“That’s not possible. This is Neha’s apartment.”
Meena heard the shakiness in the woman’s voice and softened her face to appear more approachable. A tactic she’d honed well in reassuring uneasy subjects. “She left it to me. I have the paperwork.”
The woman straightened her shoulders. “I see. And you are moving in?”
No. The reaction was knee jerk. She didn’t live anywhere. Meena had a base in London—a small room in her college friend Zoe’s flat where she kept her things—and a PO box in Manhattan for mail. “I’m still figuring that out.”
“Well, do it soon,” the woman ordered. “This is a place that’s meant to be lived in, not sit empty.”
Meena gave her a wide smile. Maybe this woman would want to buy it. It was too soon for that, but if the option was there, it would make things less complicated. “I didn’t get your name.”
“Sabina.”
“Nice to meet you.”
The woman nodded and left. Meena headed to the door and locked it.
She grabbed her laptop from her backpack, looked around at the overwhelming number of things that were now hers to deal with, and sighed. If only it had been a portable heirloom like a Tongan woven mat or even a clichéd locket with a photo.
Except Meena didn’t live with if-onlys. A few months of therapy in her teens had taught her that things happen, circumstances change. An undetected rusty gas pipe can blow up a house as a couple eat breakfast. In an instant, their teenage daughter becomes an orphan. There’s nothing to do but accept it and move forward. She logged on to change her flight. New York City would have to wait a week while she figured out what to do about Neha and this place.
Meena woke and blinked to adjust her eyes in the dark. It took her a few seconds to get her bearings. Streetlight streamed through the front windows. Meena rose from the sofa. She’d slept in her jacket and boots, her laptop still open on the coffee table next to her. She was used to waking up in strange places at odd times. According to the length of her assignment, her body clock was quick to adjust to wherever she was.
She glanced at her watch, a silver Timex she’d bought in a street market in Kathmandu a few years back. It still worked. Six. She’d slept most of the day. She rolled her neck. Caffeine. In the kitchen she spotted a box of Lipton tea bags, then found mugs. None of them matched. Each looked as if it had been picked up from a yard sale. The one she took out was in the shape of a basketball. While the water heated in the microwave, she riffled through the box of Lipton. The first packet she grabbed was empty, yet still sealed. Meena opened it and unfolded the paper to reveal a note.
The handwriting was familiar, the same small, precise penmanship as on the index card.
Never trust a person who is too lazy to brew tea. The only use for generic tea bags is to reduce puffiness around the eyes. If you drink this stuff, I do not want to know you.
“How narrow-minded of you, tea.” Meena spoke aloud to no one as she shuffled through the box and found another packet that had a bag in it. As she steeped it in the hot water, Meena reread the note. What an odd person. It had to be Neha, she deduced. It was quirky enough to fit the woman who’d lived in this apartment, a woman who had mismatched mugs in odd shapes, a sugar jar in the form of a frog with the top of its head serving as the lid.
With tea in hand, she went back to the living room and added the sleeve with the note to the envelope holding the index card. She grabbed the quilt from the back of the sofa and gathered it over her lap. It was soft, and she could feel the unevenness of the stitching. Someone had made this, not with a machine but with a needle and thread. Perhaps Neha had been a quilter, a crafter. Maybe it had been a gift to her from someone.
The chill in the air was comfortable. The quiet settled around her. No street sounds of cars or people. It didn’t even feel as if she were in a major city. For a few minutes she could breathe, appreciate that in this moment she wasn’t chasing a story, preparing, traveling, or shooting. She was simply here, in this quiet house. Gifted to her by a stranger.
Likely from her past.
Meena reached for her phone, then remembered it was broken. She’d have to take care of it in the morning. She woke her computer and opened the video chat to call Zoe, her only constant in life since they’d met as roommates at George Washington University their freshman year. It was a little after eleven o’clock on a Friday night in London, which meant Zoe was either out or just getting home.
“Where are you?”
That was how Zoe always answered Meena’s calls.
“Boston,” Meena said.
“Assignment?”
Meena saw Zoe’s face through the screen. Her makeup was still perfect, winged eyeliner and deep-red lipstick. Zoe knew exactly how to enhance the beauty of her Mediterranean genes.
“No.” Meena chewed on her lip. “Personal.”
“Well, I hope it’s a vacation,” Zoe said. “You haven’t had a proper break since last Christmas—oh, wait, I mean the Christmas before that, since you missed last year because you were chasing reindeer in Lapland.”
“And this is a not-so-subtle reminder that you still haven’t forgiven me for missing your annual pre-Christmas dinner.”
“And that you will not miss it this year,” Zoe said. “How long are you there?”
“Not sure. It was only supposed to be for a few hours, but things got a little complicated.”
“You met a man? Is that why you’re cuddled on a garish yellow sofa?”
Meena laughed. Zoe loved romance. “No.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Someone left me an apartment in their will.”
“Wow, really?” Zoe’s pencil-thin eyebrows shot up. “Who?”
“A woman I never knew. I don’t even know how she found me. It’s a great location and the building is nice. The place is fully furnished, clean, and lived in.”
“And there was no explanation?”
Just a vague index card. “No.”