089 - Red string: Disappointed

When Sharon returned upstairs, her face was impassive, but her eyes hard. She pushed the door back with her foot to close it, before she walked to the kitchen to put the bags down with the ones that had been brought up before. She put the manilla folder down on the counter top, before moving to put the groceries in their place.

That was what Alex came out of his room to see. He raised his eyebrows, and questioned:

"Are you still upset with the raise of the rent? What? Were you expecting to keep freeloading off me like you did yesterday?"

Speaking of the previous day, that was one frustrating day for Alex. It was the first day of his cohabitation with Sharon, given that he has spent the majority of the day preceding that one outside. It was also a day where his way of living in the space he considered private had clashed with the sensitivities of the intruder in his life.

Sharon ignored him, and only glanced at him when he approached, before dispassionately commenting:

"You are wearing something."

Another point that had made them clash the previous day, because, according to Sharon, as she would be paying a rent to live with him, he could not treat the apartment as only his own place anymore, and he could not lack 'decency'.

Alex glanced down at the t-shirt he was wearing, then looked at the blonde with half a smile:

"Even though I have yet to receive a single cent of the rent, I can't have a thirsty patch of desert jump on me now, can I?"

Sharon paused, her fingers clenching on the pack of cereal in her hand, before she exhaled, and paid Alex no mind anymore. That made him raise an eyebrow and give her a surprised look.

Even though he had not known her for long, he already knew that the blonde was not one to take a blow without trying to strike back. Her silence made him thoughtful for a moment, before he smiled, and looked away, only to pause, as she took an empty bag off the countertop.

Realization dawned on him, at the sight of the folder on the countertop, the same one Mark had left for him in the car earlier at noon, and which he had not bothered to take with himself when coming up. He had only missed it before due to the bag of groceries blocking his sight. Now that he saw it, he understood something, and his smile deepened, and turned meaningful:

"So that is what is upsetting you!"

Sharon stopped after throwing the emptied bag in the trash can, and met the teasing brown eyes of her landlord. She suppressed the irritation his attitude made rise in her with a deep breath. She put down the burden of the emotions stifling her breath, closed her eyes, then opened them to face Alex calmly.

"That folder contains information about me."

The statement carried not a question, but restrained emotions. But those emotions, strong as they were behind the lid, were like a breeze to Alex, simply drifting past him, as he asked casually:

"So?"

Sharon took another breath to calm her emotions, the groceries now totally forgotten, as she looked deep into the brown eyes across from her.

"The details of my life, my birthday, where I have ever lived, where I have ever been, what I have done, who I know, my relationships, what I had, what I lost, and even… my mother."

Sharon took another deep breath before saying the last part, and facing Alex squarely for his reaction, only for him to still look at her with that same, unchanged smile, and asking the same question as earlier, in the same amused and careless tone:

"So?"

With her emotions rolling in her chest, Sharon tried for one last time:

"You investigated me to try to find out who is behind our troubles, right? Did you find out anything? Who is it?"

Alex looked into the blue eyes as if straight at the turbulence hidden within. For a moment, he didn't answer, a very short moment that left the room silent, with the three questions floating in the air, before Alex finally decided to give them an anchor:

"Who knows? But maybe it is your friends who stabbed you in the back and caused you to lose everything you had. What's her name again? Sheila? Or perhaps it is that childhood friend of yours. You know? The childhood sweetheart, by the way, the one who bought your old place when you were selling it to repay your debts… Or maybe, just maybe, you made up your dire straits just to deceive me."

Each word came like a blow pulling the wind out of Sharon's sails, as it shaved off the intensity of her emotions and left her stifled, but at the same time, empty. Along the way, Alex lost his casual, careless smile as a dark edge took over the faint, amused light in his deep brown eyes.

She suddenly felt weak, and small. Seeing that, Alex stopped speaking, then shook his head, disappointed. From the very beginning, their relationship had never been that of equals. The way they met robbed her of the moral high ground, and became a thick barrier around it when she had forced her way into his life, as a continuation of that first meeting.

It was like going into battle with a rusty armor full of chinks. Surviving the first contact was already a miracle.

His expression transitioning to indifference, he stood up, and walked back to his room, disinterested in continuing the conversation. It was fortunate that he had already eaten before coming back.

*Clack*

The sound of the door rippled over the living room like an announcement that pulled Sharon out of the daze with which she had followed Alex's receding back. She looked away from the closed doors, then at the folder before her, before she let out a suppressed bitter chuckle.

Digging out the personal history of someone who had intruded into his life, she could say nothing about that. She would have done the same had it been her in his place. She would have done the same just not long ago when she had still been in position to do so.

Maybe, she had fallen to the bottom for too long, leaving her wanting to protect what she had left, who she had left. No wonder Alex had been disappointed. Most probably, she had found out about the file because he actually didn't care.

She took a deep breath, and exhaled. Silently, she moved to organize the rest of the groceries on the countertop, before leaving the kitchen to go to her room. At the door, she found packages, surprising her. After a glance at the closed door of Alex's room, she tore open the packages, and realized they were from the mall, from the clothing store they had been to in the morning.

She pursed her lips at the 'employee benefit'. After a moment, she focused on packages with more peculiar shapes that confused her. She tore them open, and her eyes went wide. She did not remember having chosen undies back at the store even when asked to. But now here they were, and not in small numbers. Her heart beating more with mortification than dread, she tore open the rest of the packages with the same shape and small size, then froze.

Her face warming up, she raised up the provocative underwear, then cursed under her breath, though whether at herself, at Alex, or at the shop attendants remained unknown.

Only her mutter was left behind as she hurried inside her room and closed the door:

"What kind of employee's benefit is that!?!"

*Clack*

Silence descended over the empty living room, the distance between two worlds.