It was stunning, and she knew it. This had to be worth a million dollars at least. How could she lease it to me for like $1500 a month?She's rich, I reminded myself.Of course, she could afford it.
Sylvia slid a lease agreement to me. "It's open to a second renter if you decide you need a roommate," she said with nonchalance. "But otherwise, it's all yours, my dear."
I gave her a bewildered blink. "I can't believe you're serious about this."
"I love to give back," Sylvia said with a shrug. "You simply presented an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
Somehow, I doubted that Sylvia Rooklovedgiving back. There was something about her that pricked at my instincts. The sharp barbs along the edges of her personality seemed liable to slice me, but I couldn't foresee how they would wound me if I signed those papers. But then again, what choice did I have? I had noother prospects for a home, and this was as close to miraculous as I could imagine. I had to try.
I read each paragraph of the lease agreement as meticulously as I knew how. For the most part, it went over my head. There was something about the early termination of a lease, cause for dissolution, and circumstances demonstrating the interdependence of an arrangement, but despite my love of reading and all things nerdy, I couldn't quite make out what it meant. I could say no. I could walk away and take the hard road. But I didn't have the luxury of refusing inexpensive housing within a ten-minute drive of my workplace.
I signed the papers, praying to whatever deity would listen that this worked out in a non-disastrous way for once. My instincts screamed in my face, silently wailing that there was a catch. They were probably right, but for now, I'd see how things panned out. Sylvia handed me the access key card. "It's yours, lovely. Feel free to move in whenever you're ready."
I looked around the twilight-drenched space in mute awe. This was mine? It didn't feel real.It's not real, a warning whispered in the back of my mind. I ignored it. I had a dream apartment to move into.
I took off the next day from work, which was a Friday anyway. When I told Janice what I had to do—and on a time crunch—she understood and gave both Ruth and me the whole day to get my things moved from my old apartment to my new one. I told Ruth about how I'd made a deal with the devil, and she gave me a worried look from behind her tortoiseshell glasses as she hefteda box of my clothing to the new apartment's elevator. "She hadnostrings attached after begging you to match up her son?"
I hit the little circle button that would take us straight into the new place. "I'm pretty sure there are strings, but I can't see them," I admitted. Mini sniffed the ground in a circle, her ears twitching and her tail half-wagging in both glee and wary curiosity. She'd only been in the new place once today, and she had spent a lot of time sniffing the bed, which was weird. I glanced at her, and then the doors opened to take us up. "Mini, come on. Quit smelling everything."
Mini obeyed, padding across the slick, black tile to enter the elevator with me. I rarely used a leash with her, but I made a mental note to make sure I had one for our first few walks in the new area. Ruth adjusted her grip on her box. "I mean, I guess if you have a nice new place, it's worth it to try it out. Cal and I are here if you need a fallback."
"Exactly." I felt a lot less confident than I sounded, though. This whole thing was shaping up to be stranger than I'd first anticipated. For one thing, the house had begun to feel more lived-in than furnished the more I brought my things over. I hadn't had a chance to look through the closets or pantries yet. I was too busy boxing up my shit last minute. But I had a sinking feeling of dread, like I'd been tricked into squatting in someone's house and would find out that Sylvia had played a cruel prank on me.
But no, that lease was legit. It had this address on it, and she owned the place. I had every legal right to be here. Maybe the last tenants had just left in a hurry and hadn't wanted a lot of their knickknacks and decor items. It was the fully decorated space that had me feeling like I was in a stranger's house. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Ruth and I finished piling boxes and suitcases full of my things in the foyer area, both of us sweating and puffing. It wasunseasonably warm outside, and although we were both wearing T-shirts and jean shorts, we had both gotten sweat-stained and disheveled after six trips back and forth between the two apartments. I couldn't afford a moving van or anything, so we had kept piling stuff in the backs of our cars until I'd emptied the other apartment of everything but the major furniture.
"Do you need us to store some of your bigger stuff?" Ruth asked, moving her glasses out of the way to wipe sweat from her eyes.
Panting, I shook my head. "Let the asshole landlord deal with it. I don't want that old stuff anyway." The only things I had broken down and forced myself to cart over here were my computer desk and gaming chair—I loved those things.
Ruth nodded, looking around the sunny apartment. She had pulled her wild, brown curls into a ponytail that looked like it might burst at any second, and stray hairs fritzed out from her hairline like she'd been electrocuted. She had on a Goldbrook Urgent Care T-shirt three sizes too big for her that she must have stolen from Cal. After giving the space an unsure scowl, she returned her attention to me. "Something is off about this, Gem."
Didn't I know it. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I get evicted?" I'd finally told her the truth about my situation, and she hadn't been happy with me. Predictably, she'd offered to have me stay with her and Cal. Hard pass.
"You should have told me,” she said, folding her arms tightly. "We could have helped you find a place."
"You mean, Cal would have found a way to money-muscle his way into charitably creating a miracle for me?" I clarified derisively.
Ruth's cheeks went pink, and she pushed at her glasses. "Probably," she muttered.
"Not a chance. Besides, look at this place. It's great. Maybe I sold my firstborn to Rumpelstiltskin. Maybe a skin-walker is waiting to eat me. Who knows. It'll be fantastic."
Ruth gave me a concerned eyebrow tilt. "You worry me."
"That's like seventy percent of my charm," I grinned back. I blew a few strands of strawberry blond hair out of my face, wishing that I'd given in to my impulse to chop off all my hair earlier this summer. It was down to the middle of my back now, and it pulled at my scalp, begging to be let down from the messy bun I'd forced it into.
Ruth was unconvinced. "Call me when this blows up in your face."
"Deal." The empty, cavernous apartment stretched up at least fifteen feet to the surprisingly lush ceiling with its crown molding and industrial-style fans. As nice as it was, I suddenly realized that Mini and I would be alone in this place that was four times bigger than my last apartment.
Mini growled at the sofa. Ruth quirked an eyebrow. "Do you want to come stay at my place tonight? Just while you're settling in?"Translation: I think someone is going to kill you in your sleep.
"No, I think…" Sweat trickled down the valley of my spine, and I suddenly felt disgustingly sticky. "I think I'll shower. Go food shopping. You know, break the place in."
Ruth's eyes darted all over the apartment. "It looks broken in."
"Sylvia said it was fully furnished," I shrugged.
