Welcome to the second post in The Adventures of Roland! You can find all the previous posts in Roland’s escapades here. Each installment typically comes out around once per month. I hope you enjoy!
—-THE ADVENTURES OF ROLAND—-
Turning the key and walking in, he breathed in deeply. Walking further in, he began to turn his head slightly. Something wasn’t right. The cupboard was open and slightly ajar. Alice never does that. In fact, it was 3 pm now, and he was the last to leave the apartment this morning, and that cupboard was not open. His ears began to turn around in his head as they heard muffled mumbling across the apartment. His head and eyes began to follow suit, and as they did, his feet began to slowly trace new steps towards the living room. He glanced down upon the couch. A leather jacket. And now further and bursting through the bedroom door, stock still, gazing out onto the sprawl of his queen bed, there they were.
“Roland! What the fuck!” Alice, spread eagle on the bed, exuded from her lips an exclamation of both horror and panting pleasure.
For the moment Roland really couldn’t see Alice at all other than her long legs and her toes, her painted purple toenails. The reason being of course that Tyler, her supervisor, had his bare white ass in full view of Roland and the main doorway to their bedroom. Roland watched Tyler’s ass cheeks buckle and squeeze as he quickly and somewhat painfully removed himself from inside of Alice. The covers flew up over top the both of them.
“Well…um…I quit my job today.” There was an awkward pause as silence snowed down over everyone. “Hope you’re not pissed about that…I thought I’d come home early, make sure I was all set for the Peninsula tonight. I guess I ruined those plans.” Roland wasn’t sure what to say in this moment. Really, he wasn’t even sure how he felt. But strangely as he spoke, more than anything, Roland just noticed the sunlight. It pierced through their ivory white curtains with slightly more force and precision now that evening was beginning to creep up on the city.
Instead of bothering himself with what to say next, Roland decided to turn his heels into the fuzzy, white carpet in his bedroom; he looked forward into his kitchen now, forgetting all that lay behind him. One beam of fading, orange sunlight was shooting through the window and over the small wooden table. Technically, the table was living in the no-man’s land between the refrigerator and the television. It’s that space in cheaper, smaller apartments that isn’t really big enough to be a dining area but also isn’t small enough to just be a momentary walkway or could justifiably be swallowed up by the living room. No. It was just big enough to be identified on its own, as awkward as it may be, and no one really knew what to do with it exactly. Clearly it was uncomfortable with itself. It couldn’t tell if it belonged to the black and white tiles of the kitchen or the mini-white shag of the living room. Here in Roland’s house, it was deemed the dining area and so naturally began to claim its own place separate and beyond both of its neighbors. The late sunlight, as it rested on a dirty glass from earlier that morning, struck Roland’s attention for a moment or two.
Eventually, and with two stunned and naked humans still restless and confused behind him now, Roland walked out of his apartment and went off down the stairs leading to the outside world. As he was opening the door to the apartment building, his head was down, and he was staring into the nothing that continually laid before him; it moved with the tops of his feet as he walked forever onward, forever continuing into oblivion. Fresh air began to wisp upon his face, his straight, brown hair gaining a slight lift of springtime air. This was at the exact time Pepper was walking into the building. The collision was not as intense as it was messy. They sort of congealed into each other rather than collided. Her mail strewn all about the ceramic tiled floor, the echo as the envelopes fell reverberated ever so quietly into the upper ethers of the 1920’s apartment lobby, the simple, exposed, art deco light fixture high above them. Roland’s hands, as fate would have it, landed squarely on her chest, morphing around her breasts like an outer bra. Instinctually, without his even being aware of it, for Roland hadn’t been on the other side of Alice’s clothes for some time now – so focused on his work, his graphics, his education, she distant and detached. His fingers wrapped around Pepper’s, true in a somewhat gentle way, but also quite obviously and perhaps too rapidly. Before he realized what he was doing, it was too late. His latent instincts had already had their rein.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry. Are you ok?” Roland spoke in an exasperated tone as he was bending down now to pick up her mail.
“Did you just feel me up?” Pepper stamped out in a tone that wasn’t exactly clear.
“I….I…Did I? I don’t know.” Of course Roland was at a loss for words. How could he explain his hands? His mischievous fingers.
“Here’s your mail.” He looked straight into her eyes as he handed her the mail more out of pure shock than any conscious attempt at seduction.
“Mmmm. Thank you.” Pepper released herself into the moment, and took hold of the mail being offered to her. Their fingers gently, accidentally, grazed past each other in the transition, and as they did, she felt her eyes expand, dilate for a moment, perhaps imperceptibly to Roland, but clear as day to Pepper. For some reason there wasn’t a violation here. She looked into this man and saw nothing but innocence and somehow this intrigued her the way an almost blank canvas would arouse curiosity, perhaps even frustration, in an artist. To complete what had only just begun, to continue the process of whatever was unfolding over these brush strokes. To contribute to the chaos, the act of creation, the power to influence. She lingered a moment upon his finger, slid off of it, noticing the notches of each knuckle.
“Where are you headed?” Her words carried the moment they shared further into whatever chemistry their grazed touch began to arouse. Roland felt something stir in and around his stomach.
“Well…I was heading out for a brisk walk.” He paused for a moment thinking that he was complete with his answer, however upon hearing the words come out of his mouth he stammered on, “If you’d care to join me of course you’re more than welcome.”