Cora

The apartment was quiet.

Max had just left to drive to Burbank to go to an AA meeting and would be gone until the evening. 

At first, it was horrible getting him to go, the hidden beer bottles, the unanswered calls. But now, it was like he was hooked on something else. Between work and AA, I almost never saw him. He would come back late, tiptoeing to bed, and leave with a piece of toast in his hand before the sun rose. 

I hated being alone in the apartment. As I watched the light move across the living room floor I’d feel my whole body begin to itch. I would keep scratching and scratching until my legs got red and puffy, little welts forming underneath my knees. 

I had lost my job a couple months ago. I didn’t get fired, it just sort of fizzled out. Like some guy I dated in my 20s, at one point he stopped texting back. 

I described him, my boss, a guy who wore designer harem pants and cool framed glasses, as “mercurial,” a word my friends were all impressed I knew. One day we were laughing together, him telling me I was doing a great job, and the next he was sullen, ignoring me when I asked him a question. 

So, it wasn’t that I was really sad to not be driving 2 hours everyday to the suburbs to work for this schmuck. But I missed the money. I watched my bank account get lower and lower each day, unsure what I was even spending it on. 

The moment I had stopped getting out of my pajamas is when Max brought up therapy. “It can really help, to talk to someone you know,” he said. “I can’t afford it,” I countered. 

“I could help you pay, maybe for a little while. Until you find a new job?” 

The clock on my phone blinked 3:01 p.m. Everyone else in the world was buzzing around, but the apartment was quiet. I opened up Zoom and immediately a silver-haired person appeared on-screen.

“Hi Annie, I’m Cora.” Cora wore a multi-colored woven shirt, and house plants framed her round face. She looked like she was in her early 40s, but her gray hair made her seem wise. She smiled warmly through the screen. “I’m really looking forward to working together.”