The Guy With the Suitcase (Once Upon a Guy #1) (14 page)

“I want a Margherita and Marissa here wants a Pepperoni. Pierce? What are you getting?” Rafe asked and all eyes turned on him.

He coughed. “Can you make those two into full-size pizzas and make me a third vegetarian with no cheese and a BBQ base, please?” he asked her and he felt all the eyes turn inquisitive when he had finished. “I’m paying for today,” he explained.

Sonia came closer to him and grabbed his shoulder, putting her pad down. “Oh, honey, you don’t have to pay here,” she told him.

“I know. But I want to. Give back for what you do for Rafe, and others like us,” he replied.
 

She gave him a gentle tug and left to give the order to the kitchen at the back. Marissa drank her tea, concentrating her eyes on an empty spot across her. Rafe, however, was staring at Pierce, smiling like a baby.

“What?” Pierce asked. Not that he disliked the attention.

Rafe shook his head casually and took a sip from his cocoa. “Nothing,” he said.

“Get a room made out of cardboard, dudes,” Marissa mumbled retrieving her lips from the mug long enough to make her point and then resumed her slurping of the hot liquid.

Rafe pushed Marissa’s arm and rolled his eyes. The truth was Pierce noticed he wouldn’t mind getting a room with Rafe, even if it was made out of cardboard.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed. “Thank you, Marissa,” he said and Rafe was back to staring at Pierce, looking for an explanation. “Why don’t we find a room together? It surely beats sleeping on the subway and I’m sure it will be easier to get help for you if we do.”

Rafe nodded. Marissa let her mug down and pursed her lips in agreement. “You should definitely do that.”

The pizzas arrived in no less than fifteen minutes and everybody dug in. Rafe surprised Pierce when he asked if he could try his ‘vegan pizza’, said ironically, but after trying it, genuinely agreed on how good it tasted. Marissa munched on her pizza without much commentary other than a roll of her eyes whenever Pierce and Rafe got a bit cornier than she was used to.

Later that evening, after they’d waved goodbye to Marissa, the two walked around Times Square, letting the vibrant lights and the busy streets take away their worries and turn them into something mundane.

They were sitting at the bleachers of the Pavilion when Rafe brought the subject up of finding an apartment together. He didn’t look at Pierce when he spoke, but instead at the blinding billboards. It was quite dark now.

“Are you sure you want to find a place together? You know it’s not going to be easy, right?”

Pierce put his hand on Rafe’s knee and brought the boy’s attention to him. “I know. But now we’re a team, right? We’ll do this together.”

Rafe didn’t say anything. He only stared into Pierce’s eyes and nodded.

“I mean, at least we’ll have a house, you know. Everything must be easier when you have a roof over your head,” Pierce commented.

Rafe agreed. “Then, all I’ll need is a job and I can apply for Medicaid and free medication.”

Pierce jumped in his seat and took hold of both of Rafe’s shoulders. “See? Exactly. You’ve got yourself a solution. All we gotta do is find a room and then a job and you’ll be back on track with your health in no time.”

Rafe didn’t share in Pierce’s excitement. “I guess,” he shrugged.

“Rafe,” Pierce shook him, “don’t be so pessimistic. You’ll see. Everything will be okay now.”

“And there is always hot water, except for late at night, when the valve is switched off automatically, but it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve not had any complaints so far,” the woman said.

She was short, brunette, with dark skin, wearing a black suit with blue heels that even they failed in making her taller, especially standing next to Pierce. She was giving them a tour of a house in the Bronx, a three-bedroom flat with no communal areas other than the kitchen and the bathroom.

“We don’t care about the water in the middle of the night. The room is great. The area is…great. Can we get to paperwork?” Pierce asked, and Rafe, who was standing a little behind him, pinched his thigh.

“Sure. What we need from you is a holding deposit, two forms of ID, references from two past landlords, your bank accounts to run a credit check on your behalf, six weeks of pay stubs, and our agency fee is a hundred and thirty-nine dollars per person, which you will need to pay before we can run the check on you,” she said, and Rafe already knew they were walking out.

It had been the seventh or eight house they had viewed in the past week and they all required the same. Even private landlords they had found through Craigslist required some form of income for the two of them, and a damn credit check. Rafe was losing hope that he would ever be able to get his medication.

Even though Pierce and Rafe combined had enough money to pay for deposits and a month’s rent, everyone wanted to run a credit check, and since Rafe had no account linked to his name, that was impossible. Everyone also asked for proof of work, which again, Rafe didn’t have. And no one was willing to risk letting an apartment without the security of future payments. And Rafe couldn’t blame them. He didn’t know if he’d let them stay in his place if he had one.

Pierce was not giving up. He kept phoning people up and getting viewings, thinking he could talk his way with them and score them both a place.

That was what he was trying to do now. Explaining the situation, with as little detail as possible, in hopes it would change her mind.

“I mean, if you
are
working, we could technically run the check on your name and do the whole contract, but if you say you’re working part-time, I don’t think you’d pass the credit check,” she told Pierce.

“No, he has to be in the contract too. He needs to apply for medical help. He will get worse if we don’t find a place soon enough. Are you sure you can’t do an exception for us?” Pierce tried to sound pleasant, but he usually sounded plain rude. God, bless him, he couldn’t shake off the brutal image no matter how hard he tried. But Rafe knew what hid under it. A heart of gold.

