My night was long and restless.

Not only was the bathtub uncomfortable to sleep in, but I hadn’t been able to get my mind off of Naomi the entire night. Allowing a stranger to stay in your house after only knowing them for a few hours was absolutely insane. With that type of thinking, how hadn’t I been murdered up until that point?

At most I had only an hour of sleep. My whole body felt stiff as I sat up before my alarm could go off. I rested my head in my hands to rub my eyes and massage my face. Peering over to my side I saw Dog still sleeping on the blanket with his head laying between his little front paws. His rest was only interrupted after I stood up from the tub.

He looked at me with half closed eyes while wagging his tail. As I knelt beside him to give morning pets, he stretched out his front legs in excitement. Getting pet as soon as he woke up was his favorite thing. Though it was only a quick pet.

Before leaving the room, I quickly fix my hair in the mirror. While looking at myself, I began wondering how that day would go. Would Naomi still even be there? Will my apartment be completely empty? The latter of which being more of a joke on her. Nothing in my apartment had any value besides sentimental.

Though I was stalling in this moment. My nerves were high at the thought of what was behind that door. And they only grew once I put my hand on the door handle. So I took a deep breath and opened the door.

I was immediately met with Naomi’s large eyes and wide smile staring at me. As if she were waiting for me to come out “Good morning Evelyn! Did you sleep well?” she gave me a goofy wave, being way too enthusiastic that early in the morning.

The clothes she was wearing were the same from the day before. Which only made sense given she didn’t have any bags on her. But did she really not bring anything else to wear? “Are those your only clothes?”

She lifted her arms up and looked around at her hoodie “Yes! I like to pack light!” she giggled.

Her lack of planning still surprised me “So are you going to wear the same clothes every day then? That would be really unpleasant after a bit, don’t you think? And what about toiletries? What were you planning on cleaning yourself up with?”

The smile on her face disappeared “I’m not a dirty person.” she mumbled “And I only don’t have those things because I lost my bag on the way here. Or maybe someone stole it, I don’t know. All I know is that the only things I have on me are what you see.”

Okay, maybe I started feeling bad for her and thought I may have been a bit too judgmental. After-all, if her bag truly was stolen, then that could explain how unprepared she was to travel. And I also started thinking about everything from her point of view.

Here was this pretty, young woman who traveled to a new place and lost her bag along the way. Having nothing could leave someone vulnerable and desperate. Desperate enough for her to accept a stay at a complete strangers house. And who knows what kind of person that could be. What if I had ignored her and someone else came along who had bad intentions?

“I didn’t think you were. I’m just concerned about you is all.” I looked around at the unpacked boxes in my room “How about you use all of my stuff? I was about to move the blankets from the tub and take a shower. But if you want, you can take one before me.”

That was all it took for her cheery attitude to return. Both of her hands were brought to her face and covered her mouth “You’re concerned about me? That’s like, the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me! Thank you! I’ll gladly take you up on that shower!”

The way her hands lowered to show her bright smile once more made my heart skip. All I wanted to do was help her more “And I uh, have some boxes of my mom’s old clothes. I can look through them to see if anything will fit you. I mean, she was taller than me, but definitely not as tall as you. I’m not sure if anyone here is.”

Her head cranked to the side and her voice became small “Is being tall a bad thing?”

To think that I may have hurt her feelings made me panic more than I expected “No not at all! It’s actually really cool that you’re this tall! I love tall women!”

Her eyebrows were raised and mouth slightly parted as she watched me frantically wave my hands around. Though it got a laugh out of her “That’s good to hear! Because I like being tall!”

Before we could get too carried away with conversation, I pushed her into to the bathroom. I removed all my stuff from the tub and had to show her how to work the faucet. It looked like it was her first time seeing any sort of shower.

After I was done showing her, she almost immediately began undressing. Which was my queue to get out of there and close the door behind me. Dog was looking up at me as my back was pressed up against the door with a smirk on his face. I ignored it and walked past him to the taped up boxes.

Before I moved to the apartment, I had all of my mom’s old stuff in storage that I never went through. And when I had to move, I packed all that stuff up and stuck it in my closet so I wouldn’t have to think about them. Her things were always too sad of a memory for me. Which made me take a pause before opening one of the boxes.

If I had still been alone, the memories would have made it too painful to look through them. Afterwards I would only be left feeling more alone. But now that there was someone in my house in need of them, I was able to brush those emotions to the side momentarily.

When I had one of the boxes that said “clothes” sitting in front of me, my heart began to beat a little quicker. Most of the stuff in that box I hadn’t looked at for almost 12 years. I peeled the tape of the top and grabbed both ends of the top of the box.

As soon as I opened it, the lingering smell of her perfume had hit me like a ton of bricks. Almost instantly memories of my mom began playing in my head. Memories I hadn’t thought about in years. It was like she was in the room right next to me. I almost lost it before I was able to shake off those thoughts.

Dog could feel my emotions in that moment and came over to lay by my side. It was comforting knowing he was there for me as began digging through the box.

My mom had what I had assumed was a similar aesthetic as Naomi. So there was mostly muted colors in the box with the vast majority of clothing being black. Knowing that there was probably no chance any of her pants would fit Naomi, I put all those to the side and looked to the dresses and skirts, which she had plenty of.

I found a long, black ruffled skirt and a black top with short sleeves to match it. And after waiting to hear the shower turn off, I knocked on the bathroom door “Naomi, I found some clothes for you. I’m going to leave them by the door.” then placed the items on the ground right next to where the door opened.

Not even a moment passed before I saw the door crack open and her arms shoot out to quickly pull the clothes inside. A bit of fussing could be heard from her side of the door as she put them on. Once the fussing stopped, there was a happy squeal, then the door opened.

The long black skirt fit well on her. It was a dress that’s made to look good at any level, so there was no issue in the height difference. And she looked happy to be wearing it “I really love this! What do you think?” she grabbed both sides of the dress and waved it around.

“You look nice.” is all I said. Even though she was always enthusiastic, I still hesitated to give her a compliment. I didn’t want her to take it the wrong way and have her feeling uncomfortable. Instead I grabbed a change of clothes and took my turn at taking a shower.

My shower was a quick one. Leaving Dog out there alone with Naomi made me feel a bit nervous. But of course I wasn’t going to bring him into the bathroom to watch me shower. And with his attitude towards Naomi so far, I figured he would get more out of being alone with her. Which looked to be the case after I opened the door to see the two sitting in front of each other. It looked like Naomi had a fun time playing with him.

In no time we were ready to leave the apartment. The natural heat in my body helped to dry my hair quickly without the use of a hairdryer. The heat of the sun never bothered me either, but I still wore shorts and a tank-top for our walk around town.