The Pretend Girlfriend

Chapter One~ Money Trouble

Gwen rushed inside out of the rain. Water dripped in tiny rivers from her umbrella as she wrestled it closed, and she tried not to see her reflection in the door, knowing what the moisture did to her hair. The rain soaked right through her flats, and she could feel her toes getting all pruny.

So, shifting the big messenger bag on her shoulder to try and stop the strap from biting even more deeply into her, Gwen went and checked the mail. Janice, her roomie, usually got it, but Gwen still liked to check out of habit. Junk, coupons, junk, junk... And one white envelope stamped URGENT! in a shade of red Gwen might have also called urgent. It was from the property management company that owned her apartment.

"Probably raising the rent again."

"Pardon?" Gwen said. She turned around, water droplets spraying in a ring from the bottom of her coat, to see an old lady sat on the bench outside the manager's office, her hands resting on her aluminum cane.

The woman nodded at the envelope, indicating it with thin, grey eyebrows. "They're probably going to raise your rent, dear. They like to do that. Everyone's always just in it for the money, now. No sense of community..."

Gwen smiled politely, agreeing. Something about that URGENT stamp tickled her insides with anxiety. And the prospect of even higher rent sent her thoughts to her latest bank statement, and the balance (or lack thereof) therein. Thanking the elderly woman, Gwen called the elevator.

She started tapping her foot, but the feeling of the water shifting between her toes stopped her. She made a mental note to make sure and dry them out right away so that they wouldn't be ruined.
New shoes were at the bottom of her list, which was topped by things like Rent and Food. All those books she'd had to buy for school (which weighed down her messenger bag so much she started losing feeling in her arm just standing there) cost a fortune!

Finally, the elevator came. She just wanted to get out of these soaking clothes, throw the books into the corner for now, and close her eyes for a few moments on the couch... Fishing for her keys, she almost didn't see the piece of paper taped to her apartment door, blank side out, over the peephole.
She frowned; that was weird. Janice always got home a good half hour before she did. Why hadn't she taken this in? Gwen took the paper down, shaking her head at the little sticky strip left on the paint.

True, it wasn't the nicest apartment building to begin with. Cheaply made, with cream and white walls and awful carpets worn almost to the bare floorboards in spots. But it was all she could afford, even with a roomie.

"Janice? You see this note on door...?" Gwen said, stooping to pull off her shoes while the door closed behind her. It took some real peeling, and she bit down on her bottom lip, getting the feeling that this pair was ruined beyond the capabilities of a hair dryer to fix.

She wriggled her toes, glad at the touch of air once more. They were all pruny, as she suspected. It distracted her so much that she didn't really pay any attention to the state of her apartment until she gingerly pulled off her coat and hung it on the stand next to the door.

"Janice?" she called out again, looking down the front entrance hall. Directly ahead of her was the door to her bedroom, and to the right of that, Janice's room. You could get into the small kitchen through the doorway on her left, and, going through that, into the cramped den. Janice liked to keep one of those small, thin hallway tables out here. It always had a small vase with a single fake long-stemmed rose, and a rectangular bowl in which Janice and Gwen threw their keys and whatever change remained from buying their customary morning lattes. Except Gwen couldn't find the table. Only four marks left in the white carpet where it stood said anything once stood there.