Craigslist Netta and the fiction

This is the date one, but I thought I had a little better scene where two strangers try to get together over something else: sharing an apartment.

As Peter brought the fork to his mouth, a large drop of Strawberry Yogurt fell onto his lap. If someone saw it, it could look really bad and really gross. “Shit, he said as he looked down at it. As he stared at the white blob of cow juice, he could feel someone’s presence in front of his back.

“You Peter?” A large tangle of hair matted the words out in a growl. The rest of her stood straight and defiant like the stray hairs on her forehead. She could only see the curls on the back of his head, but she thought he looked like the Facebook picture she had studied.

“Umm ya? Who are you?” Peter said as turned around to look up at her. Netta felt put off and she began slowly like he was 5 years old.

“I’m Netta, the one in the craigslist ad. We were going to meet here today, ya know, at this time,” she said impatiently as she brushed away the off shoots of forehead hair.

“OH! My bad!” Peter said as he quickly moved his laptop away from the open end of the two person table. “Sorry I had no idea.”

Sure ya didn’t, Netta thought as she sat down. She looked straight up at Peter and began her schpeal for the third time this week.

“So here’s the deal, I got a one bedroom that you could have the living room separated for your own space. But here’s the thing, it’s MY space, so don’t think you can come in there and have your friends over all the time and trash my place,” she said with one long, angry breath. Peter fidgeted in his seat but didn’t say anything.

“So when do you want to move in?” Netta said as she looked at her watch. She was tired of beating around the bush.

“Well..” Peter started up hesitantly.

“Well what? You contacted me about this. I came all the way down here for you,” she said. The café was only a minute away from her apartment but she had already walked the three blocks to see Match.com’s Ryan earlier, who wasn’t at French Meadow anywhere near the table by the painting they texted on.

“Well it’s just that we haven’t talked about anything yet. I’m not trying to rush this decision,” he said looking down at his laptop screen.

“Well that’s just great. Why the hell did you show up then!” Her voice was calm but her throat was letting out an inaudible scream and it resonated in her voice.

“Woah I just thought it be like a good idea to meet first,” Peter said as he looked around the café at the people. They were in their coffee sandwich world, not paying attention to Netta.

“Alright well this is stupid. I’m leaving. E-mail me if you want to see the place,” she said with a little spit at the corners of her mouth.

“Okay see you later,” Peter said as he pulled the Macbook away from the spittle lipped face. Netta got up and accidentally kicked the metal beam that supported the table top. It rocked and swayed and Peter moved a hand to settle it.

“Screw craigslist,” he said as he closed his macbook with his freehand.