Chapter Text
As if she weren’t stressed enough what with the merger of Gamin Publishing with Bexley Publishing, Lucy had to find a new place to live. Her lease was ending and her landlord decided not to renew so that a family member could live in Lucy’s apartment instead.
Lucy was irritated at the prospect of having to up and move so abruptly but at least she would still have a job, a pretty good one at that, so she could afford an apartment without having to dip into her savings, hopefully. The same could not be said about her friend Val. Val, sadly, among others, lost her job due to the merger. Val did not take it well. Pissed. Val was pissed. And bitter.
Val had a right to feel hurt, but she did not need to take it out on Lucy. After all, it wasn’t Lucy’s fault that her job was saved but Val’s wasn’t. But rather than the entire publishing company going under and everyone losing their jobs, a miracle merger went through and 120 people were able to stay. But, obviously Val was a casualty of business and so not only did Lucy’s one and only friend at Gamin lose her job, Lucy lost her one and only friend to boot.
“Stupid merger,” Lucy muttered bitterly as she continued to search for apartments online whilst sitting in the very same apartment she needed to vacate. “Stupid apartment and stupid landord.” Lucy was overwhelmed with the thought of boxing everything up, taking said boxes to a new place, and then having to unpack them. “Ugh, stupid boxes, too!” She glanced up at her cabinet housing her collection of Smurfs and added, “Not you guys. You guys are perfect!”
It wasn’t that Lucy was particularly attached to this apartment. It served its purpose. It was warm enough. Her bed was there. It was just that Lucy never really got around to making it her own. Late hours assisting Helene and helping to keep a publishing house afloat didn’t leave much time for her to paint or decorate. It was actually a sad little igloo, as her father called it, but all her stuff was there.
Moving was such a pain on its own but moving while in the middle of a major change at work was just piling onto her stress. Luckily, earlier that day Lucy finally enlisted the help of a realtor, Leslie, whom Helene had referred to her. Leslie’s call interrupted Lucy’s pity party. “Lucy, I found the perfect place! Just listed this afternoon. Fourth floor, secure building, and safe neighborhood. The building is near food and shopping!”
That sounded quite promising. So Lucy coaxed her car into drive and met Leslie at the address she had given her so she could check the place out. The apartment building was closer to work than her current building so that was a plus. It had two bedrooms (Lucy could actually have a guest room for her parents if they ever visited!) and laundry. The rent was fifty dollars more than she was currently paying but she’d be getting so much more.
“I’ll take it! When can I move in?” Lucy asked excitedly.
Leslie laughed as they left the apartment and headed to the elevator. She pressed the down button and the elevator car opened right away like it had just gotten to the floor right before they got to it. As they stepped in and started talking about signing the lease and when Lucy could move in, Lucy noticed a tall figure opening the door to the apartment next to her soon to be apartment. The mystery man turned to glance at where the voices were coming from just as the doors were about to close shut. It was just enough time for Lucy to register who it was and gasp at the exact same time as her work colleague and arch nemesis uttered, “Lucinda?”, looking and sounding as thoroughly confused as Lucy felt.