Three Alarm Tenant. Christa Maurice

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      “So, do you think I should go to dinner with him?” Katherine twisted her office chair back and forth. She could picture her friend Pam leaning on her kitchen counter, arms folded with the phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder, puzzling out Katherine's question. Katherine had decided a long time ago that she trusted Pam’s judgment so much because they were so different. Pam was as opposite as possible without being a man, and if she came to the same conclusion, then it was probably correct.

      “Wait a minute, I thought you were about to rent the downstairs to him. Why wouldn’t you go to dinner with him? Honey, don’t do that.” Pam scolded one of her kids. “In a minute. I’m on the phone. Did you call his references?”

      “Well, yes. I called his landlord. He’s been living in the same place for seven years. Always on time with the rent. Quiet, polite. No damage the landlord knows about. Usually fixes things himself when they break. The way the guy moaned about losing him, I wondered why he didn’t change his rule on pets.” Katherine tangled the phone cord around her finger.

      “Did you ask?”

      Katherine heard banging on the other end of the line. “Yes, he said if he bent the rule for one, he’d have to bend it for everybody.”

      “Then there’s your answer. This Jack is obviously a good tenant. You said your instincts were for him. Honey, stop that!”

      The banging stopped.

      “He seemed like a really nice guy. And he said he works at the fire station right around the corner.”

      “Really? Right around the corner? He sounds like a great catch. For a tenant.”

      “I can’t go through another Gary.” Katherine's jaw tightened at the thought of living that life again. Lonely and anxious when he was on duty and lonely when he wasn’t. No, she couldn’t go through another Gary.

      “So don’t. Listen, you’re renting an apartment to this guy, not marrying him. A little perspective, huh?”

      “But should I have dinner with him?”

      “You’re going Dutch treat, right? It’s dinner with a friend. A new friend. Honestly Katherine, you need to get out some. Meet new people. Going out for fast food doesn’t mean you’re committed to marry him or sleep with him, or even kiss him goodnight for that matter.”

      “I don’t want to lead him on.”

      “You’re not. Friends go out to dinner all the time. You’d go out to dinner with me once in a while if I didn’t have the rugrats to deal with. Take it easy and enjoy being single. You got engaged out of high school. Be free for a while. Gary’s been gone for a long time. You’ve got to let him go.”

      “It’s not that. I mean, he's gone and nothing’s going to bring him back. I know that. It’s not Gary at all. I don’t feel strange about going out to dinner with a man. I feel strange having dinner with this man.”

      “Strange like your intuition is trying to tell you something, or strange like you've lost all your one-on-one social skills?”

      Katherine thought for a minute. For no apparent reason, she’d trusted Jack immediately after she’d gotten past being alone with him in the house. And she’d thought about that, too. When the door clicked closed behind him, she hadn’t been afraid of what he would do. She’d been more afraid of what she might do.

      “I don’t think he's an ax murderer if that’s what you mean.”

      “Okay. Just remember that this guy is a tenant, not a roommate. Get me?”

      “I get you.” Katherine bit her lip. She didn’t want to get Pam, but she did.

      “I gotta go before the kids tear the place apart. Are you going to give him the keys?”

      “I want to call his employer first. The book said to check all references.”

      “Okay, you do what the book says and call me tomorrow. I want to know what happens tonight. Bye.”

      “Good-bye.” Katherine hung up the phone and finished the game of solitaire she had on her desk. She wasn’t sure she’d gotten what she wanted out of Pam. She’d called her brash friend hoping for some kind of set answer, not a ‘see what happens.’ But then earlier, when she’d called his landlord, she’d hoped to find out he always paid his rent late and trashed the place. And before calling Pam, she’d called all his personal references hoping for something she could use for a reason to keep him out of the apartment. He acted rashly, took chances, didn’t keep house well, something. Instead the first one, Kevin Marshall, had said he was solid and reliable and he knew how to do plumbing. The second had been an old lady whose plants he cared for when she went to Florida to visit her niece. She claimed her plants were healthier when she returned than they had been when she left. The last one had been Archer’s former owner who assured her Archer was well behaved, except for a tendency to tear up newspapers, and a good watch dog.

      They should have been things she wanted to hear. So why was she looking for reasons not to rent to him, and even better, not go to dinner with him?

      He was too good to be true. Just because he had friends who would vouch for him, and a landlord bemoaning his fate at losing him, did not change the fact that he was a glory hounding firefighter bound to get himself killed and leave her alone again. But that shouldn’t matter because he would just be a tenant, right? If something happened to him it would be sad, but СКАЧАТЬ