We Both Paid the Same Stranger to Sublet the Same One-Bedroom, and Neither of Us Would Move Out novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: Siege
The girl on the landing was a graduate student in public health.
She had a roller bag and a lease with a loopy blue C at the bottom of it.
She'd wired Corey three thousand two hundred dollars on Wednesday.
By one in the morning she was sitting on our loveseat with a mug of tea, saying "He seemed so nice" for the fourth time.
At two, there was another knock.
The second graduate student studied chemistry, had a lease with the same signature and held a bag of groceries in one hand.
"He said it was a studio," she said. "He said I'd have it to myself."
At seven, the night nurse came off a twelve-hour shift in blue scrubs and holding her shoes.
She looked at the four of us and sat down on the floor in the hallway.
"Did he take your money too?" she asked.
Nobody answered.
She started to laugh and couldn't stop, and then Randy handed her a glass of water.
We sat in a ring in the living room, five strangers around one coffee table, and put five leases in a row.
Same address.
Same dates.
Same loopy C.
Mine and Randy's said SPOUSE in the same typeface, and nobody else's did.
"Why does yours say that?" the chemist asked.
"Long story," Randy said.
"Short version," I said. "The building manager thinks we're married."
Five faces turned toward us.
"We're not," I added. "But she's been waiting a year for a nice couple, and if she learns we're two strangers, she'll call the police and lock the door."
"With all of us outside," the nurse said slowly.
"With all of us outside."
The public health student set down her tea.
"I can't afford a hotel."
"None of us can," the nurse said.
"So we do what?" the chemist asked.
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