Page 17 of The Winning Ticket

Stacey and I had been hooking up for a few months, ever since a drunken tumble in the sheets after the pub one night, but it hadn’t gone any further than sex until recently when she started hinting at wanting more. I have been avoiding her since I won the apartment, something I’m not proud of, but I haven’t been sure how to let her down gently. As much as I’m not interested in a relationship with her, she is still a nice girl. I just don’t feel the connection I’ve been searching for with her. I had thought that maybe Beth might have been the one a few years ago, but she hadn’t been able to handle country life, and that is kind of a deal breaker when my work is out here.

Jake

Yeah, sorry. Headed back to Brisbane.

I leave it at that, feeling like a dick, but I don’t want to end it via text, either. I’d really like to avoid an awkward ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation, which I kind of suck at. I hate hurting people and have never really perfected the art of letting people down gently. I’m not really suited to the ‘hook-up’ life.

I scroll to my favourite playlist and head off.

As much as I try to avoid it, it’s not long before my thoughts turn to Bri.

I’ve been texting her all week, and I am choosing to ignore that this may have contributed to how excited I’ve been to return to Brisbane this weekend. I am still trying to come up with a nickname for her that will stick as well as Just Jake seems to have. She has now officially shortened it to JJ, claiming Just Jake was too long. I’d spent far too much time this week focussing on making her smile while I tried to think of one that wasn’t terrible for her.

As I pull into my street, Chris texts to say he’s on his way over for dinner, so I head upstairs for a shower. When I come out of the master bedroom, I find him letting himself into the apartment with two pizzas and a six-pack of IPAs from his local brewery. I’d given him and Will spare keys for the apartment, figuring if any of them wanted to use the place while I was away, at least the view wouldn’t be going to waste.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” He nods toward me while he puts the pizza on the bench and the beers in the fridge. When I join him in the kitchen, he pulls two from the carrier and hands me one.

“Good mate. Thanks for grabbing the food. I’m starving.”

We head for the couch, and Chris turns on the NHL game from earlier today. Chris is a recent convert to ice hockey and has been trying to get the rest of us on board. I’ve slowly been working out the rules, and I have to admit, it’s fun to watch.

“It feels so weird getting to see you twice in two weeks. Do you think you’ll keep this place as your Brisbane base now?” Chris asks at the end of the first period while we start our second beer.

“I want to. It’s definitely been convenient to have. I was only thinking earlier how much more I was looking forward to the weekend this week than I normally am. But, I’ve got to work out how I can afford the upkeep of this place. I don’t want to pay two electricity bills, water bills, rates and all that shit. Not to mention paying for someone to clean it.” I shrug and take a mouthful of beer, looking around.

I’d done an okay job tidying it up last weekend after the party, but I would have to do some cleaning in the morning.

“Given we don’t even own one house yet, I can see how that would be a pain in the ass. What about AirBnBing it? Surely, a place like this would go well on there?”

“I’ve thought about it, but I want to stay here whenever I want, which’ll be on the weekends. Probably the time it would be in most demand. And most people would want to party it up here, which I doubt the neighbours would be into. Actually, I think there might be something in the body corp rules about excluding AirBnB. I vaguely remember the lady from the charity saying something about that. I probably should read those properly.”

Chris shakes his head and huffs a laugh at me.

“Mate, I don’t do paperwork, you know that.” I shrug.

“Still, you probably should check that out before you do something to piss off the neighbours.” Chris works in insurance and spends all his time reading the sort of paperwork that would put me to sleep in minutes.

“Yeah, yeah.” I wave him off.

“Give it to me, you lazy bastard. I’ll read through it all and give you the highlights.”

“You truly are a hero, mate.” I get up and fish the pile of paperwork out that I’d at least had the foresight to print out a few weeks ago and shoved in the desk in the study nook last weekend.

“Whatever. Just expect to be doing all my electrical work on your weekends when we finally get our place.”

I give him a thumbs-up, and he starts reading through the documents while the game starts back up.

“Okay, so it does mention no parties over twenty people. Luckily, we were under that last weekend anyway, or that would have been a fun conversation for you. And you’re right - it notes that the properties are only for long-term tenants or owners, so that excludes AirBnB.” Chris has gone all corporate speak on me, which I have always found humorous.

But what he’s saying makes keeping this place even more complicated to figure out.

“Could you find a housemate for here? One who is cool with you popping in and out whenever you want?”

“That’s probably going to have to be the solution. But, it needs to be someone I know ’cause I don’t want to be dealing with some rando who is into drugs and shit.” I have never had a roommate, and I’m not keen on this idea, but it seems like the only option.

“What about Kylie and Tara?”

I cock my head to the side while I think this option over. “That could work. Or maybe you guys or Will and Lis?” I shoot him the puppy dog eyes.

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