BY AMIR R. ALLEN

This is a really crappy apartment! At least on the outside. It is above an old storefront that has been deleted to make a first-floor apartment. My girlfriend and I have the second and third floors. I was so reluctant to even get into this relationship — well, to stay in it, I shall say. Not only is she three years younger than I am, but she is also less mature. I do not want to go to the club like she does. I am fine with picking her up afterwards to make sure she gets home safe, but there are so many things she doesn’t understand. She has some real blind spots, that’s for sure. We almost ended things after a big argument months ago.

I had told her to take half the money from my rental property and go to college. Her reply was to lash out at me: “So what, do you just have my whole life planned out for me?” 

I could only respond with compassion: “Honey, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t have a plan for us?” 

There was nothing she could say. And that was what had prompted me to try and break things off with her. But we had moved past that, for now, anyway. She had admitted to her being less mature, and then she had hooked me with those tears and that unforgettable line: “If you leave, I’ll understand, but these feelings aren’t going anywhere. Can’t you just work with a b****?”

I know she can hear my car pull up to the apartment. And I bet she feels the same way that I do when I’m inside and she pulls up. 

“Hey babe,” she yells as soon as I hit the steps to come upstairs. 

“What’s up, babe?” I yell back. “What you doin’?” 

“Nothing, watching a movie. You came at the right time, it’s a commercial.” 

I go to the kitchen to wash my hands and get a drink of water, then walk down the short hallway, where I can already see her lying on the couch. That couch and most of the furniture had come with the apartment, everything except the big TV that we had bought together from Circuit City. 

As I lay on the couch facing her to cuddle, she nestles me into her shoulder and chest then moves her hips back into the couch so that I can also fit comfortably, trying to put me to sleep, no doubt. I feel like I might go to sleep when the TV announcer brings me back: “We’ve got your daytime covered, and we’re steaming up your nights. Right here on Lifetime: movies for women.”

When I slowly turned over, she was just accommodating, happy to be the big spoon. When I picked up the remote to the TV, she didn’t say a word. 

“Din, nuh, nuh — don, nuh, nuh — Sports Center! Time to see what’s going on with the Steelers.” 

“Babe,” she says, “when a commercial comes on I need to talk to you.” 

“Oh my goodness.” I sigh as I slowly start to push myself up from the couch. And I was so comfortable. 

“Babe, hear me out okay.” She says it so sweet and so calm. “You know how much I hate football, and I don’t like basketball that much either. But if I come in and you’re watching them, I just lay down with you. Now, when you came in I was watching a movie. All I’m saying is this: I don’t want you to go into another room to watch TV. If you have to turn the channel, it’s fine. But I would just like you to lay with me sometimes like I do with you.” And then she adds, “You can turn it.” 

And so I do. I turn the TV right back to the channel it was on when I came in. Lifetime: movies for women. 

And for all of my reluctance to stay in this relationship, and all of my so-called maturity, I have to admit that she is right. She just changed my life, actually! It has been a long time since I lived with a woman — so long that I must’ve lost my mind. I mean — that is just simple courtesy. 

When I told her to find an apartment, I thought I would have to teach her everything. I’d had an apartment before, but this was her first. I had cohabitated before. I had fixed up houses and lived in them and paid all the bills myself. But as I lay here comfortably with her, all I can think is that she is absolutely right. She’s not the only one with blindspots. I guess that’s why we need each other.

I think when the movie goes off, I’ll ask her if she has thought about how we will spend Thanksgiving. When the movie is over…