Good Girl

Landlord - 1

If you've ever felt the panic on the first of the month knowing two things to be equally true, the first being that rent is due and the second being that you don't have it, then you might understand just exactly the fear coursing through my veins at this very moment. Going to Vegas with my best friend since childhood and the rest of her bridal party had seemed like a great idea until I'd come to the conclusion (the hard way of course) that my mouth had been writing checks that my wallet couldn't cash, at least not anymore.

Losing almost all of my savings, not that I had much, had been somewhat of a rude awakening a couple weeks ago when we'd gotten back. Luckily I had a wad of cash that I hadn't yet deposited at the bank that sustained me while I waited for my next shift, but of course between weekend nights out at the bars, which in hindsight were definitely not a good idea, and my impulse shopping habits that never do me any good, I blew threw that quickly.

Working as a server, though giving me the freedom to travel as long as my shifts were covered, wasn't exactly the highest paying job in the world. Especially not in a small beach town in Florida in the middle of the winter when most of the wealthy families that frequent in the summer decide to go skiing in Colorado.

Of course I knew that rent was due on the first of the month, and I almost made it. If you consider almost to be four hundred dollars short. My landlord comes to collect rent around five pm usually, and being scheduled for the morning shift gives me a little bit of time to pray to the higher powers for a miraculously busy brunch shift in the middle of the work week.

+++

I get off around 4, leaving me only an hour to come up with the three hundred dollars I still owe after my morning shift. Business wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anywhere near what I needed it to be to make my rent, not that I really expected it to be.

I walk through the doors of my building with my head hung low. This is it. After almost nine months of living here and supporting myself, I'm probably about to be kicked out because I'm three hundred dollars short on rent, and it's no one's fault but my own.

I pass my upstairs neighbor, Cindy, walking down the stairs as the same time I'm walking up. As far as I know, Cindy doesn't have a job, and yet she lives in a two bedroom apartment on the top floor of our building.

"Hi Samantha, how was your day?" She asks, stopping to chat.

No matter how many times I tell her to call me Sam, she always calls me Samantha. "It was fine, Cindy. How was yours?"

"Wonderful," she says with a cheeky smile, "I got my highlights touched up, and now I'm on my way to get a mani-pedi!"

Normally I never would've been so bold to ask, but seeing as I was kind of in a desperate situation, the words tumbled out before I could stop them "Cindy, where do you get the money for all of this stuff you're always doing? You never seem to be working..."

Cindy gives me a look of shock. She looks around from the left to the right and then gestures for me to come closer. "You can't tell anyone this, okay?"

I nod.

"I don't pay rent." She squeals out, seeming rather pleased with herself. My mouth drops open.

"What do you mean you don't pay rent?" I ask, incredulous.

She brings a finger to her lips and shushes me. "Keep it down, would you?" She huffs and crosses her arms, "A couple months ago, I was really struggling for money. I was working a job I was absolutely miserable at and barely making rent each month... Well, John, the landlord, knocked on my door to collect rent, and I handed it to him tearfully. He asked me what was wrong and I told him I wasn't sure how much longer I could afford my apartment. I explained everything to him, and he was so comforting. I don't even know how it happened but all of the sudden he was kissing me and then my clothes were off and then- well, you can guess what happened next. He dressed to leave and handed me back my envelope of cash and told me to keep it. The next month when he walked in, he said he'd make me a deal. If I made myself available to him anytime he wanted, he would take care of my rent and move me into a bigger apartment."