The estate agent squinted and shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s not up to me. It’s up to the system. If it runs the check and finds you are not earning enough, it will automatically fail you,” she responded.

Pierce’s beastly manners came to show when he cursed, taking Rafe by the hand, and dragging him out of the apartment.

“Jesus Christ! Now systems get to decide for us. What’s next? Asking a robot for permission to take a crap?” he shouted and slammed the door behind them.

Rafe put his hands on Pierce’s shoulders and asked him to calm down. He found it impossible.
 

“Everyone is a fucking dick, seriously!” he said.

Rafe laughed. “I know. But we like dick, remember?” Pierce chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“Come on, let’s grab some lunch,” he responded, going down to the first floor and hailing a cab.

“Mr. Callahan, you are spoiling me,” Rafe said when they got in the cab.

Pierce huffed. “I’m too pissed to walk or take the subway. The Village please,” he said to the driver and they started their journey downtown.

They arrived in Les Fourches half an hour later and Vance was there to welcome them in the restaurant.

“Any luck, boys?” Pierce shook his head and Vance grimaced. “I’m sorry”.

“Can we grab some lunch before I start?” Pierce asked him and Vance nodded, pointing them to a table next to him.

Rafe was starting to enjoy food at Les Fourches, something he never thought possible, considering all the meaty delicacies his mother had raised him with. He didn’t know if he could ever go fully vegan like Pierce, but he didn’t mind a vegetarian diet. It helped that the place made such delicious food.

Vance came to stand next to them while keeping an eye on the door for new patrons. “What did they say?”

Pierce uncovered his face and replied to his boss. “The usual. They need bank accounts, credit checks, pay stubs and crap. They said they could do the contract on my name, but the point is for Rafe to have a legal address to register for his meds. So fucked up”.

Vance frowned. “Why didn’t you do it, anyway?” he asked Pierce.

“Because I don’t earn enough money and the system,
yes —
a fucking computer — would fail me,” he responded, venting some of the anger while at it.

The waitress, Chloe, brought them their beers, both in mugs, since they were sitting so close to the window. Vance looked at her and clapped his hands together.
 

“But of course!” he exclaimed. Chloe jumped and waited for her boss’s instructions.

“What the hell do you want?” she asked him, placing her hand where her heart was.

Vance gave her the bird and turned to address Pierce. “This bitch just told me she’s leaving, ‘cause apparently she got a job in a radio station or some crap like that.” Chloe winced and stuck her tongue out. Vance looked at Rafe. “Do you want a job as a waiter? Again, it’s only part-time, but it will help you open a bank account and with your credit,” he said.

Rafe smiled and nodded his head like a bobble head. “Really?”

“That’s great,” Pierce intervened, “but we’ll still not make enough money for the system to approve us”.

Vance turned to Pierce and smacked him on the head. Exactly how Rafe felt like doing. “You stupid, if I pay all his tips and wages in his bank account, he should have a good credit score in no time. I can do the same with you,” he said.

Rafe’s smile widened. Things were actually looking up. If Vance really did hire him and gave them both a push, then they really could move into an apartment in no time. But Pierce didn’t reciprocate in his enthusiasm.

“That will not work. Even if you do that, they will still need two months pay stubs, which he doesn’t have, and if we wait two months he might get sick again, plus he won’t be making three times the rent to actually get approved. I think—,” he paused and withdrew his eyes from Vance and back to Rafe apologetically, “—if I give you my tips to pay into my account then I can at least be a guarantor for Rafe, but I don’t think we can both rent something without wasting any time,” he finished and exhaled, making Rafe tear up.

Was he actually willing to do that for him? To give up his chance of finding a flat just so that Rafe could move in somewhere and get his medication? He didn’t want to let him do that, but at the same time, he didn’t have much of a choice. If he left his disease untreated, next time he had a fever, it might never come down. Next time, he might not make it out unscathed. When did life become so cruel? When had he become an adult required to make difficult decisions?

“Okay,” he said, but not with much heart into it.

“Great,” Vance said and clapped his hands. “Chloe, bitch, since you decided to leave us, you can train Rafe on the job”.

“My pleasure,” she said inviting Rafe closer to her. Rafe got up and followed her to the back into the staff room where she handed him a gray apron and showed him to an empty locker where he could put his sack and the rest of his things.

When she brought him back to the front, she gave him a tablet that the waitresses used to take orders and let him follow her to her tables and watch while she did her best at explaining everything he needed to know, passing her sage wisdom and giving the best service to her patrons.

It made Rafe forget his guilt and the sacrifice Pierce was making. What was he supposed to say to him? A thank you? How ungrateful did that sound? He approached the bar to collect one of Chloe’s drinks orders, so deep in concentration and thought, he jumped when Pierce touched his hand and leaned in closer.

“Don’t be like that. I want to help and you don’t have to feel guilty about it. We’ll find you a room, and I’ll help pay all the extra costs, and as soon as you’re on your treatment, we’ll work on getting me a room, okay?” he whispered.

Rafe replied with a shy smile and a nod before picking up the tray and carrying it to table fifteen.

Vance came out from behind the curtain and cat-walked around Pierce, busting a few moves as well.

“No. You look like a clown,” Pierce said, and when Vance took offense he added, “There’s too much orange.”