Work Text:
Soul
Duncan Murphy, just turned 26, has been working as the handyman for some old mansion turned apartment complex. Two things that needed to be known at Fairaway Apartments: it was cheap, and it sucked. Walls dense enough you could put a picture up, but thin enough you knew what your neighbor was watching. Pipes sucks, constantly leaking. It seemed like everyone’s heaters were breaking, freezing up the entire place.
But that wasn’t Duncan’s problem. It should be, but the person who owned the lot just sent him a text at damn near midnight letting him know that he needed to vacuum the carpeted floors outside the apartment units before that morning because people were coming in to tour the only good apartment. The place that would honeytrap the unsuspecting person into a 6 to 12-month lease.
Duncan finished vacuuming the dark red carpet in the foyer. He turned it off when the front door to the house opened.
“Why are you vacuuming?”
It was Courtney Flores, renter of apartment 5. They went way back, sharing the same middle and high school friend group. Though they’re relationship was more cold war back then, but now it was comfortable. They could have a conversation without it turning into a headache.
“Got a text about an early showing tomorrow.” He told her as he jerked the cord, unplugging it from the socket.
“What?” Courtney asked as she brought out her phone. “I wasn’t told anything. My place is such a mess.”
“I can have them look at someone else’s.” His suggestion was met with a tired look. “Them not seeing your place this once isn’t going to take away the spot as favorite tenant.”
“One, the tenants have to have a 24-hour notice before the showing of their place, and two, everyone else isn’t here.”
He looked around; the two units on the bottom floor had been oddly quiet.
“Damn, was hoping that one died.” He said as he glared at apartment 1. “The old bitch keeps calling about rats in the walls.”
“Well, are there rats in the wall?”
“When I checked, I didn’t see any droppings. But when I told her about it just being the pipes or just old house noises, she yelled at me and said she’d make sure I, get this, ‘Would never work in this town again.’”
She smiled at the door before she looked at him. “I don’t know, I like her. She always sends me a Christmas and birthday card.”
“Well, I don’t get dick, and I fucking work here.”
“Maybe it’s because you suck.” She told him. “Unlike me, you go out of your way to be antagonistic.”
She had the nerve to stand there, praising herself for something she wasn’t.
“Didn’t you cause the last tenant to leave?”
Her smile turned into a glare. “They kept taking my parking spot. And it wasn’t my intention to make them leave, I just wanted them to learn to shut up past midnight and to park in their assigned spot. It’s not my fault that they cried with a little smack on the back of the head.”
Duncan stared at her, a grin on his face as he remembered the night. The cops were about to be called, and he had to hold Courtney back from doing more damage.
She walked past him, “Stop looking at me like that. It’s weird.”
“Come on, seeing you beating up the guy was funny.”
“If it was so funny, why did you stop me?” She asked, and there was still a bit of resentment there that it made him laugh.
“Because if he hit you, then I’d have to hit him, and I had a date with a girl I’ve been flirting with for years.” He bragged as he followed her up the stairs. He leaned in closer to whisper, “And she has the best tits I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t going to show up with a black eye. She hates it when I fight.”
She let out a sigh as she got to her door. “She also thinks you should have let me punch him one more time.”
She unlocked it, and he leaned against the frame. “So what were you doing so late at night?”
“Girls' night.” She stopped when she got to her kitchen. “Wait, I thought Gwen told you about it?”
“Nope.” He said before he walked inside her place.
Courtney had begun to wash the dishes in her sink. He had eaten some of her leftovers from the night before. He cringed, ready to have her yell at him. She didn’t say anything when he closed the door. She continued to wash the dishes in silence.
She could have texted him that she was going to be out late. For a few hours, he couldn’t focus on anything as he just thought about whether she was on a date or not. She would have mentioned something like that, right?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He kept his voice casual. He didn’t want her to think it bothered him that much.
