Page 8 of A Roommate for Christmas
“You’re right.I just want to get someone in here quickly so I can start putting money away,” Paige said.The more she thought about getting a new roommate, the more relieved she was to have a plan to make up for the lack of bonus—and then some.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you write up questions to ask in your interviews to help you weed out the bad eggs and find someonealmostas good as me,” Nadia said with a grin.
“All right,” said Paige.“Let’s find me a roommate before Christmas!”
***
By Sunday evening, Paige had received quite a few messages about the open room.The unfortunate thing was that most of these messages came from obvious scammers, people asking for a rental price even less than Nadia had paid, or couples looking to share the room.
In reality, Paige had about five qualified leads, so she started sending messages to set up interviews.
Within a few hours she had three interviews set up and two messages back from girls who had already found somewhere else.
Damn, she thought.That was quick.
The first two interviews were set up for Tuesday at a Starbucks around the corner from Paige’s office.Based on her Facebook message conversations, they both seemed promising.
The first interview was with Ariel.She was a transplant from LA, not far from Paige’s family in San Diego.She worked in environmental law, and according to what she could see on Facebook, seemed to enjoy living a healthy lifestyle.That will be good, Paige thought.Maybe I’ll pick up some healthier habits.
The second interview was with Wren, an early twenty-something who, she learned from their short yet information-packed exchange, lived most of her life in the Chicago area but had spent the last year traveling around Europe.Perfect, someone to give me travel advice once I start making better money.
Paige was optimistic that by the end of Tuesday she’d have a new roommate lined up, and one that she would enjoy living with.
***
As soon as her eleven o’clock Tuesday meeting let out, Paige grabbed her purse and headed around the block to meet Ariel, her first roommate interview.She walked into Starbucks and was immediately hit with a smell that didn’t belong indoors.
She saw a young woman standing a few feet inside the door in coveralls, wearing her hair—which looked a bit greasy—in a messy bun.
“Ariel?”
Paige hoped the woman wouldn’t turn around.
“Oh, hi!You must be Paige.It’s so wonderful to meet you in person.”
Ariel was about as granola as they come.Apparently she took her environmental duties to the extreme, and Paige judged based on the greasy hair alone that she only showered once every two weeks.
This is totally fine, she told herself,you can look past this.Think about all the money you’ll save!
When they reached the barista, Ariel ordered a latte with oat milk.Paige opted for a regular vanilla latte.The girls made some small talk about the colder weather and their jobs while they waited for their drinks and then found an open table near the entrance.
“I’m glad we were able to meet and talk through the possible living arrangement,” Ariel said.
“Yeah, me too.I wa—”
“I noticed you ordered a latte with regular milk?”Ariel interrupted.“It’s fine because this is our first official meetup, but I’m a strict vegan and can’t live anywhere that has any animal byproducts in the kitchen.”
Paige almost spit out the sip of dairy-filled latte she had just taken.
Surely Ariel was joking?This had to be her way of breaking the ice.Or was she actually serious about controlling the kind of food she bought for the house?
Taking a chance, Paige smiled and said, “Haha good one!Very convincing.”
“Oh, I’m not joking.”Ariel was quick to defend her original statement.Maybe Paige shouldn’t be so surprised.After all, given Ariel’s apparent shower routine—or lack thereof—it seemed clear she was serious about the environment, if not personal hygiene.
“Not only is eating animals inhumane, it’s killing our environment.I can’t be part of a household that contributes to this climate disaster.”
Okay, so cross Ariel off the list.Paige was all for combating climate change, and she could even be convinced to have vegan meals once or twice a week.But this level of control was too extreme for her liking.She had to pull the plug on this one.
