She distracts me

Impatiently waiting

Roman Suarez

Roman scratched a thick line through the second name on the list of potential candidates that Paul had left him with this morning. There was no way this guy was going to be moving in with him. Definitely looked like a whack job. 

Leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head he stretched, looking across the room to the shaded windows he had forgotten to open. He had spent the last couple hours scouring the internet on each of the candidates, leaving Lily McDaniels for last since Paul was vetting her first. 

Rising from the desk he pushed a button on the wall next to the light switch, shades retracting automatically earning an almost hiss-like sound from the chest of the muscled soccer player. Running a hand over his stubbled face he went to the kitchen, throwing one of those pre-packaged meals in the microwave as he picked up his phone for what felt like the millionth time. 

Why the f**k hadn’t Paul texted or called him yet? Surely he wasn’t still with this chick. Opening his contact list he scrolled to Paul’s name and messaged him a quick “So?” as the microwave beeped. He snatched his food out, wincing as the steam escaped a corner of the plastic and burnt his thumb. Some health food place packed this s**t up for athletes on the go. He almost felt he’d rather eat dog food at this point but it was all he had on hand. 

Grumbling to himself he settled back into the office to start on the last candidate. One computer screen had all his normal search tools up on it, a secondary monitor displayed game footage from some of his most recent games. He was a great multitasker and would go between the two seamlessly as he dug through the personal lives of those he was considering for employment. 

He shoved a steaming bite of a bland bison burger into his mouth with a couple unseasoned green beans. This was terrible. He grunted dropping his fork and went to searching. 

“Lily McDaniel’s… let’s see who you really are.” He spoke aloud to himself. First visiting the business site she had created featuring her professional services. This would give him the breadcrumbs he needed to keep digging. “Impressive skill sets…” he mumbled to himself, taking a few more bites of his tasteless food, intrigued by what he sees. 

He jots down the names of the college and certificates from pictures of her office and her bio. Then sets to work searching websites, f*******: and more for more information and a more candid look at her life. 

It seemed she didn’t have much of a social footprint. There was very little to be seen on her f*******:, her settings set to a level of privacy that prevented him from seeing much of anything. Her former university listed her as Summa c*m Laude, graduating with a 4.0 from her master’s program, dean’s list every semester, graduated with honors, even a part of several honors societies. “Quite the studious little book worm…” he mused. Perhaps she would work out. A quiet little wallflower that would just do as she was told, stay out of his way and handle business. Seemed she knew her s**t, just had to hope they jived well. 

The only photos he could drum up of her were fairly old from her first few semesters of college. She was average, your normal just out of high school fresh faced teen. She was older now but couldn’t find much on her. Even on her own professional site she had no pictures of herself. Strange. Dont these healthy types usually want to put up some hot body shot of themselves to show they know what they are doing? Or is she hiding something? 

It was mid afternoon by the time Roman finished scouring the internet coming up almost as empty handed as he had begun. She was a ghost. He couldn’t help but admire that. A girl in LA trying to make a name for herself and not trying to use her body to get it was pretty rare. As he cleaned up after himself and was preparing to hop in the shower his phone finally rang. 

“Bout damn time….” Roman growled as he picked up seeing Paul’s name on the screen. 

“Easy big guy!” Paul laughed. He was sure in a damn good mood. “The meeting with McDaniels took longer than anticipated, but it all worked out. She has agreed. Bringing the documents to you now. Be there in five.”

Before Roman could barrage him with questions Paul hung up. Bastard. Using one of his own tactics against him. 

Roman paced the villa like a caged tiger waiting on Paul to arrive. So the girl took the job? He hadn’t even met her yet. What if he hated her? Why didn’t Paul think to let him meet her first? 

A million thoughts racing through his mind, working him into a frenzy by the time Paul arrived breezing through the door with a million dollar grin. 

“Signed. Sealed. Delivered. You’re welcome, prick.” Paul plopped the huge pack of papers onto the island bar in front of Roman and went to the fridge, opening it and pulling out a beer. He snapped the top off on the side of the fridge and took a long pull from the glass bottle, completely ignoring his friend’s broody mood.

Roman snapped. “What the f**k? Did you not think I should have a say in this considering I’m going to be the one living with her?” He flipped through the contract, looking for the page where conditions and considerations were to be entered in. His eyes landed on a name, Esteban and he lost it all over again. 

“WHAT IS THIS!? YOU AGREE TO LET SOME f*****g DUDE MOVE IN WITH HER, HERE IN MY HOME?!” Roman’s voice roared out, tearing the page off and slamming it in front of his friend and manager. 

Paul was unfazed by this type of outburst from Roman. They had been friends for years afterall. He swallowed a drink from his beer, glanced down as if reading it for the very first time, and then smirked at Roman with a shrug before taking another drink. Bad idea. 

Roman’s fist collided with Paul’s face before he knew what happened. The beer bottle fell into the sink, shattering safely inside, liquid splashing up on Paul’s suit. However the mouthful of beer he had just taken in sprayed all over, mixed with a bit of blood from his lip as he was knocked back into the counter behind him. 

“Jesus Roman! f*****g chill man! It’s her CAT! Esteban is a cat! f*****g Christ….” 

Paul winced, touching the side of his mouth, a little blood from his lip on his fingertips. 

Roman stood across from him, chest heaving with barely contained rage. It seemed to take less and less to set him off these days. 

“Look dude, it’s only for a year. It is a trial contract. I didn’t do your normal five year indentured servitude s**t. She is a nice girl. She meets all your qualifications. She is willing to give up all her business here in the city over the next couple months, which is almost impossible to fathom. Seriously, you should reconsider forcing people to belong only to you like that, makes it a tough sell.” 

Roman seemed to calm down a little, looked back at the papers and saw the part about it being a trial contract. Other considerations were that she keeps her LA home and takes the two months before they start travelling to phase out her current clients. Reasonable, but still irritating that he didn’t get exactly what he demanded. 

Rubbing his five o’clock shadowed jaw, Roman sighed, looking at the swollen faced man across from him. “Fine. I’m still gonna get my PI to dig into her a little bit. Just cause some girl wins you over doesn’t make her the best fit for the job. And Paul, next time f*****g come to me before you just hire some stranger to live with me.” 

Roman turned heel glaring at his best friend as he disappeared down the hall to get showered and shaved up. It was going to be a long day and he wasn’t looking forward to meeting his new housemate, even if he was curious about her. 

Paul grumbled in the kitchen to himself, cleaning up the mess left in the wake of hurricane Roman. “Gee thanks man, glad you got that handled for me in like 24 hours. You’re a great friend… blah blah blah.” he cleaned the glass out of the sink and was about to yell after Roman when he saw that the documents were all signed and laying on the bar.

Damn him.  Maybe having the light hearted spirited Lacy in the house would help tame some of the beast inside him. Hey, worked in those Disney movies, right? Signing the witness spot Paul let himself out of the house to go get cleaned up before he had to help move Lacy in. What an interesting night this was going to be.