Chapter Text
Therese Belivet shielded her eyes from the sun as she walked through the busy street in Echo Park, a small neighborhood in the greater Los Angeles area that afforded the luxury of accessibility in a big city, but the privacy and quaintness of a small town. The street was lined with shops run by beautiful people who were by no means lacking in vitamin D. On one end was a privately owned bookstore with a small cocktail bar next to the register. All pre-made in batches, all using top shelf liquor. At the other end of the street a store called “Your House” that served as a thrift, antique, and home goods store with space for local artists to display their crafts. Across the street, an Erewhon. Perfectly lovely and perfectly pretentious.
“Where exactly did you place the ad?” said the boy she was walking with. Dannie and Therese had been friends since her tumultuous relationship with his college best friend, Richard. It had lasted, on and off, for a couple of years, and had made their friendship challenging from the start. By the time they finally called it quits for good, Therese had been left with a new best friend, Dannie, his brother Phil, and an empty room in the house they were leasing, along with a hefty rent increase having one less person to split it with.
“A Facebook group that Gen is a part of, something tech-y, I don’t know.” she said as she placed the last of her home made signs on a light post. Leaving her personal phone number attached to it didn’t seem like a bad idea at the time, but the longer she looked at it the more worried she got. Los Angeles, in her experience, was full of oddballs. “Let me see that again,” said Dannie as he stepped back to read the sign, hand on his chin.
‘WANTED: Roommate, STEADY JOB, non smoker, NO PETS!!!!!! $1,500. W/S/G included, street parking. Private room, shared bathroom. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY!!!!’
“Ya know…. It sounds just insane enough to work. We’ll see if anyone bites.” he said and he swung an arm around her neck as they made their way back down the road.
———
The house was sitting at the end of a dead end street. It was hardly visible from the road,large walls and a tall California Buckeye blocking most of the view of the modestly build two story Spanish colonial home. It belong to a pair of elderly women who had bought it, renovated it, gotten bored of it, and rented it once their found their next home up in the California hills. They were low maintenance landlords, with reasonable rent prices and minimal increases since they were long term tenants. All they asked for was for the house to be taken care of, and they so loved taking care of the house. The garden had become twice as lush since Phil started tending to it, and he had installed bird feeders all over the place. Danny was an amateur woodworker and handyman and he’d done a beautiful job tending to details of the house that made it special. The dark hardwood floors, thick beams on the ceiling, and outdoor sitting area were all in perfect condition under his diligent care. And Therese, well she was in charge of decorating. Many a day were spent on Facebook marketplace and Offer Up, scouring the posts by bored rich people who didn’t want their things anymore. Phil’s old truck had seen more trips to Santa Barbara than he wished to recall.
——
“I hope she’s hot.” said Phil as he worked to repot an old fir plant that was in need of some TLC. Therese sat with him on the floor of the kitchen and to help minimize some of the mess.
“What makes you think it’s going to be a woman who calls, or that we’ll get a call at all for that matter?” said Dannie from the dining room chair.
“Because of Gen’s ad.” he said. “Every woman I’ve ever met who has been friends with Gen has been brutally hot.”
“How many women have you met through Gen?” said Therese, as if all of this was news to her.
“Well, there’s you” he said, nudging her and raising his eyebrows in an exaggerated way, “and that girl she brought to the New Year’s Eve party, that’s two.”
“You mean her girlfriend?” mocked Dannie.
“She don’t have to be straight, she just has to be hot!” He said playfully as Therese nodded in agreement. “Anyway, there’s something about chicks who are into other chicks, even the scary ones are usually megahot.” he concluded. Dannie was as about to chime in, no doubt with some choice words for his brother, when Therese’s phone began to buzz on the floor next to her. An unknown number.
“Dannie, pick that up, will ya? My hands are covered in dirt.” Dannie moved to sit on the floor next to her and held up the phone to her ear. There was a woman on the other line inquiring about the ‘private room, shared bathroom’ and Dannie put the phone on speaker for all of them to hear.
“Oh, you’re interested??” said Therese as she looked around at the boys. “Yeah, I mean right away, for sure, but we’d have to meet up first to talk, see if it’s a good fit. Right, ehhhh…. Hold on a second. Mute me, mute me” she tried to whisper. “You guys, this is from my ad….” she said, surprised.
“That’s not good.” said Dannie, “your ad was kinda wack, I don’t know if I want to live with someone who would answer an ad like that. We should just wait for Gen to find us someone.”
“Guys, that room has been empty for two months. I can’t keep paying the rent like this anymore, I’m trying to go snowboarding this year. I’m blowing through my savings!” said Phil.
“I agree with Phil, I’ll take anyone at this point.” said Therese.
“You’re not on mute.” said the voice on the phone, they froze.
Therese swallowed hard and excused herself, shushing the boys in the process. “Well, okay, why don’t we meet then? See if it’s a good fit.”
“I have time today.” said the woman.
‘ SUSPICIOUS ‘ mouthed Dannie.
“Today is fine, we have time too. There’s this smoothie bar close to our house, I can text you the address if that’s fine with you.” she said.
“I’d really rather see the place, if we are to meet.” she said.
Dannie’s eyes widened. “We can’t give a stranger our address” he whispered very badly.
“We are asking her to live here… maybe” whispered Therese. She looked around at them a few more times and finally, “Alright, how about you come by this afternoon. I can text you the address, if this is a cell.”
“Very well. See you in an hour.” she said before hanging up the phone.
Phil and Dannie looked at each other, shaking their heads. “Haven’t’ you two idiots interviewed a roommate before?” asked Therese, getting back to the plant. They hadn’t. Dannie and Richard had been assigned to be roommates in collage, they leased this house with Phil after graduation, Therese was added later, and that’s how they’d all ended up where they are now. “Don’t worry guys, I’ll handle the interview. It’ll be a breeze” she said.