"Howard, I got pregnant."

I was shocked, then I glared and said, "Go tell the man who impregnated you. Why did you call me out?"

"I have only slept with you this year. It's your baby!"

"If I say I have only slept with you this year, will you believe that?"

"Howard Cooper, you bastard!"

"Who said we are gonna be serious about the relationship? Don't blame me for this. If you want me to take responsibility, at least show me some proof. I'm not a fool. No man would want to be caught unprepared and become a father!"

Penny Hudson was silent for a while and said, "I just had an abortion. I have no proof."

I was angry. "Am I that stupid to you? You aborted the baby, and then..." I raised my hand and continued, "Then, you told me that I'm the father. Penny, you're an adult. Can you act like one?"

Penny bit her lips while looking at me. After a while, she said, "You don't want to take responsibility, right? I'll go to where you work tomorrow..."

"Seriously?" I cursed.

Penny bit her lips tightly and looked at me. She looked pitiful, but in my eyes, she was just acting. What a good actress. I met her at a bar and then we had a one-night stand. A woman frequenting bars had only slept with one man this whole year. If I believed her, I would be the biggest fool in this world!

I didn't want to be entangled with her anymore. I took out my wallet and handed her all the cash in it. "You want money, right? Take it. Don't come to me anymore!"

Penny didn't say anything nor pester me. She nodded, turned around, and walked into the hospital with an umbrella in her hand as if she still had some bills there to pay...

I was silent for a long time before I finally stopped her. "Wait..."

Penny turned to look at me.

I took out a bank card from my wallet and handed it to her. "This is a credit card. You just aborted a baby. Buy something good for yourself."

Penny, however, did not take it. "No, I won't take it. All I want from you is to take responsibility. I just don't want to be a fool who is knocked up by a bastard and gets an abortion!"

...

In a bar, I drank to my heart's content while waiting for my only friend in this city, Jason Wheaton, who was also my colleague.

I lit a cigarette, took off the thin film on the case, and put it above my eyes. I looked at the swaying light and felt my body swaying along to the same rhythm. I seemed to see a rotten kingdom. I got a bit entranced.

Jason removed the film in my hand, and everything in front of me suddenly became clear again.

"Why did you get me to come in such a hurry?" Jason put down the briefcase in his hand, took out a cigarette from my case, and lit the cigarette for himself.

"Lend me some money. I was blackmailed!"

"You got some girl pregnant again?" Jason was not surprised.

"Damn! This time, I was really blackmailed..."

"Who did that?"

"Can't you just shut up?"

"It costs me a few hundred dollars every time. Can't I just know who blackmailed you and took my money away?"

"Penny," I said as I lit up a cigarette.

"That model?"

"That model?"

"Right. And guess what? Penny said that she's only slept with me this year. Can you believe it? Jason, isn't that a joke?" I knocked on the table loudly with my fingers. I was so angry.

"Such things can't happen to me. Besides, it's just a few hundred dollars. Last month, she got all the shootings of the promotional posters of our department store, and she got almost 2,000 dollars from that..."

I scoffed at Jason and interrupted him. "Don't you know how much she spends each month? Can two thousand dollars support her for a month? She has a baby with some bastard and has no money to clean up the mess. Well, she came to me again... I'm fucking cheap. I shouldn't have kindly introduced her to our company. She's made money from us, but then she tricks me. How can she be like this?"

Jason didn't care about my emotions and asked me in a low voice, "Did you use protection when you made love?"

I thought about it for a long time. However, I was too drunk at that time and I really couldn't remember. After a while, I said, "Yeah... That's why I said I was tricked!"

Jason looked at me with doubt. After a long time, he sighed and said, "Howard, we have known each other for almost ten years. Sometimes I really want to say something to you. I knew that breaking up with Jane dealt a heavy blow to you, but it has been two years. You really don't have to humiliate yourself in this way... Time waits for no one. Find a good girlfriend and start a family, okay?"

When I heard the name "Jane", I paused and said, "Don't worry about me. I'm fine!"

"Are you?"

...

Jason continued talking, and I was too impatient to listen. In the end, he only cursed, "You deserve it!" Then he left with dissatisfaction and forgot to throw a few hundred dollars on the table.

I walked out of the bar, held an umbrella, and stepped on the wet street. At that moment, I felt like there was only me in this world. How lonely! I had worked in this city for two years, but what I gained were emptiness and loneliness. To get rid of such feelings, I had to wear a mask to cover up my shame. With this mask, I could live freely.

But no matter how much pain I felt, Jane would never come back!

...

I passed a few bus stops before returning to my neighborhood. It was an old, rundown place, so old that there was not even a security company willing to manage it. During my first year here, I heard from the neighbors that the buildings here were all built in the early 90s. It didn't resist the erosion of time and every building looked depressed. However, the buildings were always stuck to each other, as if they were afraid of being lonely. This way, it seemed that each building had a life. I always thought, "At the dead of the night, they might whisper a few words to each other to chase off their loneliness."