“Sorry,” she said, and they both knew she wasn’t. “But you said you wanted to keep it casual, and casual to me is that you aren’t inclined to know where I am outside of our random dates and sex.”
Okay, she got him there. But who could have known that his need to act like it wasn’t serious was going to blow up in his face?
“You could have said no.” He told her as he walked into her tiny kitchen.
She scrubbed the piece of food that had stuck to the plate. “Duncan, have you ever thought that maybe I like to have fun?”
“What?” He asked. He watched her set the single plate on the drying rack.
“If I blink and I’m thirty, what fun would we have had? You make me laugh, but we can do that as friends.”
“Wait, hold on,” he tried to figure out what she was trying to say. They had fun. Duncan brought her to the movies that one time. “Do you want to go do something? Because we can go do something.”
She gave him a look. He knew that look. It was the look she always gave him before they started dating. Casually, of course. The look that let him know that he wasn’t getting it. A frustrated type of look that at first would piss him off, but now it just made him confused and anxious.
“What?” He demanded. Okay, it still pissed him off.
“I’m too old to do casual dating. Too tired of the bullshit anxious feeling that I have if I think you’re talking to another girl. So, either we go back to being friends or we date seriously.”
She talked to the girls about it. He could tell, because Courtney’s eyes were calculating. It kinda killed him that she was already prepared for it to end.
He crossed his arms, he could stand his ground, too. “I’m not saying it.”
“Okay, fine, we can go back to being friends.”
“I’m not doing that.”
“Then what the fuck are you talking about? What are you? Are you that emotionally constipated that you can’t say you want to date me seriously?” Courtney’s voice got louder, more tired of him. “You know what. That’s fine. I’ll say it-,”
“Just give me a second!” He interrupted her. Fuck. He meant he wasn’t going to say shit like ‘I love you,’ or some crap like that. But because he can’t say the right words, he’s gotten himself fucked.
“It’s very easy, do you want to date me seriously or not?”
“No, it’s not!” He snapped. “If I say let’s date seriously, you’ll expect marriage eventually. And then kids. Courtney, I can’t take care of a baby! You’ve seen my paycheck, I can barely afford to take you out.”
Courtney laughed. He just confessed something that’s been bothering him, and she laughs?
She took in a deep breath and finally spoke, a big smile on her face as she looked at him. “I never thought you would take it that seriously.”
“Shut up.” He glared. He could feel his face heat up.
“Aw,” she mocked, walking over to wrap her arms around his neck. “And here I was thinking you didn’t care.”
“I’m not changing anything about myself just because we’re dating. Understand? I’m still going to say shit that will probably piss you off.” He said, his words coming out annoyed as he put his hands on her waist.
“It’s so cute how you think I hold no power in this relationship.” She said, kissing him before she pulled away.
He let her go. He couldn’t say anything because she was right, and that pissed him off.
“Now, as a serious boyfriend, you have to help me clean.”
“Wrong, as my serious girlfriend, you should take me to bed.” He grinned, reaching over to pull her back to him. “Come on, you’re place isn’t that bad.” He kissed the side of her neck, making her laugh. “So let’s have sex.”
“As your serious girlfriend,” she said, and Duncan found himself liking the title of it more and more. “I can now withhold sex to be a type of reward for you to get things done.”
“You’re lucky I find it hot when you use authority and blackmail against me.” He kissed her neck again before he let go. “But I should remind you that with no one here, we could be as loud as we want when we do it.”
“That should give you inspiration to get things done. Now go start folding my laundry.”
“Fine, I get to see if you got any new intimates.” He said as he walked over to sit on the couch.
He didn’t mind that fifteen minutes later, they were still folding her laundry, getting distracted by the random late-night made-for-TV movie. It was cheesy and stupid, but it felt as close to domestic as Duncan ever thought he would get. He was okay with being serious. It scared the hell out of him, and it made him want to run, but he also liked the idea of one day staying the night. Staying the weekend as he forced her to stay in bed on Saturday mornings.
It was okay to get serious sometimes.