The Baker's Detective

| The Thai Restaurant and the Flat of Dreams |

The heart of the city holds just enough noise to be pleasant. People walk about, shop doors are open, smells of food from various restaurants mingle, creating a scent any hungry pedestrian can't resist. Different accents ring out periodically, tourists having found their way here, while locals walk with more purpose and certainty, and sound familiar to Lily's ears. The weather is fine, the breeze feeling lovely on her face.

She tries to focus on that instead of the pain in her feet and head, and the frustration building within her. But the slight frown makes its way onto her face anyway.

"Oh, come on, Lil," Liam says, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Buck up. We'll find a place."

"When?" Lily asks, head turning as they pass a bakery, a chocolate croissant peeping out at her from the glass case inside.

"By the end of the week, surely," Liam replies, walking on obliviously and taking her with him. "It can't be that hard to find a decent vacant flat." Even as he says it, he doesn't sound so sure.

Lily sighs. "Well, evidently there isn't one where I need it to be." Hearing herself sound so grumpy, she takes a calming breath, trying to cheer up, to believe what her brother says, even if he doesn't quite believe it himself. "But maybe something will turn up soon."

Liam shakes her gently, smiling at her. "That's the spirit. You're starting to sound like you again."

She laughs. "I'm glad to hear it."

"And, hey, I know just the thing that'll make it all right as rain."

"And what's that?"

"Lunch," Liam replies. "I believe that Thai place is near here, and I haven't been in so long."

Lily just laughs and lets her brother lead her wherever it is he wants to go, soon burying herself in flat listings on her phone when they sit down in the restaurant. The site she'd been on hadn't turned up anything useful besides what they'd already gone to see in person today, so she tries a new site. She enters the location she needs — close enough to the city and her new place of work come Autumn — and begins searching. Some of the listings she's seen before, but there are a few she hasn't.

Nothing seems to be what she needs, budget and space wise, and she begins to despair again, but then one catches her eye.

221C Baker Street.

It seems like it's meant to be already, even before she looks at the details. Unfortunately, the waiter arrives and interrupts her before she can look more, and she finds herself impatient as she gives her order. Liam seems to take ages, bonding with the waiter over food and, somehow, sports. She would look at the listing while they talk, but Liam occasionally brings her into the conversation, and, anyway, she doesn't want to be rude. Finally, though, the waiter leaves, and Lily turns back to her phone.

Baker Street is, of course, in the right location, and the rent is slightly cheaper than she expected. It's a basement flat, with a big, plain sitting room, which connects to a kitchen and has a hallway with a spare room and livable bathroom going off it, and a big enough bedroom at the end, caddy corner to a utility closet. The back bedroom closet is also decent in size. There's no furniture, so she'll have to buy her own, but there is a fireplace in the sitting room.

She passes her phone to Liam wordlessly, a smile on her face. "Baker Street," he reads. "That's fitting. The flat, though... Well, the rent's within budget."

"I know."

"But it's a basement. That means mold."

"I'll take preventative measures."