With a cigarette in my mouth, I took out a key from my pocket and walked to the building I lived in. This building was the only one with creepers over the wall in this neighborhood. Every summer, the wall facing south would turn green. If buildings were gendered, this building would undoubtedly be a woman. More exactly, a cold woman.

It often made people feel sad for her!

...

To my surprise, there was a red fancy car parked downstairs. I had lived here for two years but had never seen a car over 80,000 dollars in this place.

I no longer thought about it. I whistled and walked along the corridor to my own apartment. When I reached the top floor, only to see that the door of my house was ajar. I locked the door before I left. Was there a thief? I calmed down a bit and remembered that I hadn't paid rent to Larry for two months. It must be Larry!

Pushing the door open, I saw my landlord Larry and a strange woman sitting on the sofa. A car key was on the tea table. The car downstairs must be hers.

Then, a question flashed in my mind, "Isn't Larry just an ordinary loser? How could he bring such a noble-looking and unapproachable woman into this simple and dilapidated place? Weird!"

I looked at this woman again. She sat upright, her curly long hair falling to her shoulders. Her skin was fair, and her figure was slim. The corners of her mouth were up. She looked so confident. Undoubtedly, she was beautiful. I was conquered by her stunning look at first glance.

Larry waved to me. "Howard, I have something to tell you."

"It's about the rent, isn't it? I will get my salary next month. Shall I pay you then?" I said with a fake smile. I had delayed the rent for so long.

"It's about the place... Well... This lady bought it."

"You sold this house? Which idiot bought this broken old thing? It can't even withstand a slight quake!" I looked at the woman and exclaimed. In the crisis of being homeless, I couldn't care about the woman's elegance and beauty anymore. I had to show my rage.

Larry looked at the frowning woman for a long time and said to me, "Move out tonight. I won't ask you for the rent for these few months!"

"Larry, why didn't you tell me in advance? Look, it's still raining outside. How can I find a new place to live in such weather?"

"Just stay in a hotel first." Larry did not care about my feelings at all.

"You're no longer the owner of this apartment. I won't talk to you!" I snapped at Larry and said to the woman aside, "It's now yours. Shall I rent it from you?"

The woman shook her head. "I want to live here. I have no intention of renting it."

I immediately lost my cool. "Miss, are you alright? You drive a luxury car and want to live in this crappy place! Are you making things difficult for me?"

The woman said calmly, "I'll give you an hour to move out..."

Before she could finish, I interrupted her. "I won't do it. Have you ever seen someone move out without being noticed in advance?" With that, I sat down next to her and the woman moved to the other side out of instinct.

I lit a cigarette and scanned the room. I felt a sense of loss. I had been living here since I came to Poston City two years ago. I had the most difficult time here.

I still remembered how I cried in front of the clock in the living room and talked to the old floor lamp in the bedroom all night. Every object in this old house was like my best friend who had kept me company through the difficult moments of my life. If I left here, I would lose these old friends.

I breathed out smoke. The woman might feel bothered by it, and she stood up from the sofa in annoyance and walked to the other side.

I felt worse and worse, as if all the bad things were crashing into me at the same time.

A moment later, the woman and I were still in a deadlock. Larry broke the silence. "I still have something to do. I'll leave the space for you to discuss..." Without waiting for a response, he hurried out of the door with his bag in hand, like a hot potato.

There was only me and the woman left in the room.

...

Outside the window, the strong wind and the cold rain began to wreak havoc again. Such bad weather made me even more unwilling to move out. I decided to sit and waste my time with this woman. Anyway, the priciest thing for me now was time.

I began to talk to her. "Miss, may I know your name?"

The woman responded to me with a serious look on her face. "Is this important?"

"Of course. I have to know who's making me homeless on this cold rainy night!"

She ignored the sarcasm in my words and replied coldly, "You only have 40 minutes left. If you don't move then, I will call the police."

Just as I was about to lose my temper, my phone rang. I frowned at the woman before taking out my phone from my pocket. I looked at the caller ID. It was Penny, another woman who agitated me on this unlucky day.

I answered the phone impatiently. "What's wrong? Didn't you get the money?"

Penny remained silent for a moment before saying, "Howard, tomorrow is the weekend... Can you go to the hospital with me for a follow-up...?"

"It's not my baby. And, don't you have a friend? I don't have that much time for you!" I threw out words one after another, trying to make Penny give up the unrealistic idea that I would go to the hospital with her.

"In this city, you are my only friend."

"Penny, you got it wrong. We just use each other for sex. We're not friends. Can't you understand?"