wild. My mind flashed to outdoor picnics and stinging bees. Wild? What did her love of hiking have to do with anything. I was rather naïve, at times.

“She ever let you do her in the butt or anything like that?” I just looked at him dumbfounded. Who was this person I remember thinking, and what planet was he from? “My girl” he started “won’t let me. She says I’m too big. I tried buying KY and everything but it’s too thick and too long. You ever have that problem?”

“No” I said, softly swallowed hard, and blushed.

“So she can take it. Cool. What’s your secret, I mean how did you first get it in there?”

“I’d better go inside.”

That night, Josette and I watched TV and ordered a pizza from Dominos with every topping we could think of. We stuffed ourselves and complained about getting fat, when in fact she was barely a size seven - perfect in the eyes of most men. By 11 we decided to check out a place that played 80’s music but, passed it up. We instead went to a club with live bands and had a few drinks. We got in free, thanks to Josette’s hips and beautiful smile. An older guy tried to get the two of us to go back to his place to see his pet gators, and one of the bartenders kept giving us every other round on the house. We couldn’t figure out who it was that he was interested in but didn’t care so long as the drinks kept coming. On the drive back, the word gator became the funniest joke in the world. That night we both crashed on my mattress. We slept until morning. Josette showered, then drove back to the burbs.

She called me from her car about Marco. “He’s a little weird. Do NOT like him! I saw him when I left. He was just sort of hanging around or something. I don’t know what the fuck he was doing, but he was like hi and it gave me the creeps. I think you should stay away from him.”

“Did, I tell you what he asked me the other day?”

“No. Was it about me?”

“Not exactly. It was about anal sex.”

“What! He doesn’t even know you. How did he get on the subject of anal sex?” She paused and I could hear her puffing away at a cigarette. “It was about me wasn’t it? He was talking about you and I having anal sex! That’s too personal. Even you and I don’t talk like that, well wait yes we do but see that’s why I don’t like him.”

I tried to calm her down, wishing in part that I hadn’t mentioned it. The mysteriously well built handsome neighbor who has a thing for anal sex and hanging around the parking lot. Cool. “No. He kept saying his dick was too big for anal sex. Said his girlfriend can’t take it.”

“That’s crazy. Some guys can get a fist in there. I suppose he can’t were condoms cause they hurt” she whined.

We both laughed and I tried to reemphasize the fact that, “he is handsome.”

“Yeah. Well, I wonder what his girlfriend must be like to even go out with someone like that. You don’t want another Kyle story. God I hope they never let him out.” She was right.

When I finally got up around noon, I happened to see Marco with a young Asian woman who he introduced as his girlfriend. “We were just going to get something to eat. Would you like to joint us” she offered. “Marco has been talking about you. It’s nice to meet the new neighbor. I live in the building up front” she added.

“It’s nice to have met you also, but no thanks. You two enjoy.”

Marco whispered in my ear as we turned using an exaggerated Vietnamese accent. Lanh walked ahead of us in hurried steps. “She love me long time.” He laughed and swung his arm around my neck then whispered again. “She like me to licky before me sticky.” I didn’t find it very amusing but smiled and set it aside as another of his eccentricities.

“Marco” Lanh scolded and he straightened up. I watched the two of them drive away, then went to my own car.